Airbnb Spent $12.6M on the LA Officials Who Regulate It

BySarah Fraser
Los Angeles City Hall, the seat of the city government that votes on short-term rental rules.

Airbnb and its nonprofit arm have spent at least $12.6 million since last year to become one of Los Angeles’s top political donors. The money backs Mayor Karen Bass and the officials who will set and enforce Airbnb’s rules, while the company asks the city to let owners rent second homes and investment properties to tourists before the 2028 Olympics. If the rule changes, a landlord who today can rent a spare apartment only to someone who lives in it could rent it by the night to visitors. Tenants pay for that, because the apartment leaves the housing they compete for.

The sequence runs in one direction. Airbnb gave $1 million to charity at Bass’s request, and its committees spent millions for her. In April, her proposed budget carried two proposals that Airbnb says it suggested: the second-home expansion and a plan to let Airbnb prepay hotel taxes. The City Council took the expansion back out in May, and the ordinance has not been adopted. That makes Tuesday’s election, Nov. 3, the vote on whether it comes back.

Politico’s reporting frames it bluntly: “For Airbnb, the gold medal game in the 2028 Summer Olympics is on Tuesday.”

Politico’s itemized count, drawn from city filings, breaks down like this. Each line is a floor, and the overall total runs higher than their sum:

Where Airbnb’s money went (Politico) Amount
Campaign committees, mostly backing Bass at least $6.9 million
of which, PAC backing John McKinney for city attorney $2.1 million
City Hall lobbying about $3.7 million
Charity given at Bass’s request $1 million
Total since 2025 at least $12.6 million

Capital & Main’s tally reaches the same conclusion with somewhat different figures. It counts $7.1 million across four contests as of mid-October. That is 30 times what Airbnb spent in all Los Angeles elections since 2018 combined. The outlet puts $750,000 into the committee backing Bass, a contribution the Washington Examiner also reported, and $3.3 million into the one backing McKinney. It also counts almost $4.2 million in lobbying over 18 months.

airbnb karen bass

According to Capital & Main, $3.7 million of that lobbying went to media and canvassing for a campaign called Save Our Services. It knocked on more than 300,000 doors to tell residents that more short-term rentals would bring in tax money for city repairs. Council member Katy Yaroslavsky called it “astroturf”, meaning a corporate campaign dressed up as a grassroots one.

The tax pitch had a number attached. In January 2026, Airbnb wrote to the Council projecting up to $110 million in extra hotel-tax revenue. The city projected its entire hotel tax at $313.5 million for 2026-27, and short-term rentals already pay about $34.8 million of that. The city’s planning director, Vincent Bertoni, said the ordinance would not raise additional revenue, because there are too few second homes to rent.

Airbnb’s candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot:

  • Karen Bass for mayor, against Council member Nithya Raman
  • John McKinney for city attorney, against incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto
  • Tim Gaspar in Council District 3
  • Jose Ugarte in Council District 9

Airbnb also backed Traci Park, who won District 11 outright in the June primary.

The city attorney race shows most clearly what the money is for. In July 2025, Feldstein Soto sued Airbnb, alleging it let prices rise more than 10% on 2,000 to 3,000 Los Angeles listings after the January wildfires. The suit seeks up to $2,500 per violation. On July 1, Judge Robert Broadbelt ruled the case could proceed. By Capital & Main’s count, Airbnb’s biggest single election bet is the committee trying to replace the official who is suing it.

Airbnb is not the only large spender. Capital & Main reports that hedge fund manager Aaron Sosnick had given about $7 million to committees backing Raman as of early October, and that the Police Protective League has spent more than $4 million backing Bass, McKinney, Gaspar, Ugarte and others. LAist put Sosnick’s own share closer to $4 million, with the carpenters’ union supplying the rest, and much of it routed through street-safety groups such as Streets for All.

Seven-figure checks are now routine in California politics, as the tech billionaires’ plan for a permanent California political fund shows. What sets Airbnb apart is the subject on the table. Sosnick wants bike lanes. Airbnb wants the winners to write the rules for its own business.

Second homes for tourists: the rule Airbnb wants

Los Angeles has limited short-term rentals since 2018. Under the Home-Sharing Ordinance, which took effect in 2019, hosts may list only their primary residence. Rent-controlled and affordable units are barred entirely. Before the rule, the city had nearly 29,000 listings. Today about 5,500 units are legal.

The proposed Vacation Rental Ordinance would suspend that limit until Dec. 31, 2028. Owners could list second homes and investment properties. Capital & Main reports it could add up to 15,000 units.

