STRs Should Obey Laws Like Every Other Hotel Bunsines (licence, pay hotel taxes, follow laws including fire sprinklers and egress)

The hotel industry supports home sharing, the rights of property owners to rent out a room in their home, and we have advocated for ordinances that officially legalize such short-term rentals. But we also believe short-term rentals should abide by the same laws as hotels and every other business: registering their business, paying taxes, following laws and regulations, and removing illegal listings.

Unfortunately, many Big Tech short-term rental platforms flout local laws, creating safety concerns, reducing affordable housing inventory, driving up rent prices, and displacing long-term residents. Communities across the country are recognizing this growing challenge and adopting common-sense regulations to reign in illegal hotels.

Unfortunately, certain rental platforms, such as Airbnb and HomeAway, are exploiting a loophole in federal law to avoid compliance with local laws and ordinances. Rather than work with cities on reasonable regulations for short-term rentals, hey have sued in federal and state courts, preferring to litigate rather than negotiate a workable framework.

States and municipalities should be free to adopt and implement reasonable planning and zoning laws that govern short-term rentals. Billion-dollar tech platforms that profit from their website content should be accountable for that content and should be required to remove rental listings when found to be illegal.

The Protecting Local Authority and Neighborhoods Act (PLAN Act) would amend Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act to make it clear that CDA 230 does not shield Big Tech short-term rental platforms from complying with state and local laws.