I've actually rented a room in the place that comment is complaining about. Small world. I found it on craigslist before AirBnB even existed, so the building wasn't built just for the site. It may have been built for short-term rentals in general, but I doubt it. Toshi was working on the mezzanine level of the apartment while we were there, and there's a shower with a window out to the living room, which isn't particularly conducive to rentals...

It was a way better experience than using a hotel. He actually double booked the room for a couple of the days, so he gave us a different apartment in Manhattan for those days. We ended up getting to experience more neighborhoods on a deeper level than we would have otherwise. You could always split a trip between two normal hotels, but they usually aren't in actual neighborhoods.

Making this illegal is dumb, and it reeks of wholesale purchasing of legislation.