Chicago sets rules on ride-hailing and short-term rental apps
After many weeks of debate, the Chicago City Council has approved what it calls “compromise measures” which place restrictions on sharing economy services such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb. The new regulations require ride-hail drivers to take an online course to get a professional driving licence. With regards to short-term rentals, such as on Airbnb, the new regulations require companies to regularly share data on rental listings with the city so it can check if they comply with the law. It also imposes new licensing fees to fund the enforcement of the rules, as well as services for the homeless. Unsurprisingly, there was opposition to both measures, from the taxi industry who claim ride-hail platforms will still be operating at an advantage, and from home-sharing opponents who feel the new rules still fall short of protecting homeowners who say Airbnb has altered the character of their neighbourhoods.

City Council Passes New, Fairly Chill Airbnb Regulations, And Airbnb Likes Them

By Mae Rice in News on Jun 22, 2016 8:31PM



Airbnb

It's official: Airbnb rentals will face new regulations in Chicago. On Wednesday, City Council approved a long-discussed regulatory ordinance for home-sharing through Airbnb and its ilk. It sounds like a potential nightmare for Airbnb, and they've actively protested this ordinance before—but today, Airbnb is jazzed.

“We’re excited to see Chicago join the ranks of leading global cities that have worked to protect the right of everyday people to share their homes to make some extra money," said Will Burns, Airbnb's Senior Advisor and Midwest Director of Policy, in a statement. "We are particularly excited that, under the leadership of the mayor and aldermen, the tax revenue generated from our community will go to helping to fund the City's homelessness program."

This change of tune can be attributed, in part, to a change in ordinance. Under the ordinance passed Wednesday, there's no cap on how many nights per year hosts can rent out their homes, according to Airbnb. Hosts just need to pay the city $60—money that will be used to enforce this ordinance, the Tribune reports—and register with the city, according to Airbnb. (Under a previous version of the ordinance, homes rented out more than 90 days a year would have had to be registered as commercial properties, as we noted in May.)

As Burns said, the ordinance also applies a 4 percent tax applied to homesharing transactions, which will help fund services for homeless Chicagoans.

The ordinance is most restrictive about how widespread Airbnb rentals can be in a given building. In buildings of five or fewer unit, only one unit can be rented out at a time; in larger buildings, either six or 25 percent of units can be rented out through Airbnb—whichever comes first. If a precinct deems Airbnb a particular problem, residents can also move to ban it from their precincts altogether, but doing so will be a fairly complicated process.

Airbnb has lobbied heavily to shape the ordinance into its current, friendly state, the Tribune reports. Some of that lobbying has been public facing: the Internet Association, a group Airbnb is a member of, released video ads against these regulations earlier this month. Just two days ago, Ashton Kutcher (an Airbnb investor) took to Facebook to say the regulatory ordinance would "negatively impact" Airbnb hosts.