Katherine Lugar, President

American Hotel and Lodging Association

1201 New York Avenue, NW, #600
Washington, DC 20005

April 4, 2016

Ms. Lugar:
For more than two years, Airbnb has worked with governments across the country and
around the world to make it possible to collect and remit transient occupancy taxes on
behalf of our hosts and guests through Voluntary Collection Agreements (VCAs). As you
know, collecting and remitting these taxes can be incredibly complicated as the rules were
designed for traditional hospitality providers and large hotel corporations -- members of
your association -- with teams of lawyers and accountants and not for middle class people
sharing a room in their home or their entire space while theyre away.
To date, we have successfully started collecting and remitting taxes in more than 100
jurisdictions globally, including dozens of U.S. cities and counties. In the U.S. we are
sending tens of millions in revenue to these municipalities every month. As we outlined in
our November 2015 Community Compact and stated at the United States Conference of
Mayors meeting in January, we are committed to working with governments to collect and
remit taxes.
In an effort to advance our commitment to pay hotel taxes, we have repeatedly offered to
collect applicable hotel taxes on behalf of hosts in New York and Los Angeles, our two
largest U.S. markets, dating back to 2014, as well as in any other municipality willing to
work with us on the tax front. Had we been able to collect and remit taxes in New York
and Los Angeles, we would have sent a combined $63 million in new revenue to two cities
alone last year.

However, we cannot begin collecting and remitting these taxes until those cities grant us
the authority to collect on behalf of our hosts. Though many other cities have granted us
this authority already, the required policy change has not occurred in Los Angeles as the
City Council contemplates short-term rental regulations. Nor has the required policy
change occurred in New York, in part because of opposition from organizations associated
with the hotel industry or funded by the hotel industry, including the AHLA.
In the past the AHLA has opposed our effort to collect and remit these taxes. According to
an April 2014 memo, your association has a specific strategy to oppose proposals that

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would allow Airbnb to contribute more in taxes in these communities. In the memo, your
organization outlined a strategy to target cities and localities where we can engage in
select tax, safety, and health fights at the council level to pre-empt other deals being sought
by short-term online rental companies.
For this reason, and given your effort to prevent our attempts to collect and remit hotel
taxes, we were surprised when you issued a report focusing on the the status of tax
remittance in Los Angeles. Your senior Vice President told the Los Angeles Times the
AHLA would welcome competition but we want to make sure there is a legal and level
playing field."
We are pleased the AHLA has changed its position and is no longer fighting to prevent the
Airbnb community from paying taxes. Airbnb has been advocating for common-sense
rules that will help our community pay taxes for years and we look forward to working
with leaders across the country and around the world to implement these clear, fair
policies.
As tax day approaches, we hope you will act on this new position by publicly supporting
the policy changes necessary to allow Airbnb to collect and remit taxes and help
accomplish our shared desire -- using the AHLA's own words -- to level the playing
field."

Respectfully,

Christopher Lehane
Global Head of Public Policy, Airbnb

Airbnb
888 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103