Mastering unique politics is Lehane’s specialty, and he knew that the key to winning Airbnb’s regulatory battles would lie in mobilizing its hosts. He says that Airbnb has something that no other private-sector entity he knows of has: hundreds of thousands of engaged hosts and guests who can be an “army of change.” His solution: implement a grassroots mobilizing effort, much like the company did in New York when the attorney general first struck, but one that would be the equivalent in size and scale to a presidential campaign — and would be launched all over the world.
