City of Portland Finally Fines a Short-Term Rental Company

But not Airbnb.

By ANNA WALTERS

The city is finally cracking down on companies like Airbnb that allow hosts to rent their homes to visitors. But it's not actually going after Airbnb. 


Instead, the Portland Revenue Bureau has fined Vacation Home Rentals of Newburyport, Mass., $3,000 for failing to register to pay transient lodging taxes, get its hosts to obtain city permits and undergo inspections. The company is run by TripAdvisor, which declined to comment. 

According to letters obtained by WW, the Revenue Bureau started sending warning letters to companies in late January and threatened some with fines ranging from $500 to $356,500 beginning in March.

Although the agency has yet to actually issue fines—except in the case of Vacation Home Rentals—the companies put on notice include Craigslist, VRBO, Online Vacation Rentals, Rentalo, StayAlfred, FlipKey and TripAdvisor.

The city also sent letters to Airbnb, HomeAway and Vacasa informing them of the new rules and hasn’t threatened those companies with fines. 

Meanwhile, what appear to be large-scale violations by Airbnb continue to stare the city in the face: 94 percent of its hosts haven’t bothered to get permits. 

City officials would not say when—or if—they will take action against the home-sharing giant.

“At any point a company fails to meaningfully engage with us to increase enforcement,” Revenue Bureau director Thomas Lannom says in an email to WW, “we may assess penalties and require host information.”

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.