Adolescent company that it is, Airbnb can be a little irritable. A little sensitive. Like when the New York attorney general’s office asked it for data on its customers earlier this year and Airbnb freaked out, as if it were really out of line for them to be asking for information about the multibillion-dollar corporation that was operating largely unregulated in its own backyard.

�This is a wrongheaded waste of time and law-enforcement resources,� David Hantman fumed on the company’s �public-policy blog, going on to suggest that the attorney general, under pressure from the powerful hotel lobby, might soon roust Airbnb hosts and their nightcap-wearing Belgian guests from their apartments and drag them through the streets in chains. �If you’re one of the thousands of New Yorkers who has ever rented out your place while you were away for a weekend,� he wrote, �the attorney general wants to know who you are and where you live.�

In The Culting of Brands, Atkin refers to this as �Demonizing the Other�: �Real or imaginary, identifying an enemy and dramatizing a threat will galvanize the community’s sense of separation, unity, and identity.�

Any opposing viewpoints are attributed to ulterior motives. �It’s a very aggressive posture for a government to take, don’t you think?� says Hantman over lunch in Tribeca. �Of all the things in the world, why is sharing your home so bad? It’s a little suspicious, if you ask me. We know it cannot just be for public-policy reasons. There have to be other reasons.� He says this meaningfully. �I don’t know what they are.�

Even after the office of the attorney general amended its request to ask for data on only the top 124 hosts in New York, the company insinuated that anyone could be next. �Without knowing more about why the attorney general is interested in those hosts specifically, it is hard to know why they have been targeted,� Hantman wrote on Airbnb’s blog.

�That is so disingenuous,� says a spokesman for the AG’s office. �We’ve said publicly, over and over again, that we are looking for illegal-hotel operators.� That group of people, he points out, has collectively made $60 million on their apartments over the past three years. The average power-hoster is making almost $500,000 a year, and the least prolific among them controls about ten different apartments. �So, hardly trying to make ends meet.�

Airbnb maintains it has no problem with regulation. It even offered to pay�or rather, have hosts pay�the same taxes levied on hotels, although the offer was initially rebuffed. �Because it would legitimize our business model!� says Hantman. But the company has thus far resisted installing, say, an algorithm that would block people from listing multiple apartments. �Some cities want property groups� listing multiple apartments, explains Chesky. When the company quietly deleted some 2,000 listings belonging to what looked like illegal hotels the day before an April court date with the attorney general, it was because they were bad hosts, according to Chesky. �We weren't aware of how many property groups there are in New York,� he says. �When it was brought to our attention, we started looking at it and we realized, actually, these people all provided bad experiences and get a lot of customer complaints. We said, �You know what? These people, what they’re doing, we don’t stand for.’ So we removed them.� This might not be a great long-term strategy.

Not long ago, a video ad for an Airbnb property made the rounds on tech blogs. �If you are interested in meeting people who are amazing and very kind, then you might be interested in this place,� the host said, as his camera shakily passed through 22 bunk beds in a two-bedroom apartment.

It had two positive reviews: �Very nice place to stay at and met a lot of wonderful people!� read one.

At rare moments, Airbnb admits there might be some flies in the ointment. �It’s a start-up,� says Hantman. �As you grow, there’s some point at which you no longer know all of your customers. There are issues we have to address. But this knee-jerk reaction of, �Oh my gosh, this seems new, we need to stop it, because we don’t understand it’ � Most people want this. The only people who don’t are older. People who have less experience with technology and innovation and just like things the way they are.�

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Jessica Pressler
• Table of Contents: Sep 22, 2014 issue of New York | Subscribe!