Sheriff’s deputies showed up at a North Gardner Street apartment Saturday morning and found Airbnb guests who had no idea their reservation had been canceled — at a property a neighbor says has been denied a City home sharing permit and is operating illegally anyway.
Deputies responded around 9:20 a.m. to the property after a housekeeper called 911 to report guests refusing to leave.
“It sounds like an Airbnb mix-up,” a deputy said.
The guests had booked legitimately. One complained the unit was dirty and asked for a refund. Airbnb canceled the reservation to process it. The guests didn’t know the cancellation voided their booking and stayed put.
“I’m guessing they assumed, oh, we got a free stay,” the deputy said. “They’re innocent in a sense. They left. No issues.”
Deputies cleared the scene without making arrests.
One guest, who declined to give his name, said a neighbor was the one who finally clued him in. “You mean to tell us we could have just left — and not had to go through all this?” he said. “Man, I didn’t even know that happened.”
A second guest said she was still waiting for answers when WEHOonline arrived. She told WEHOonline at the scene she had been briefly handcuffed during the encounter. “Of course something’s not right,” she said.
The Property’s Permit History
West Hollywood requires property owners who rent short-term to hold a City-issued Home Sharing Business License. A neighbor who has lived at the property since 1999 said the building’s owner has been denied that permit by City code enforcement — and has continued operating anyway.
“They’ve been here. They’ve interviewed people staying at these units,” he said. “They have been denied converting them into short-term rentals. And so then they just illegally do.”
Thank you for reporting this Brian, and for the update below.
I hope Code Enforcement takes action against the owner ASAP. As we are unfortunately experiencing on a national level, laws mean nothing if there is minimal/ no enforcement.
And Airbnb is complicit if this property was booked through their platform.
The lady that got handcuffed, was she acting Karen?
Hi, Pete,
She didn’t tell us why when we asked. The indication from deputies was that all was ok. It really was a case of folks not understanding why police were called and that the guest were caught in the middle. Deputies were compassionate and understanding. In the end it was a bad host who left folks stranded. It’s our understanding the woman was a friend visiting and was going to help them figure out next steps.
I thought short-term rentals were banned in West Hollywood. Am I wrong?
Yes, you’re wrong. If you own your home and live in it you can register with the city, pay taxes on your income, and legally do short-term rentals. So tenants, or anyone who does not stay in the home in which they are hosting would be in violation of the law. With the host present with guests there is control of any disruptive behavior that might disturb neighbors. Someone who does short-term rental on an apartment they neither live in nor own creates a housing shortage by taking that apartment off the market. But how is it anyone’s business who… Read more »