ROWDY RENTAL CRACKDOWN?
Chicago tries again to rein in Airbnb and its competitors with proposed ‘transparency ordinance’
Ald. Bennett Lawson
The City Council’s License Committee is trying to get a handle on the burgeoning vacation rental industry at the behest of Ald. Bennett Lawson, whose 44th Ward is party central for Cubs fans who often used shared housing units as a less expensive alternative to hotel rooms.
GETTY IMAGES FILE
GETTY IMAGES FILE
Chicago has been struggling to rein in the vacation rental industry ever since companies like Airbnb and Vrbo exploded onto the scene without regulation more than a decade ago.
On Tuesday, the City Council’s License Committee tried again to get a handle on the burgeoning industry at the behest of a Wrigleyville alderperson whose ward is party central for Cubs fans who often use shared housing units as a less expensive alternative to hotel rooms.
The “transparency ordinance” championed by Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) requires Airbnb and Vrbo to share much more information with neighbors who have to live with the sometimes rowdy consequences of vacation rentals.
The newly required information would include everything from a map of vacation rentals searchable by address to the license or registration number and contact information for the host or local contact person.
The information would also include the maximum occupancy and whether each unit has received a “commissioner’s adjustment” to exceed that limit.
The disclosure would further include the cost of renting or booking a shared housing unit “and all fees or charges required to complete the booking or stay.”
Lawson said his “transparency ordinance” is aimed at allowing Council members and the residents they represent to “better understand the universe when it comes to short-term rentals, the location and disciplinary history and more.”
It would require the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to “consolidate” all of the information it receives into one report “on a ward basis that we will receive each quarter.”
“We’ll have a much clearer picture of where these are located, who is operating them and any disciplinary history in the past,” Lawson said.
Lawson said his ward is inundated with 235 vacation rental units. Partying at two of those units has triggered shootings in recent years, including a Memorial Day weekend 2023 shooting that left two people hurt in the 600 block of Barry.
“One of the issues we have with these is parties. I’ve had some that got way out of hand in my ward,” Lawson said. “Instead of always trying to figure out on the backside, who is this, who rented it, if we know there are some concerns on the front end, we can work with the platform, we can work with neighbors and address them proactively.
More knowledge and better transparency will result in better relationships.”
Through a spokesperson, Airbnb issued a statement reacting to the proposed ordinance: “Airbnb has had a ban on parties since 2020, and while they remain extremely rare with fewer than 0.07% of reservations on Airbnb in Chicago resulting in an allegation of a party in 2024, we are committed to working with Chicago lawmakers to help ensure guests, hosts and communities are able to quickly and appropriately address nuisance and safety concerns.”
Home-sharing was already a thriving industry in 2016, when the City Council finally got around to imposing regulations.
The rules were not as strict as some critics had hoped. The belated crackdown followed months of sometimes heated debate to determine how to balance the interests of Airbnb hosts, who were thrilled with the extra income from booking their spare rooms, with the concerns of neighbors who were sometimes dismayed by the rowdy antics of some short-term renters.
The key feature allowed residents of individual voting precincts to “go dry” and ban Airbnb and its competitors from residential neighborhoods using a petition process similar to the one used to block bars and liquor stores.
The new regulations had the grudging support of Airbnb, the industry-leading home-sharing website that had seen its multibillion-dollar business model threatened by new rules as cities across the globe have tried to rein in the explosive growth of the homesharing platforms.
On the day of the 2016 vote, Lincoln Park’s now-retired Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) complained that the regulations would not be enough to stop “a runaway train” that was Airbnb. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) praised then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration for proposing changes to appease Council members on both sides.
But Reilly wasn’t happy, either. “I don’t trust this company, and we may not have the tools” we need to police the ordinance and make sure it complies, Reilly said.
Then-Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) saw it as a past-versus-future issue. “This is the Jetsons,” he said. “We’re not going back to the Flintstones.”
Airbnb spent millions lobbying and advertising to influence the legislation in Chicago and other cities.
On Tuesday, the City Council’s License Committee tried again to get a handle on the burgeoning industry at the behest of a Wrigleyville alderperson whose ward is party central for Cubs fans who often use shared housing units as a less expensive alternative to hotel rooms.
The “transparency ordinance” championed by Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) requires Airbnb and Vrbo to share much more information with neighbors who have to live with the sometimes rowdy consequences of vacation rentals.
The newly required information would include everything from a map of vacation rentals searchable by address to the license or registration number and contact information for the host or local contact person.
The information would also include the maximum occupancy and whether each unit has received a “commissioner’s adjustment” to exceed that limit.
The disclosure would further include the cost of renting or booking a shared housing unit “and all fees or charges required to complete the booking or stay.”
Lawson said his “transparency ordinance” is aimed at allowing Council members and the residents they represent to “better understand the universe when it comes to short-term rentals, the location and disciplinary history and more.”
It would require the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to “consolidate” all of the information it receives into one report “on a ward basis that we will receive each quarter.”
“We’ll have a much clearer picture of where these are located, who is operating them and any disciplinary history in the past,” Lawson said.
Lawson said his ward is inundated with 235 vacation rental units. Partying at two of those units has triggered shootings in recent years, including a Memorial Day weekend 2023 shooting that left two people hurt in the 600 block of Barry.
“One of the issues we have with these is parties. I’ve had some that got way out of hand in my ward,” Lawson said. “Instead of always trying to figure out on the backside, who is this, who rented it, if we know there are some concerns on the front end, we can work with the platform, we can work with neighbors and address them proactively.
More knowledge and better transparency will result in better relationships.”
Through a spokesperson, Airbnb issued a statement reacting to the proposed ordinance: “Airbnb has had a ban on parties since 2020, and while they remain extremely rare with fewer than 0.07% of reservations on Airbnb in Chicago resulting in an allegation of a party in 2024, we are committed to working with Chicago lawmakers to help ensure guests, hosts and communities are able to quickly and appropriately address nuisance and safety concerns.”
Home-sharing was already a thriving industry in 2016, when the City Council finally got around to imposing regulations.
The rules were not as strict as some critics had hoped. The belated crackdown followed months of sometimes heated debate to determine how to balance the interests of Airbnb hosts, who were thrilled with the extra income from booking their spare rooms, with the concerns of neighbors who were sometimes dismayed by the rowdy antics of some short-term renters.
The key feature allowed residents of individual voting precincts to “go dry” and ban Airbnb and its competitors from residential neighborhoods using a petition process similar to the one used to block bars and liquor stores.
The new regulations had the grudging support of Airbnb, the industry-leading home-sharing website that had seen its multibillion-dollar business model threatened by new rules as cities across the globe have tried to rein in the explosive growth of the homesharing platforms.
On the day of the 2016 vote, Lincoln Park’s now-retired Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) complained that the regulations would not be enough to stop “a runaway train” that was Airbnb. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) praised then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration for proposing changes to appease Council members on both sides.
But Reilly wasn’t happy, either. “I don’t trust this company, and we may not have the tools” we need to police the ordinance and make sure it complies, Reilly said.
Then-Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) saw it as a past-versus-future issue. “This is the Jetsons,” he said. “We’re not going back to the Flintstones.”
Airbnb spent millions lobbying and advertising to influence the legislation in Chicago and other cities.