Lawsuit: Vacation rental platform HomeAway routinely violated LA's short-term rental ordinance with bookings for unregistered hosts

Vacation rental hosting platform HomeAway, operator of Vrbo, was hit with a lawsuit from the City of Los Angeles for repeated violations of the city's short-term rental ordinance, City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Monday.

According to Feuer's office, HomeAway — which is part of the Expedia Group — routinely processed rental bookings for unregistered hosts in violation of the city's short-term rental ordinance, which requires hosts to submit an application, pay a fee, and obtain a registration number from the city's Department of City Planning. Hosts are also prohibited from renting more than 120 in a calendar yea, pay a fee to the city for each night of a short-term rental, and collect transient occupancy taxes from guests to paid out to the city under the ordinance.

The ordinance was adopted in 2018 after the city found that short-term rentals was reducing the number of available units, was driving up rental costs, and contributing to nuisance activity.

"We're in the midst of a housing crisis," Feuer said in a statement. "And when online platforms and hosts refuse to play by the rules, it allows them to compete unfairly with those who do, as well as depriving the City of much-needed revenue for basic services."

According to the City Attorney's Office, approximately 29% of HomeAway's bookings between Nov. 7 and Dec. 7, 2021, violated the city's ordinance. Feuer's complaint alleges HomeAway has processed more than 10,000 booking transactions for short-term rentals, thousands of which may have been in violation of the city's ordinance since enforcement began in 2019.

The lawsuit is seeking to keep HomeAway from further violating the ordinance, and penalties of up to $2,500 for violations of the Unfair Competition Law, and another $2,500 for violating L.A. Municipal Code, for each past unauthorized booking.