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Sunnyvale The Airbnb shooting demonstrates gaps in enforcing prohibitions on house parties and short-term rental rules.

'The same thing could happen in any other location'.

When hundreds of teenagers descended on the Sunnyvale home where 18-year-old Elias Elhania was shot and killed last week, the event violated nearly every short-term rental rule in the city.

The quiet Raynor Park single-story home was not registered with the city. The proprietor was not present. And, rather than the four adults allowed under Sunnyvale's short-term rental rules, at least 150 people showed up for a night dubbed "Turn Up Pt. 2" on Instagram.

The incident — less than two years after a mass shooting killed five young people at an Orinda Airbnb on Halloween — adds to a growing list of shootings at short-term rentals across the country. The apparent ease with which the party took place demonstrates the difficulties municipalities and home rental companies face in regulating short-term rentals. However, it raises questions about whether any of the key players is doing enough to prevent house parties from occurring — or devolving into violence.

“Where is the accountability here?” said Brian Aday, a professor in the hospitality and tourism management department at San Francisco State University. “Yes, Airbnb bears a certain amount of responsibility. Yes, both the city and individual homeowners bear responsibility. Who is responsible for enforcing them, and where do those boundaries exist?”

The issue is that no one is entirely certain. Sunnyvale, like a large number of other cities, requires Airbnb hosts to register with the city planning department and pay an annual tax. Additionally, bookings are limited to four guests, and hosts must be present during rentals. However, the ordinance is not enforced aggressively, and rentals on the Airbnb platform are not routinely compared to the city's registry of registered homes, Sunnyvale Director of Public Safety Phan Ngo said.

The city has registered 76 properties, Ngo said. Not one of them was the house on Navarro Drive where shots rang out on Aug. 7. According to Airbnb, the party was held without the host's consent. It is unknown who reserved the property.

“What happened recently in Sunnyvale exemplifies the issues that most cities face — you have someone operating their home as a short-term rental, they have it listed on a platform, but they are not registered with the city — and unfortunately, a homicide occurs, alerting us to the situation,” Ngo explained.

Since 2016, the city has investigated nearly 100 properties for possible illegal short-term rentals in response to complaints from neighbors about noise and cars constantly coming and going. Ngo stated that in the majority of those instances, the city sent a letter to the homeowner requesting compliance with the ordinance.

Residents, on the other hand, believe the city could do more.

“This is a systemic failure at every level,” said Murali Srinivasan, 60, president of the adjacent Ortega Park Neighborhood Association and a resident within walking distance of the shooting. “It could have been avoided. That is why I am enraged.”

The city has no way of knowing how many rentals are operating without permits without comparing rental listings on rental platforms to the city's list of registered homes. Additionally, it does not conduct spot checks on registered rentals due to “staffing constraints,” Ngo explained.

Airbnb's website does not indicate how many listings it has in the Sunnyvale area — depending on the search terms, anywhere between 30 and 300 homes appear. According to Ngo, the company does not share its list of local rentals with the city.

Airbnb has previously fought hard against local regulation of its business, including suing the city of San Francisco — where the company is headquartered — over a rule imposing fines on short-term rental platforms that do not register their listings. However, since resolving that case with the city in 2017, Airbnb has taken steps to enforce local regulations in larger markets, including the removal of unregistered homes from the platform.

However, smaller cities are frequently left to fend for themselves. Following the mass shooting in Orinda in 2019 — which also occurred at an unregistered rental — the city hired a third-party company to review Airbnb listings and compare them to registered hosts, Mayor Amy Worth said.

Since then, 38 properties have been identified for violations such as expired or missing permits. The city requires Airbnb to remove those listings within five days, which Worth said the company has followed.

“If they aren't going to enforce the agreement with us, we're in a pickle,” Worth explained. “It is critical that they comply quickly. You require immediate resolution of the issue.”

Following the Orinda shooting, CEO Brian Chesky announced that the company would ban party houses and “intensify our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and eliminate abusive host and guest behavior.”

“We must and will improve. This is intolerable,” Chesky tweeted.

Airbnb announced a slew of policy changes, including increased manual screening of "high-risk" reservations and a hotline for neighbors to call if they suspect nearby Airbnbs are hosting parties. Additionally, the platform prohibited individuals under the age of 25 with fewer than three positive reviews from booking entire homes, but only in their immediate area.

Regardless of these changes, violence at party houses has persisted on platforms such as Airbnb. While there is no comprehensive data on crime in short-term rental homes, a review of news reports revealed that over 100 shootings occurred at short-term rental properties in the United States and Canada over the last two years. At least four occurred in Northern California, including a July shooting in Monterey County that killed three people and injured three others, and another last year in Sacramento.