Yeah too bad my government sucks: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/quebec-cracks-dow...
Asking competing services to all abide by the same rules does not a government make suck. Perhaps the hotels deserve looser guidelines or perhaps Airbnb landlords should have additional requirements imposed. But right now, in many cases, the property hosts are violating the written law (As well as their their contract in the case of leased apartments).
Yeah, it's mostly a tax issue. I stay in a lot of hotels and I'm always amazed at the amount of "hospitality" taxes they levy. Each state in the US has different amounts and taxes too. Of course there are also regulatory issues; sanitation etc. that I as a consumer am not all together opposed to. If you have a business model that is essentially, I can own a hotel room and get a competitive advantage because I have little to no regulations and I don't have to pay the same taxes... well, that's not right.
That's a separate story from the author of the article. The property owners / leasers here are acting analogous to unlicensed hotels. This violates the zoning, heath, and safety laws surrounding hotel industry as well as taxes on renting out property. City governments have no interest in going after the small fry who rents a place out every now and then, but this is clearly property management turned small time business. The slippery slope is when you start seeing investors, realizing the profits, renting out multiple units. This pushes up housing prices in the area (Contributing to gentrification), increases noise and waste, and takes business away from the hotels that actually bother to follow the written law.