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West Hollywood Landlords Want it Both Ways With Airbnb

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Airbnb has made some very vocal foes in Los Angeles, most notably in Silver Lake, where there was even an attempt to ban the peer-to-peer apartment rental company (which SL residents compared to bordellos). The latest anti-cheap-vacation-rental lobby seems to be forming in West Hollywood, where, according to Wehoville, some property owners are spitting mad over the service's presence in their buildings. They argue that Airbnb violates a landlord's right to choose their tenants (landlords usually use that totally failsafe character reference: credit checks), breaks the WeHo zoning laws that prohibit short-term rentals (under 30 days), and endangers the safety of their tenants. "It's wrong on so many levels," says an appalled leasing specialist, whatever that is, who is definitely most concerned about the wrongness and not about not making any money on these transactions. Some property owners apparently are choosing their short-term Airbnb tenants—the city has served cease and desist orders to 15 property-owning Weho-ites who are suspected of renting their space out. They say they're cracking down to enforce the city's land use rules. So if you had reservations in the neighborhood, you might want to double-check those.
· Airbnb is Raising the Ire of WeHo Apartment Managers and Tenants [WeHoville]