Bass’s budget paired the expansion with the hotel-tax prepayment. The city would get tax cash up front, and Airbnb would get the rule. The Los Angeles Times reported that, according to people familiar with the talks, Airbnb agreed to prepay $50 million. Petersen, quoted by the Times, called the arrangement “bribing the city.”

The city’s own planners changed their position within two weeks. On April 2, the Planning Department recommended rejecting the second-home plan, warning it would remove long-term housing. On April 15, it said a temporary program tied to the Olympics was worth considering. Its explanation was that the first memo had analyzed a permanent change.

Planning’s own number tests that explanation. It estimates the program would add fewer than 5,500 new rentals. The city has about 5,500 legal ones. A temporary program could come close to doubling Los Angeles’s legal short-term rentals, and those units would come out of the long-term housing the April 2 memo warned about. Making it temporary changes when the homes are lost, not whether.

Bass’s campaign presents her support as a response to Olympic demand. Her spokesperson, Paige Sterling, said the mayor wants as many beds as possible for the Games. The company asking for those beds is an official Olympic sponsor: Airbnb signed a nine-year deal with the International Olympic Committee in 2019 that runs through the Los Angeles Games.

The shortage case comes from Airbnb too. A Deloitte study it commissioned projects up to 320,000 visitors without lodging on 13 of 19 competition days, against about 145,000 usable hotel rooms. Los Angeles just ran a test. During this year’s World Cup, city hotel occupancy rose only 1% over 2025 and stayed about 5% below 2024, according to a Hotel Association of Los Angeles survey that fewer than a third of hotels answered. Three hotel managers told the Council committee they had plenty of rooms. Before the World Cup in Canada, another Airbnb-commissioned Deloitte forecast predicted a room shortfall in Vancouver. Hotels in Vancouver and Toronto ended up under 50% full.

Airbnb’s own executives also undercut the end date. They have told investors they expect the Olympics to spur rapid and lasting expansion in Los Angeles. CEO Brian Chesky has said Paris listings grew more than 50% around its Games. An ordinance that expires in December 2028 does not deliver lasting growth. A friendly City Hall that can extend it does. Jeremy Oberstein, a local Democratic political consultant, put it plainly:

“The Olympics may be the immediate prize, but the bigger opportunity is influencing the rules of the game long after the torch goes out.”

Politico describes Los Angeles as one of Airbnb’s largest U.S. markets, for a company whose revenue grew 17% to about $3.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026.

The proposal is stalled for now. Council member Bob Blumenfield won’t hold a hearing until enforcement reports arrive.

What renters already live with

In LAist’s 2026 count, Los Angeles has about 7,500 illegal short-term rentals, more than the number of legal ones. The city issues about 125 citations a year. At that pace, it would take 60 years to cite each illegal rental once. A ProPublica investigation put the first-offense fine at $587.

Apartment building in Los Angeles, the kind of rent-controlled housing where ProPublica found illegal short-term rentals.

ProPublica found about 60% of the illegal rentals in multiunit buildings, the apartment blocks where the city’s tenants live. Its reporting found units in more than 60 rent-controlled buildings advertised on booking sites. Rent-controlled units make up nearly 75% of the city’s rental market. A 2023 investigation found that weak enforcement had let nearly 800 residential-hotel units, some of the city’s cheapest housing, go to tourists.

The rule Airbnb wants loosened has a measurable effect on rents. A Regional Science study found that primary-residence rules cut rents by $55 a month, or 3.3%.

Airbnb spokesman Nathan Rotman says the company shares listing data with the city to help catch violators, is in talks to strengthen enforcement, and will work with whoever wins. Capital & Main confirms that a data-sharing agreement exists. The 7,500 illegal listings counted this year are on the market with that agreement in place.

Raman calls the spending pay-to-play, a charge the Washington Examiner also reported, and has promised to crack down on short-term rentals if elected. A union poll cited by Politico found that 53% of voters were less likely to back a candidate Airbnb supports. The UC Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll released Oct. 28 has Bass and Raman tied at 40% each, with 19% undecided.

Tuesday settles which version comes next. If McKinney wins, the price-gouging suit Judge Broadbelt let proceed passes to a city attorney Airbnb spent between $2.1 million and $3.3 million to elect. If Bass wins, the expansion can return in her next budget once Blumenfield’s enforcement reports land, before a Council that Airbnb’s money helped choose. If Raman wins, she has promised a crackdown.

Two days later, on Nov. 5, Airbnb reports its third-quarter results and gets to tell investors what Los Angeles voters chose.

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