September 5, 2025
By Glafira Lopez
In L.A., as in many cities, unregulated short-term rentals have driven up rents and reduced the number of available rental units. According to a 2022 report from the School of Urban Planning, McGill University, the proliferation of short-term rentals in L.A. has cost the average renter household $810 more in rent per year since 2015. The report also found that, in 2022 alone, 2,500 units were removed from L.A. City’s rental market and converted into short-term rentals.
Now an Airbnb-funded coalition, Save Our Services (SOS), is trying to undermine the laws that regulate short-term rentals, claiming that revenue from these properties will be the solution to some of the city’s biggest issues. SOS wants to gut the city’s Short Term Rental Ordinance to permanently allow nonprimary residences to be used as short-term rentals. As the Los Angeles Times reported, SOS has been canvassing L.A. neighborhoods while failing to disclose that they are backed by Airbnb.
SOS claims their plan will generate millions of dollars revenue for city departments and help prevent mass layoffs. This is a wild overstatement. There were 4,228 active home sharing registrations in L.A. in 2024, but short-term rentals contributed just $36,377 in Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenue. But let’s say for the sake of argument they’re right—allowing for more short term rentals will add millions of dollars in TOT money to city coffers. Currently, short-term rentals are responsible for more than 5,000 extra people experiencing homelessness each night in L.A. It’s already costing the city billions to build and operate housing and services for these residents. Exacerbating our housing and homelessness problems by expanding short-term rentals will necessitate city spending that will far outpace SOS’s tax revenue projections.
Someone should remind SOS that Los Angeles has approximately 100,000 hotel rooms that also pay Transient Occupancy Taxes to the city. In fact, in FY 2024, hotels generated $275,006 in Transit Occupancy Tax revenue. Hotels also do something short-term rentals don’t: they provide jobs. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s “Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages” found that there are approximately 43,000 workers employed by L.A. hotels. Hotels do a better job of keeping our economy and the labor force more afloat than short-term rentals ever could.
SOS also claims that they want to ensure that L.A. is prepared to accommodate millions of travelers that we are expecting for major events by using short-term rentals. But L.A. is in the middle of a severe housing affordability crisis, and the city must prioritize accommodations for those who already live here, not tourists. In fact, we must pass stronger regulations to prevent short-term rentals from continuously harming our housing stock.
Better Neighbors LA is currently calling for more regulation of short-term rentals through the approval of two amendments to the Home-Sharing Ordinance, also known as Council File 14-1635-S10. These two amendments call for a citywide electronic verification system to stop illegal short-term rental bookings, and a private right of action for residents and community organizations who see unlawful short-term rentals in their neighborhoods. The Los Angeles City Council will be voting on these amendments in the fall, and Better Neighbors is asking community members to take action to get these amendments to pass. If the city is serious about preventing homelessness, we must do all that we can to limit short-term rentals in our city and protect our precious available housing stock. At the end of the day, only permanently affordable housing that prioritizes residents who live in Los Angeles will be beneficial to L.A. residents.
