It's true that clients are strangers. To offset that, you have access to all of their ratings from previous visits they have made. In my case, if they are totally new to Airbnb, with no previous reviews, I usually decline their stay. When they have successfully stayed before and have all five-star reviews, I am satisfied that their visit will be successful.

Sure, things can be stolen. In my case, during the six years I have been doing this, I have had absolutely nothing stolen or broken. Once again, if you go with admitting only five-star visitors, you cut down on this possibility.

Doing my due diligence on visitors, as above, I have also NEVER had anyone refuse to check out.

Your readers should also know that buying a property to make an Airbnb is not the only way to do it. This is what my partner and I do:

We have a two-bedroom flat in San Francisco. Occasionally, we rent out the guest bedroom to people on Airbnb. In this scenario, the visitors are here while we are here. Total number of problems during the four years we have been doing this: 0.

The other way we rent out on Airbnb is to have the entire place available when we are gone. Once again, we heavily screen our visitors. Total number of items broken or stolen during the last four years: 0.

So, sure, going along with your title, there are dark sides of everything. There are dark sides of hotel stays, train trips, having children, just about anything you can name. We always have our choices to minimize the darkness and maximize the light in our lives.

I have written a piece right here on Medium with my personal perspective. For anyone who wants a more balanced perspective, I hope you will spend a few minutes to read it.

As for the argument that it is "destroying the housing market," yes, this can be true if the only way to do it is by removing housing from the housing market. In my case, (1) having a visitor in my spare bedroom while I am here, and (2) having people stay here while I am gone, is NOT "destroying the housing market."

Go ahead and read another point of view, if you want to see something more balanced. https://medium.com/globetrotters/why-i-prefer-airbnb-to-hotels-when-i-travel-and-how-my-experiences-turned-me-into-a-host-in-my-7a60acf1ec1c