The Bistro Next Door?

Photo by 
Shinya ICHINOHE.

Over the winter, GM wrote about the prospect of homeowners turning their homes into proto-Bed and Breakfasts with the Airbnb service. Well now word comes that Airbnb wants to do for restaurants what it’s done for the hotel business. In short: it wants to enable you to turn your house into a restaurant.

As Slate describes:

Airbnb, already the scourge of hoteliers the world over, may now be taking aim at your local bistro. Apparently restless with its wildly successful business of letting users rent their homes to travelers, Reuters reports that the startup has launched a small pilot program in San Francisco where hosts can charge strangers to attend a dinner party.

Slate goes on to throw cold water on the idea, explaining how much of a pain in the ass running a restaurant is, and how easily (and quickly) the regulators would shut it down (although the same could be said of Airbnb right now, but it still operates, albeit in a legally gray area).

But would people in Georgetown consider this service? Would you even recognize the difference between a neighbor throwing dinner parties for friends, and one throwing dinner parties for cash? Besides, isn’t throwing dinner parties for cash a cottage industry (or rather: a rowhouse industry) in Georgetown? Instead of the money going to a political candidate or cause, it would just go into your neighbor’s pocket.

For what it’s worth, GM knows of at least two homes within one block of him that are rented out through Airbnb. He can’t say he’s seen any problems so far.

Probably at most this would be a quick way for a bored resident with too much time of their hands to exorcise any romantic dreams of opening an actual restaurant.