Source:  City Planning

News Release (August 31, 2020)

At the beginning of September, City Planning launched an online system that makes it easier to identify and take down illegal short-term rental listings. The Application Programming Interface (API) is a first-of-its-kind program that serves several compliance functions. In addition to automating the collection and verification of short-term rental listings, the API serves as a secure master index of the City’s Home-Sharing registration and permits.

API implements the agreement between the City and Airbnb, under which the City may take action against the platform for allowing unregistered or illegal listings to continue to advertise online. The program’s launch is the latest step in enforcing the City’s Home-Sharing regulations, which are intended to protect Los Angeles’s housing stock from wholesale conversion into short-term rentals.

City Planning expects the launch of API will further curtail illegal home-sharing during the months to come, based on promising early data. During the week of testing preceding API’s launch alone, City Planning removed over 1,350 ineligible listings.