Airbnb poured more than $6M into the LA mayoral and city attorney races. Its candidates lost

Airbnb spent millions to influence L.A.’s local elections this November, but lost in its most expensive races.

The short-term rental giant bet on Mayor Karen Bass with more than $4.1 million in spending toward groups supporting her. Airbnb also poured $2.1 million into the city attorney’s race to back candidate John McKinney.

On Thursday morning, Bass conceded the race to challenger Nithya Raman, as Raman continued to build a decisive lead. Marissa Roy was up in the city attorney race by an almost 2-to-1margin, and was all but guaranteed to defeat McKinney.

Both are progressives likely to push back against Airbnb as it angles to expand its presence in the city ahead of the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.

“Their investments sure didn't pay off,” said Mike Bonin, a former L.A. City Council member and executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs.

The role of short-term rentals in L.A.’s future became a fault line in the mayoral campaign after Bass quietly put forward a proposal in her annual budget suggesting the city temporarily loosen regulations and allow Airbnb to prepay some of its taxes to help ease the city’s budget deficit.

Under current Los Angeles law, homeowners can use only their primary residence for short-term rentals. Airbnb wants the city to change its rules to allow homeowners to rent out second homes.

That proposal did not survive the budget process and is stuck in a City Council committee. But it didn’t stop Raman from jumping on Bass’ budget maneuver, calling it “a sweetheart deal that [Airbnb] spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying City Hall to get” at a press conference.

Raman, now the mayor-elect, has said she’s against rolling back restrictions for short-term rentals ahead of the Olympics and will increase enforcement of the city’s current rules.

As city attorney, Marissa Roy is also likely to take a strong stance against short-term rental platforms. She has put forward a policy pledging to align with tenants’ unions and community organizations, and will take over an ongoing lawsuit against Airbnb over alleged price gouging during the L.A. fires.

She could also take action against companies including Airbnb over illegal listings. A 2022 report found that nearly half of Airbnb and Vrbo listings were out of compliance with the city’s home-sharing ordinance.

“A lot of people don’t realize the L.A. city attorney has the extraordinary power to sue any business for anything unlawful, unfair or deceptive,” Roy told AirTalk in September.

LAist reached out to Roy requesting an interview and comment on her approach to Airbnb, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Nathan Rotman, Airbnb’s director of policy strategy for North America, said in an emailed statement in the lead-up to the election that the company backed candidates working toward “local jobs, thriving small businesses, strong neighborhood services, and a tourism economy that benefits not just big corporate hotels but also everyday Angelenos who share their homes to make ends meet.”

Rotman also said Airbnb was supporting efforts to expand short-term rentals in Los Angeles to make sure tourists had places to stay in the summer of 2028.

While the citywide races seem all but decided, the outcome of the two open City Council seats remains too close to call. Airbnb weighed in on those elections, too, spending more than $1 million to back groups supporting Tim Gaspar in Council District 3 and more than $300,000 to support campaigners for Jose Ugarte in Council District 9.

As of Thursday, Gaspar was in a dead heat with Barri Worth Girvan, both moderate Democrats battling to replace Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley.

In CD-9, where the winner will replace Councilmember Curren Price to represent South L.A., Ugarte maintained the lead with 53% of the vote. His opponent, Estuardo Mazariegos, who is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, had called for a moratorium on short-term rentals and campaigned by blasting Airbnb’s spending in the race.

On election night, Ugarte told LAist that he hadn’t made up his mind on the proposal still in City Council committee to allow more short-term rentals for the Olympics and planned to hold community meetings on the topic.

“The first thing I want to do is have those conversations with our community, sit down at the table, have Airbnb show up, and also have people that oppose Airbnb show up,” Ugarte said.

With Raman heading to the mayor’s office, Mike Bonin said Airbnb will now be looking to “count to 10” — the number needed in city council to override a mayoral veto.

Maloy Moore and Aaron Schrank contributed to this report.