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US: Airbnb has announced that it is suing the City of New Orleans over requirements for all home-sharing platforms including Airbnb to verify that all their listed properties are in compliance with city laws.
In its lawsuit filed against the city in federal court last week, Airbnb said that it had no responsibility for the actions of hosts on its platform, in the same way that social media sites are protected from liability for the posts of its users. The company also denied that it was obliged to verify that its listings are in compliance with city laws.
Airbnb added that it was the government’s job to enforce its laws, while describing the City of New Orleans’ regulations as a “highly punitive enforcement regime that violates homeowners’ longstanding and fundamental property rights”.
Meanwhile, the firm voiced its frustrations at being required to disclose “confidential, sensitive and private data” to the city, such as taxes and fees collected and the number of bookings per property per month.
A number of short-term rental hosts and property owners who are based in New Orleans are also included in the lawsuit filed by Airbnb.
The latest update continues a long-running dispute between Airbnb and New Orleans regulatory leaders, with the city struggling to increase the supply of affordable housing and keep up with the proliferation of illegal short-term rentals coming on to the market.
Short-term rentals were legalised in New Orleans in 2016, with accessory short-term rentals, temporary short-term rentals and commercial short-term rentals the three models to be authorised by the city.
Three years later, a policy banning residents living outside of the state of Louisiana from listing short-term rentals in New Orleans was rejected by a federal court. By 2023, the city had adopted new regulations, however, which required Airbnb hosts to live on site and limited short-term rentals to one per block, but the law proved unsuccessful due to challenges with enforcement.
Last year, the council approved regulations that would require Airbnb et al to verify that all of their properties listed in New Orleans have obtained mandatory permits from the city – regulations that are set to come into effect from June 2025.
City council president J.P. Morrell said yesterday in a statement that Airbnb’s lawsuit was an indication that “they did not want to be regulated”. Morrell had previously said that the policy due to come into force would be a “game-changer” that would “gut the ability to illegally list fake permits and Airbnbs”.
Airbnb has previously sued San Francisco [its home city] and New York City over similar regulatory stances.
The home-sharing firm and San Francisco settled a year-long lawsuit in May 2017 after the company opposed a local ordinance which would have forbidden it from taking bookings from hosts who had not properly registered their homes.
The situation in New York City is more complex, after Airbnb filed a lawsuit against the city in June 2023 over “extreme and oppressive” restrictions and a “de facto ban” on short-term rentals. The lawsuit, which centred around Local Law 18, an ordinance requiring owners to register with the city mayor’s office, disclose the names of all residents who live in a property, and pledge to comply with separate zoning, construction and maintenance ordinances, was dismissed two months later after a Supreme Court judge ruled that the city had acted within its authority.
Ultimately, Local Law 18 came into effect in New York City in September 2023.
Airbnb’s lawsuit claims that a typical host in New Orleans earned an average of $16,000 in 2023, and that hosting “strengthens local economies and contributes to the cultural richness New Orleans is known for”. Official data from the City of New Orleans suggests that there are currently around 1,350 non-commercial short-term rental properties with legal licences, although local housing advocates say that there are more than 7,000 active Airbnb listings in New Orleans – of which “thousands” are suspected of operating without permits.
Speaking yesterday, Morrell hinted that the City of New Orleans could decide to ban Airbnb outright if it is not allowed to regulate short-term rentals effectively.
