SF Unions Call for Boycott of Airbnb as It Tries to Claw Back $120 Million in Taxes

San Francisco labor unions, advocacy groups and elected officials on Wednesday called for a boycott of Airbnb over the short-term rental company’s legal battle seeking a massive business tax refund from the city.

The boycott campaign is the latest escalation in an effort to get Airbnb to drop the lawsuit it filed late last year, which aims to claw back $120 million that the company alleges it overpaid in business taxes.

Organized labor representatives and some Democrats have blamed the lawsuit, along with similar litigation from other major San Francisco tech companies, for compounding a budget crunch that saw some of the city’s most significant spending cuts in years.

“When a city that has given them so much now is facing a budget deficit of $800 million in the next two fiscal years, what did Airbnb do? They filed lawsuits against us so they don’t have to pay their fair share,” San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan said, speaking in front of the company’s headquarters at a Wednesday press conference announcing the boycott campaign.

Boycott supporters say two-thirds of the money Airbnb wants returned is now tied up while the lawsuit plays out, meaning it can’t be used on city services and leaves San Francisco with less leeway to fill gaps left by President Trump’s funding cuts.

“Because of your lawsuits, you’re further cutting our services like Muni, like libraries,” Chan said. “But most importantly, as we’re fighting Trump, we need money to safeguard the Medicaid cuts that [are] going to hurt our families. We need to safeguard those food security programs that many of our families desperately need.”

Organizers are asking residents and visitors not to book rentals through Airbnb and, if they run a rental property, to remove it from the website.

Speakers at Wednesday’s boycott announcement also took the opportunity to call out Airbnb for past misdeeds.

The company and other short-term rental platforms have come under intense criticism for contributing to the housing affordability crisis and operating on the fringes of regulation in many cities. Following complaints from residents and others, San Francisco began regulating short-term rentals in 2015.

“Ten and 15 years ago, there were a lot of companies that were coming in — technology companies that were disrupting marketplaces — and many of them were pursuing a business model of ‘ask forgiveness, not permission,’” Supervisor Matt Dorsey said Wednesday. “The worst offender was Airbnb.”

Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, the Housing Rights Committee’s director of policy and campaigns, said she also remembered Airbnb’s early impact on the city’s housing market.

“I over and over saw apartment after apartment evicted — long-term tenants in every neighborhood of this city whose landlords kicked them out because they could, then Airbnb’d the properties,” Sherburn-Zimmer said.

Organizers said they’re also boycotting the company due to Airbnb cofounder and board member Joe Gebbia’s ties to the Trump administration. Gebbia announced in February that he had joined the DOGE team led by Elon Musk that advocated for the mass firings of federal employees.

Airbnb said Gebbia left his operating role at the company in 2022, but he remains on the company’s board of directors.

Airbnb declined to comment on its ongoing litigation against San Francisco, but in a statement, the company said it pays its taxes.

“In 2024, the company contributed more than $3.8 billion in total tax revenue to the state alone,” Airbnb wrote. “We will continue to work closely with local leaders to work towards the post-pandemic revitalization of the city we call home.”

According to the company’s lawsuit, the tax error stems from city officials misclassifying the type of business Airbnb is. The city denied Airbnb’s appeal of the classification.

“In every tax matter, we strive to make sure taxes are levied correctly,” the San Francisco city attorney’s office wrote in a statement. “We work diligently to protect the City’s resources and ensure all taxpayers are following the law. This case is no different.”

Representatives for Airbnb and San Francisco met this week to discuss a possible trial schedule, with the trial currently set to begin in February.

Airbnb pointed out that they’re also not the only company suing to get back what they say were overpaid taxes.

Microsoft, Lyft and others filed similar lawsuits in the last year, saying San Francisco’s complicated tax laws resulted in incorrectly calculated business taxes.

Last November, San Francisco politicians and business leaders successfully pushed for the passage of Proposition M, which reworked and in some cases simplified the city’s tax codes.

Groups, including the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, say those changes benefitted major companies like Airbnb and Google, making the ongoing effort to recover some tax dollars more egregious.

“Airbnb is a guest and they must operate accordingly. They get to be in our city, they get to use our resources,” SEIU Local 1021 President Theresa Rutherford said. “And if they are not going to pay their fair share, then like all bad guests, you kick them out.”