Airbnb was wild, disruptive and cheap: we loved it. But it wasn’t a love strong enough to last | Emma Brockes

It was great for a while. Then people started finding their host' was a lettings agency, and communities weren't keen on guests

In the US, the canary in the coalmine may turn out to have been the Super Bowl last month, when the confluence of the biggest game in American football, a huge international golf tournament and annual spring training should have brought a windfall to the landlords of Phoenix, Arizona. Unlike some cities - notably, Barcelona and Los Angeles - that have introduced measures to curb the growth of short-term rentals, in Phoenix there are few restrictions. And so, in February, hosts of Airbnb, Vrbo and similar properties-for-let companies stood by for a bonanza, hiking prices to an average of $1,000 a night. And then they waited. And waited.

I remember the promise of early stays at Airbnbs. It seemed like such a win, a wild combination of more space for less money, deeper engagement with a local community and, by circumventing hotel chains, the obscure but unavoidable sense present at the start of so much disruptive technology, that you were getting one over the Man. If you were travelling with kids, the mere presence of a kitchen made Airbnb properties seem like a dream. And look, here came a nice host to tell you which local diner to eat at. It was, literally, all so homespun and pleasing.