Basically, people renting out rooms for short stays via AirBnB to strangers, for money, are running single-room hotels. They shouldn't be surprised that they might be subject to the same rules as hotels - either be a licensed lodging house, with all the regulations, inspections and requirements that entails, or don't go into this business.
Folks can shirk the rules or say they don't like them, but there are real reasons why hotels have to adhere to higher standards than private homes around fire regulations, etc. If cities don't enforce these kinds of rules, a landlord could just take an entire building, list it on AirBnB and completely sidestep the local regulations and taxes related to offering lodging. (And I suspect it's the lost taxes that city government are most concerned about right now.)
Interesting. My sister pulled in almost $30k renting her awesome house in downtown Charleston last year, but then the city contacted every host (through AirBnB) threatening massive fines and even jail, and now there's barely a place to be found downtown (where tourists want to go, natch).
Folks can shirk the rules or say they don't like them, but there are real reasons why hotels have to adhere to higher standards than private homes around fire regulations, etc. If cities don't enforce these kinds of rules, a landlord could just take an entire building, list it on AirBnB and completely sidestep the local regulations and taxes related to offering lodging. (And I suspect it's the lost taxes that city government are most concerned about right now.)