San Francisco may revise its latest attempt to crack down on vacation rentals in private
homes, hoping to stave off issues raised in a lawsuit filed by Airbnb that seeks to halt new enforcement measures.
Supervisors David Campos, Aaron Peskin, Eric Mar and John Avalos introduced new language at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting
to update a get-tough amendment that the supervisors passed unanimously in June. The June amendment, which is now facing legal challenges from Airbnb, was scheduled to take effect July 27. Its enforcement is on hold pending a judge’s ruling on Airbnb’s request
for a temporary injunction, which will be heard in early September.The ultimate aim of both sets of amendments is to impose steep fines
and criminal penalties to hold services like Airbnb, HomeAway and FlipKey accountable when vacation-rental listings lack the city’s mandated registration number for hosts. Only about 1,472 hosts, out of many thousands, have met a requirement to register with
San Francisco before renting rooms or homes to travelers….

Short-term rentals on Airbnb and online vacation sites would be taxed like hotel rooms under
a bill being considered by Massachusetts lawmakers, with the money funneled into an expansion of the state’s earned income tax credit. The proposal, announced Tuesday as part of a broad economic development bill advanced by the Massachusetts Senate, would
generate up to $20 million per year for the state by applying the 5.7 percent hotel excise tax to stays of 31 days or less at private residences. Home rentals would also be subject to a 2.75 percent state surcharge that finances the convention center and additional
hotel taxes imposed by cities and towns, which can reach 6.5 percent in Boston and 6 percent elsewhere in the state….

The latest update from Airbnb could easily slip by. The company said today (July 12) that it’s partnering with three travel management companies—American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, and Carlson Wagonlit Travel—to give their clients a chance to book on Airbnb. When the home-rental site is busy suing San Francisco, facing potentially crippling regulations in New York, and struggling to prove its platform isn’t racist, that announcement feels comparatively trivial. But it should have hotel proprietors quaking at their reception desks….

ALBANY — The City Council’s progressive caucus has written to Gov. Cuomo urging him to sign an anti-Airbnb bill into law.

The first-in-the-nation legislation would prohibit the advertising of home sharing in multifamily units in New York City for less than 30 days and carry fines of up to $7,500 for multiple violations.

In their letter sent to Cuomo Friday, the 15 Council members called the bill, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) and Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), a “groundbreaking
measure” that will “go a long way toward stopping the proliferation of illegal hotels that currently puts affordable housing at risk.”

The bill was passed by the state Assembly and Senate in June and managed to unite two usual foes — housing activists and developers.

Cracking down on the advertising “will enable the city to recapture thousands of housing units illegally rented on short-term rental sites like Airbnb,” the liberal caucus letter said.

A Cuomo spokesman said the governor is reviewing the legislation. Airbnb opposes the measure, saying 96% of hosts the bill would impact have only one listing — their own homes.

Airbnb opposes the measure, saying that 96% of the hosts the bill would impact have only one listing — their own homes. Airbnb spokesman Peter Schottenfels said the 15 council members who signed the
letter represent more than 25,000 hosts “who are clearly not being heard.”

“The only thing groundbreaking here is that these politicians continue to willfully ignore the fact that this bill targets the wrong people,” Schottenfels said.

“It does nothing to deter the commercial operators and instead hurts responsible New Yorkers who rely on home sharing as an economic life preserver.”

ALBANY — Airbnb is putting big money into its fight with city and state
lawmakers. The home rental website has stocked a newly created political action committee with $1 million to help spread the word to voters about its legislative battles, company officials told the Daily News Friday. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan),
a frequent critic of Airbnb, said the company’s move to create a PAC was a “very cynical act” that will not help its cause. “I don’t think they can buy public opinion on this,” said Rosenthal, who sponsored the advertising bill that passed the Legislature
in June. “If they wanted to actually bring their site and policies in compliance with New York State law, we’d all be a lot better off.”…

Airbnb, in an apparent attempt to make nice with Governor Cuomo while he
contemplates signing a bill that will pretty much kill their business in this city, announced this week that they’ve spent the last year removing 2,233 listings from their platform over concerns they might be illegal hotel operators.
The embattled home-sharing website announced the removals, on Thursday, noting in a statement that the removed listings
were put up by hosts “with multiple listings that could impact long-term housing availability,” and not by hosts who were only renting out their primary residences. The removals have happened gradually from late November 2015 to June 2016.
The city has been hard at work cracking down on illegal hotels, claiming that a significant chunk of Airbnb users
advertise multiple dwellings on the site, with a report last year finding that from 2010 to 2014, 37 percent of revenue generated by Airbnb hosts came from hosts with three or more listings…

Airbnb recently filed suit against San Francisco over a new rule governing short-term rentals, which the city’s Board of Supervisors approved last month. An Airbnb-supported law
adopted earlier this year requires short-term rental hosts to register with the city, but it’s estimated that only about 20 percent of them — about 1,400 out of 7,000 — have done so. The new rule requires short-term rental listing services like Airbnb to
enforce the law by ensuring that hosts advertising on their websites have registered with the city before posting ads online. When the city flags suspect rental ads, the listing service must respond with details about those properties within one business day
— or incur fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing, as well as face misdemeanor charges. Airbnb had vowed to fight the rule, and late last month filed suit in United States District Court….

SAN FRANCISCO — Maria Poblet, who leads an organization that assists Latino families facing eviction in San Francisco, says she appreciates the philanthropy that the city’s technology companies do in far-flung places to address global poverty and the environment. But what she really wants to see them do is pay more taxes to help with homelessness and lower-cost housing in San Francisco. “You have a C.E.O. who cares about kids in Ghana one week or dolphins the next week. Those are important,” she said. “But the people impacted by displacement in San Francisco are a worthy cause, too.”…

Airbnb likes to position itself as a friend of cities, but it’s having a lot of trouble in the US. Such is often the reality for Airbnb, which despite its good-neighbor rhetoric (see: the Airbnb Community Compact) can quickly change tones when its own best interests are at risk. And they often are in big cities with high rents and constrained housing. The fear among local officials is that landlords will decide it’s more lucrative to rent their units on Airbnb in perpetuity than to lease them to long-term residents. Airbnb likes to say this is a myth put out by the hotel lobby and affordable housing advocates, but from personal experience I can tell you it’s a thing that happens. Cities are right to be worried; Airbnb of course wants to protect its business. The two are bound to clash….

State Senator Tony Avella was joined by members of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association on Friday during a press conference on “illegal home rentals” listed on Airbnb. Members of the group say that local property owners are illegally renting out their homes to tourists. They say property owners have listed their homes as potential venues for things like large parties and other events, which violates the single-family home zoning restrictions in some neighborhoods. The group says they want Airbnb to enforce local zoning laws and take the listings down. “They have to prevent these situations from occurring in the future. And if that means legislation in the future, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Avella said….