Recently, we went on a holiday and booked a place using AirBnB. We agreed on an approximate time of arrival and expected the checked-in to be hassle free. But the trouble was, the host was out of town and depended on a friend to check us in. Since we were delayed by about 30 minutes, the friend left and made us wait for 3 hours. I told myself that it is the price to pay for a cheaper but bigger and central place with a kitchen. But I was not clear about the trade off. Is it worth loosing three hours on a short holiday? May be a hotel would have been better.
It got me thinking. All the services in the sharing economy are similarly skewed. Be it Uber, AirBnB, Blah-Blah car or anything else that people share and monetize. The trade-off between the service provided (or not provided) and the price of that service are not transparent and there no effective redressal mechanism if it is unfair. Negative reviews and low ratings are not strong deterrents to fraud. How do you ensure that an Uber driver and an AirBnB host do not run the same service with different identities when faced with low ratings?
Should the sharing economy have no rules? How do you ensure minimum standards, service criteria and safety in the sharing economy? How do you create a leave playing field between full time service providers and the gig players? Should you insist on fire safety, minimum room size and sanitation standards in AirBnB? Who will verify if the place listed by a host is legitimate and if he is legally allowed to let out the apartment? Or if the driver servicing a pick-up is actually the person listed with Uber or Blah-Blah car?
There are good reasons for authorities to have rules and regulations for Hotels and Taxi operators. Adhering to these rules will cost a lot and increase operational costs. At some point of time, the sharing economy will need to adapt these rules and then professionally operated services will come out on top. Till then, angel investors will fund technology platforms and aggregators burn cash.
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