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HomeAway to sue San Fran over ‘Airbnb law’
Holiday home rental firm HomeAway has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco claiming discrimination against non-resident and second home owners in the city.
The move follows the passing of the so-called ‘Airbnb law’ which allows only resident home owners the right to rent out their homes as short term vacation rentals.
HomeAway is applying for an injunction to stop the city from enforcing the short-term rental ordinance which it says penalises second home owners and non-resident individuals that operate short-term rentals.
"In a community known for promoting equality and an entrepreneurial spirit, it is shocking the Supervisors passed a law that, in our opinion, stifles opportunity in such a discriminatory manner," said Carl Shepherd, co-founder of HomeAway.
"In its apparently single-minded goal to ‘legalize Airbnb’, we claim the Supervisors ignored the benefits of responsibly regulating a well-established industry, and embraced an unconstitutional and unenforceable regulation."
HomeAway says it lists 1,200 properties based in the San Francisco area.
The legal challenge says it is unconstitutional to stop owners who only live in the city part-time from what is now a legal activity.
"There is no evidence that shows prohibiting non-residents from having short-term rentals has an impact on affordable housing," Shepherd said.
"Our goal is to work with the city to amend the law to one that balances the needs of the community with the rights of all people to rent their properties, regardless of who they are, where they choose to live and how they choose to market those properties," Shepherd added.
He said the ordinance ‘fails on all counts resulting from a desire to anoint winners and losers, not to create policies that are fair to all’.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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