Earlier this year, the city of Los Angeles stopped letting illegal medical marijuana dispensaries sign up to pay businesses taxes
because, well, they’re unlawful and, as City Councilwoman Nury Martinez explained, “We shouldn’t be making money off of illegal businesses.” This week, however, the city announced a deal with Airbnb in which the company will collect and turn over hotel taxes from short-term rentals booked through its website, even though the vast majority are illegal. So why is tax revenue from illegal short-term rentals OK, but not tax revenue from illegal pot shops? One possible answer is politics. Another is pragmatism….

A day after Gov. Charlie Baker said he would sign a Senate proposal to extend the state’s hotel tax to short-term rentals like Airbnb in order to expand a tax credit for low and middle income families, he issued a statement backtracking. Baker said Friday he would not sign the Senate’s version of the bill after all. “In its current form, the governor is unable to support the Senate’s version, as the estimated revenue generated would fall far short of the costs of expanding the (Earned Income Tax Credit),” said Baker spokesman Billy Pitman. The comments came a day after Baker said on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio that he would sign the bill, as a way to create “a level playing field” between the hotel industry and Airbnb….

Airbnb is calling in political reinforcements in its quest to get friendlier with cities. Just two days after adding former Attorney General Eric Holder to help craft a new anti-discrimination policy, Airbnb announced on Friday that the company is forming a new “Mayoral Advisory Board” consisting of four former mayors: Michael Nutter (Philadelphia), Annise Parker (Houston), Francesco Rutelli (Rome, Italy), and Stephen Yarwood (Adelaide, Australia). Airbnb hopes the move will help put a full-court press on cities around the world, as the $25 billion startup tries to convince them to pass regulations that allow homeowners to rent out their properties to short term visitors. That hasn’t always been easy: last month, the New York State legislature passed a law that would fine Airbnb hosts up to $7,500 and Airbnb had to sue its home city of San Francisco to avoid fines for unregistered hosts….

LISBON – Alfama, one of the oldest and most picturesque areas of Lisbon, is becoming a victim of its own charm. Short-term lets to tourists are driving up rents and driving out old residents. “They want to throw me out to rent my home to tourists,” complained retired salesman Antonio Melo, 70. His house has changed owners four times over the last year and his new landlord has just told him his lease will not be renewed. “Soon there will only be tourists in Alfama,” he said. Melo has lived in the district since he was five years old but now fears he will have no choice but to leave because his 600-euro pension won’t cover the rent of any property there. Local mayor Miguel Coelho echoed the concerns of many in Alfama. “Real estate speculation in Lisbon’s historic centre, which is particularly evident in Alfama, is causing a lot of stress,” he said. “House prices and rents are exorbitant and people are having to think about other options,” he added. The mayors of three of Lisbon’s central districts have called on the government to intervene urgently. They attributed spiralling prices to an “excessive proliferation” of short-term rentals….

Last week we reported on new tech tools that help keep illegal submitters out of your co-op or condo. Today we tell you why: A new report issued by Share Better claims that more than 28,000 Airbnb listings – slightly more than half of all New York City sublet offerings – constitute entire apartments, which violates housing laws. “Airbnb’s practices are swallowing up affordable housing units,” Public Advocate Letitia James said, adding that there needs to be more oversight of the business, amNewYork reports….

San Francisco’s gentrification wars have long fostered a certain element willing to make the debate over affordable housing extremely personal. During the first dot-com boom, members of the “Mission Yuppie Eradication Project” posted flyers encouraging residents of the once working-class Latino neighborhood to “vandalize yuppie cars”. During the current tech boom, as evictions soared, activists began using stencils to paint the sidewalks in front of certain buildings with an image of a suitcase and a message: “Tenants here forced out.” But throughout all the turmoil, San Francisco’s Chinatown – 24 crowded blocks that have endured as a point of entry for generations of low-income Chinese immigrants – has remained largely insulated from the rancor. Until now. In recent weeks, “Wanted” flyers have been posted around the neighborhood featuring the names and photographs of 12 individuals. The crime in question? “Airbnb’ing our community” and “destroying affordable housing for immigrant, minority, & low income families.”…

USE of Airbnb by business travellers grew by an eye-popping 249% last year, as they and their employers have become more comfortable with sharing-economy alternatives to hotels. But future growth is under threat from new laws, at least in certain American cities. New York and San Francisco have, by some measures, the most expensive housing in America. So it is no surprise that they are at the centre of the legal fight against Airbnb and its like. Illegal rentals, they argue, mean fewer apartments on the market, which keeps prices high and makes it harder for low- and middle-income residents to live there. Both cities have passed or are considering laws that could drastically reduce the number of Airbnb properties that are available….

It had been quite the grand European tour for Candace Low. In late June, with a six-week jaunt across the continent wrapping up in Portugal, the biologist and adjunct professor at San Francisco State University visited a remote area of a popular tourist region called the Algarve. The Algarve is full of hotels, but Low was in a coastal region called Aljezur. Much of the area is undeveloped — it’s a national park — so Low found a place to stay via Airbnb, which has hundreds of listings in the area, some for as little as $21 a night.
She’d already had one less-than-stellar stay in a home rented via Airbnb: In May, early on in her trip, she found a room in a flat in Stockholm, where Low ended up hiding while her host, Ida, engaged in verbal and physical abuse with her teenage daughter while her two other daughters cried and wailed. (Ida also tried to charge her an extra 95 euro for using the fridge.)
And her three-night stay in Aljezur’s Costa Vicentina — at a work-in-progress casa, with a 4-and-half-star rating — got off to a rough start. After arriving late on the first night, Low and her host, Samantha, never got along. “She did not like me from the moment I arrived and proceeded to make my stay uncomfortable,” Low later told Airbnb in an email. Relations were icy, if workable, but on the third night, June 22 — when Samantha organized a party for the other guests, a couple who are Airbnb hosts in Spain, and some volunteer workers at the property — things fell apart. Low says Samantha turned her nose up at the wine she’d brought. Then Samantha told Low — the biologist — that she didn’t believe in science. Then she started mocking Low for being from California.
Finally, after a few glasses of wine and a joint, and an argument over getting more money in order for Low to use her kitchen, Samantha asked Low to leave — offering her her money back if she did. It was 2 a.m….

San Francisco will bring in about $120,000 this year from its controversial “furniture tax,”
which requires hosts on Airbnb and other vacation-rental sites to tally the contents of their homes so the city can levy a tax on everything from sheets to sofas to silverware. The average business personal property tax bill came to $60, said San Francisco
Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu, who sent notices in late March to 2,048 vacation-rental hosts giving them until May 7 to submit an itemized list of all the “furnishings, appliances, supplies, equipment and fixtures” used in their rentals. “State law is clear
that if you have a rental operating to generate revenue, it is considered a business, and business personal property is taxable,” she said….

BOSTON (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is backing a plan to require online lodging services such as Airbnb to pay the same taxes as hotels and motels. The proposal was included in the Massachusetts Senate version of an economic development bill. The Massachusetts House has yet to approve the measure. Baker said during his monthly “Ask the Governor” segment on WGBH-FM that applying the hotel tax to Airbnb and other online lodging services is needed to create a level playing field. The plan, if approved, could bring in an additional $20 million annually for the state. The Senate bill would require San Francisco-based Airbnb and similar online services begin collecting the state’s 5.7 percent room occupancy tax along with any additional room taxes charged by local communities.