The City of Chicago has filed a lawsuit against Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) that alleges the short-term rental home company and one of its hosts improperly listed numerous properties.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court, claims real estate broker Milan Rubenstein and his company, Slumber Stay LLC, did not properly register his short-term rentals, but instead used a single nontransferable hotel license for multiple listings. Rubenstein and his company continued to rent those units after being issued nearly 200 violations in 2024 and 2025 that found them in violation of Chicago’s Shared Housing Ordinance.
The lawsuit accused Rubenstein trying to avoid detection “through re-listing, approximate locations, and fake names, among other tactics.” The complaint added that Airbnb profited from the allegedly unlawful rentals rather than working with the city to stop Rubenstein and his company.
“The city cannot determine from Airbnb’s provided data alone whether a given unit is being rented unlawfully,” the lawsuit said. “Because Airbnb does not provide exact address information either publicly on its platform or in its reports, the city cannot ensure that a listed license or registration number matches a licensed or registered property approved by the city.”
The city is seeking fines and fees, along with injunctive relief to prohibit Airbnb and Slumber Stay from renting illegal short-term units. Airbnb representatives said they had not seen the court filing while Rubenstein did not respond to requests for comment.
Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a statement that said, “Requiring short-term rental companies to follow the same rules as everyone else is critical to our work of building a safer, more affordable Chicago.”
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