The lawsuit, filed against the city and county of San Francisco, seeks an immediate injunction to prevent enforcement of any of the elements of the short-term rental ordinance passed last month. HomeAway believes that the ordinance is unfair and discriminatory towards second home owners and non-resident companies and individuals.
At face value, it would appear that this discrimination was the whole point of the legislation, as homeowners and residents wanted to prevent larger companies and non-residents from renting homes for profit and negatively affecting neighborhoods in which they don’t even live.
The truth of the suit is that HomeAway feels that the law gives the lion’s share of the market to Airbnb, which is confirmed by this language from the HomeAway release: “[and] effectively turns over control of short-term rentals to the San Francisco-based company Airbnb.”
