Airbnb received legal demand from City of Chicago's Department of Business Affairs requesting info

[Vee-And-Sometimes-Fred0]

Airbnb has received a legal demand from the City of Chicago's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to provide certain records associated with your Airbnb account. I have tried to stay on top of all regulations and have been attentive to all requests from both Airbnb and the City. SO this is a huge surprise for me. 

I have been doing some research with regards to the above issue. I received an email earlier this evening from Airbnb stating that the City of Chicago's Commission's office had requested information pertaining to my account. As anyone who has worked with the City of Chicago and Airbnb will know -it is a circus to deal with the city. They do not have a responsive or approachable system with regards to concerns and issues related to Airbnb. They have laws which are difficult to meet due to unresponsive approach and there is little to no resolution on standing issues.

With that said:

I reached out to Airbnb regarding the nature of the demand from the City. They were not able to tell me. I also asked if they had noticed a trend or if this was an isolated event. I was told that a series of Airbnb hosting in Chicago had received the same notification. To what I was advice from a Case Manager is that Chicago is getting ready to change the Law again. Furthermore, I am to contact the Legal Department at Airbnb. ( I did reach out)

Question to the general public: Has anyone else received such notification? Would you know under what grounds was the request made? Any on-going issues with your registration in the last year or with new listings? 

I only ask these questions because I have had trouble getting proper registration. I no longer her have the listing or live in the property and I find it odd that this request was made. I want to know what other people are saying... 

Than you. 

[Vee-And-Sometimes-Fred0]

#cityofchicago #chicagodepartmentofbusinessaffairs #departmentofbusinessaffairs #informaitonrequest #legaldemand #demand #chicago #request #licensing #licensingdenied #airbnblicensedenied #airbnbchicago

[Wee-Yang0]

I just received the same email earlier today. I have also immediately delisted my listing after I received the notice that the my registration was rejected in August since I have also moved out, and when I received the email earlier today I deleted the whole listing altogether (I literally just found out how to do it today; Airbnb sure doesn't make it easy deactivating your listing permanently). 

I contacted Airbnb twice and they said they don't know what kind of records the City of Chicago's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection has demanded and what Airbnb will provide them in 14 days, and they were not very helpful or reassuring. I only hope that Airbnb has our backs since it is they were the ones who made the registration and have records on whether we hosted people after we received the notice to delist. 

[Vee-And-Sometimes-Fred0]

 I reached them out over the phone. They advise for me to contact their legal department, which they replied today. They referred me back to Barara at the Commissioner's office and to their Data Release policy stating they do not grant legal advice. I replied asking them for the copy of the document request. 

I do not mind complying with the City of Chicago; it is, however, so difficult to deal with them as they do not have a live representation for Airbnb resolutions. I called the Commissioner's office but Barbara must be out of town until November 13th. I might have to go to their office tomorrow or simply stalk Barbara when she is back to the office. She does have a Linkedin. 

[Rachel788]

Hi, Any advice on deleting whole listing? I am thinking to take this strategy since getting anyone to update my address at airbnb, according to other forums and my experience so far, is as big a nightmare as dealing with the city. Due to the fact that others are posting that they are receiving these letters, I thought the best strategy would be to delete and start from scratch since I know understand I need to put a unit number on my listing to not be rejected by city. I haven't tried deleting it yet, I have until Monday to pull this listing according to the city. Thanks !