Airbnb Hit with Class Action Lawsuit by San Francisco Hotel Residents

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Last week, the popular room-finding website and company Airbnb was hit with a rent control class action lawsuit and faces allegations of raising rent prices in San Francisco, which has allegedly negatively impacted thousands of residents and property owners.

Louis Gamache and Danielle McGee, two San Francisco residents who live as long-term tenants at the Sheldon Hotel, filed this Airbnb class action lawsuit in California federal court alleging that Airbnb knowingly and willingly rented out residential units to tourists even though it is against San Francisco city law.

Both plaintiffs live as long term residents at the Sheldon Hotel, where many Airbnb consumers stay. According to the rent control class action lawsuit, about 300 of thousands of affected Class Members live in Sheldon Hotel along with Gamache and McGee. Both lead plaintiffs are seeking damages for themselves and other Class Members and also seek to place an injunction against Aribnb preventing the company from illegally renting San Francisco apartments in the future.

According to the rent control class action lawsuit, “On its website, Defendant AirBnB participates in, facilitates and enables  the illegal short-term rentals for rooms and apartments in the City and County of San Francisco.” Additionally, the plaintiffs allege, “The conversion of residential units into short-term rentals, used primarily by tourists, has removed rent controlled apartments from use and caused residential rents in San Francisco to rise because so many residential units are no longer available to long-term tenants.” It has been estimated that 5,000 apartments in San Francisco have been rented out by Airbnb for illegal short-term rental use by Airbnb customers.

The proposed Airbnb rent control class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of San Francisco residents that would include: “Tenants who lived in a residential unit while other units within the building were rented through AirBnB’s platform.” The plaintiffs estimate that thousands of San Francisco residents could be potential members of the proposed Class.

Gamache and McGee allege that Airbnb has violated several laws, including, the San Francisco Residential Hotel Conversion and Demolition Ordinance, the San Francisco Residential Unit Conversion and Demolition Ordinance,  and the Unfair Competition Law.

This is not the only legal action Airbnb is facing from the city of San Francisco. David Chiu, the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, has recently introduced legislation that would regulate Airbnb users. Chiu’s legislation would ideally stress single family homes, strengthen enforcement of laws that prohibit illegal renting, and amend San Francisco’s short-term rental laws to allow for short-term rentals without allowing the “hotelization” of San Francisco rental property.

Louis Gamache and Danielle McGee are represented by Mark Hooshmand and Tyson Redenbarger of the Hooshmand Law Group.

The Airbnb Rent Control Class Action Lawsuit is Louis Gamache, et al. vs. Airbnb Inc., et al., Case No. CGC14541477, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.