Now if I did want to restrict AirBNB, I would just raise the hotel tax on them even higher. At some point, the tax will be high enough people will stop converting them to STVR. If there are 10,000 in the city now at the current hotel tax, raise it to 20% and that might cut the number down to 5,000.

In general taxes are the best way to deter behavior than command-and-control regulations that ban it completely in some cases, while providing a windfall to those still allowed to do it. That’s what the city did. If you have a granny flat in your primary residence beach house, you now can make a mint as one of the few options a tourist will see when looking for a STVR.

Or more likely, the law will be selectively enforced.

These are all a lot worse than just letting people know there is a certain tax up front and they can make their own decisions.