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Hi XXX,
The Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will be meeting Tuesday, February 6 at 2PM. At the hearing they will consider new short-term rental regulations that could severely limit your ability to share your home to earn extra money. With your support on Tuesday, we can encourage lawmakers to pass fair short-term rental laws that benefit you, your community, and the local economy.
We’ve heard that opponents of home sharing are going to come out in force. It is crucial we do the same. The City Council needs to see and hear the tremendous support for fair, sensible short-term rental regulations from passionate members of the home sharing community. We can’t do that without you, XXX. Can we count on you to join us?
The hearing is this Tuesday, February 6 starting at 2PM. It will be held the City Hall Council Chambers (200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012) and hosts like you will be gathering outside wearing Airbnb shirts. Let us know you are able to attend by RSVP’ing here.
Many of the local hosts I talked to feel like Airbnb in L.A. is about to be done soon. Anyone knows what’s the deal here?
It’s legit. Airbnb is on top of things when it come to regulations. This is happening in Hawaii as well. They are correct. It’s crucial to submit testimony and remember, elected official consider one letter to be the voice of 200.
Well if it’s like here, it’ll seem reasonable but then they’ll sneak a bunch more restrictions in at the last minute. Stay on top if things. If I sound bitter it’s because I am.
The anti-Airbnb lobby/movement/trend/whatever you want to call it seems to only be getting stronger as Airbnb grows. Airbnb has anecdotes and feel good stories but the anti-air forces have well financed research. I’m not sure how effective people in shirts outside are going to be.
Well with us they snuck in a $14 per night charge for whole house rentals and $8 per night for shared spaces, across the board doesn’t matter if your place typically rents for $30 per night or $400, it’s the same per night fee. The original proposal was $2 per night, which is what I think hotels pay. They also eliminated a lot of the areas of the city that were going to be grandfathered in to just the small downtown core. The law is complicated and the city will, I’m sure, have to hire a whole new staff of people to enforce the regulations. But that’s how things seem to go around here.
There’s just been Hawaii state legislation introduced into committee that would allow counties to access all your private tax information, conduct dragnets on any vacation rental they deem illegal, seize assets including homes, bank accounts and property, and prosecute you under criminal felony statutes. Criminal people! Meaning you could go to prison and face the same trouble as those charged with sexual assault or drug offenders. For renting your place on Airbnb!!!
“Grandfathered” or “grandfathered in” refers to having the older or former policy apply even though a new one is in place.
For instance, when I first subscribed to TripAdvisor’s partner FlipKey, its business model was solely for the purpose of advertising vacation rentals. As an early subscriber under the original TOS, I am “grandfathered in” and allowed to continue handling reservations and payments myself outside the system, and no service or booking fees are involved.
The policy has changed and for several years, most new users/subscribers must have their bookings and payments managed through the platform and are subject to mandatory service/booking fees for that “privilege”.
There are rumblings that those of us who are grandfathered in will not be enjoying that status much longer but since I will not be renewing my subscription, as of May it will no longer be of concern to me.
The origin of the term is somewhat uniquely American as it began with the grandfather clauses that were applied to civil rights laws in the Southern states after the US civil war. For example there were literacy tests applied to former slaves. Very few were literate so requiring them to pass a literacy test was a way to keep them from voting. Problem was many whites were also illiterate. So the grandfather clauses were added stating that if your grandfather could vote you were exempt from the new restrictions such as poll taxes or literacy tests.
That is crazy!!! It’s easy to make vacation rentals a scapegoat; the reason for all affordable housing issues and other problems. An easy target for govt instead of really coming up with viable solutions. I have no problem having to be licensed and paying a fair tax, but I do believe the free market will resolve a lot of these issues.
LA activist host here. We don’t expect anything to be settled on Tuesday, but we need to show up in force to support a no cap on the number of days we can host. Airbnb is going to continue in LA, no worries there, after all there is the $40 million in TOT that our guests contributed to the city coffers last year. However, we have strong opponents in the hotel industry and their “neighborhoods first” allies. We need to convince out city council members that we are worthy partners and that we and our guests will continue to contribute to the city in positive ways. Our input is very important in shaping the final form of the home sharing ordinance. We’ve made a great deal of progress, but it’s not over until it’s over, and we need you there to fight for your right to home share.
We’ve been working on this for the past four years. We’re not just standing outside the hearing in shirts. We have a network of home sharing clubs, and we’ve been lobbying our council members. Air has also provided us with two organizers for every section of the city; Westside, NELA, The Valley, Hollywood/Central LA, SOLA. In fact I was just at an merchant walk in San Pedro today where we visited small businesses, and heard what they have to offer our guests in order to build alliances. We’ve done these all over the city. A merchant walk is scheduled from Echo Park in a few weeks. I also participated in one in Venice. There is also an amazing governmental affairs team, led by John Choi, working behind the scenes with city officials. John negotiated the deal with the city to collect TOT from our guests to be paid directly to the city.
