It's interesting to view the story systematically—policymakers likely aimed to reduce short-term rentals. Instead of using taxes or permits, they targeted a step in the system that’s easier to enforce.
This approach, where actions & policies aren't directly tied to outcomes, is rare in current discourse and strategy-making.
Criminality/terrorism is the stated reason, but it is a clever way to push out the larger operators. Retail good, wholesale bad. Less upward pressure on real estate prices.
The “think of the children” type of excuses is always helpful. Strange to use a terrorism excuse though since there is already negative sentiment about “too many AirBnB apartments in our city”