When the City Council of Nowy Orlean for the first time accepted the moratorium for brand new business licenses for brief -term rental (p.) In June 2023, the city claimed that this has a difficult position against the creation of apartments. But almost two years later and despite the recent wave of reforms, which passed in April 2025, reality on Earth tells one other story.
Corporations outside of the state, corresponding to Hosteeeva and Sonder, are still conducting business p. Throughout the city, using legal gaps and license renewals to keep up adhesion on the housing market. At the same time, illegal pages bloom in view-uncommon, uninterrupted and sometimes act outside of real estate, during which short-term rents are currently clearly prohibited.
Just just a few weeks ago, the council approved recent ordinances strengthening the enforcement of the law and an try and resolve violations.
Despite the severe efforts of the city, illegal p. Data from the starting of 2025 Reveals over 7,000 energetic Airbnb offers in Nowy Orleans, while only about 1350 has necessary non -commercial licenses of p. This gap suggests that hundreds of real estate still operate without authorization – submitting the enforcement of law, distorting the supply of housing and eroding public trust in the city’s regulatory framework.
The updated provisions include higher fines, clearer definitions of what’s a “commercial” p. And an prolonged enforcement mechanism that goals to scale back the gap between city law and the reality of universal incompatibility. But even now, in May 2025, City documents show Dozens of recent permits are still issued or renewed to corporate entities, and customary anecdotal evidence suggests that many STPs still work illegally, often listed under false names of host or LLC designed to avoid detection.
In the middle of the city, at 320 North Cortez Street, 4 units act as StrS by Hosteeva, Inc.-Firma based in Delaware with the Metairie office. All 4 licenses were renovated in July 2024, despite the incontrovertible fact that the moratorium has been in place for over a yr. These units are positioned in the mixed zone, which allows them to be technically qualified in accordance with the current rules, but the area is basically residential in terms of feeling and functions. This isn’t an isolated case; This is a component of a bigger pattern.
In the lower district of Garden, Uptown and Marigny, recent records of permits show that p. Are renewed or transferred between LLC without significant supervision. Meanwhile, local householders who try to acquire Stage licenses in apartments are subject to strict requirements, including release from a household, full -time residence and a maximum of one license per plot. The system effectively punishes the inhabitants, while rewarding corporate resources well, who know the right way to move on small print.
Sonder Hospitality USA Inc., one other company registered by Delaware based in San Francisco, still serves STR on over 30 properties throughout the city. According to public records, the name of the probe appears on licenses for buildings on the streets of Girod, Gravier, Magazine and Constance. The company was also related to many units in zone overlays originally intended for light business or hotel use.
The company’s long -term relations with the city’s government Nowy Orlean weren’t unnoticed. At the exhibition in 2020, Big Easy Magazine announced that Sonder executive director was appointed to supervise the law enforcement operation. Apparently he answered criticism, asking: “Who would stop me?” Before release after the arrest of Dui. This story helped to divulge to what extent the interests of the regulatory framework infiltrated, which were to revive them.
Even with the latest reforms of April 2025, the challenge of enforcement stays powerful. The City Council awarded more funds to the STR enforcement team and implemented a more severe reporting mechanism, but illegal p. Reports about renting entire houses without visible permits, marking or presence of the owner are common.
This growing gap between regulation and reality isn’t only a legal problem – it’s economical and social.
Housing prices are overshadowed by corporate
Each residential unit, which becomes a brief -term rent, removes the house from the long -term housing market. Restriction of supply-especially in districts with high popularity, corresponding to MID-CITY and Marigny-Prices-Prices for all others. Families are forced to compete not only with one another, but with international investors who pays in money, transfer local buyers and transform houses into night profit centers.
According to Inside AirbnbMost of the offers in Nowy Orleana are conducted by hosts with many real estate-compliant operators’ evidence on a business scale. A growing group of research, including the findings of Urban InstituteIt confirms that short -term rents increase each rents and houses prices, especially in cities with limited housing.
The effects are particularly sharp in historically black districts, during which cultural heritage and generational wealth are eroded by real estate speculation. The blocks that when hold families at the moment are occupied by guests. Local schools lose students. The identity of the neighborhood disappears. And residents who wish to live, work and lift families listed below are marginalized.
Path forward
The reforms of April 2025 are a step in the right direction, but they is not going to matter whether the corporate p. The city must stop allowing the extension for companies outside the state, and as an alternative prioritize the apartment that supports actual residents. The enforcement teams need the right to look at SHELL LLCS and offers on the Cross control with permits. Each license granted needs to be accompanied by real responsibility.
The query we face isn’t whether there needs to be short -term rents. This is who they should serve. Currently, the policy of New Orleans STR protects the profits of distant corporations greater than the stability of her people.
If we would like our districts to stay districts and never transform into privatized hotels with the names of the neighborhood, it is time to make a flat for people, not for wallets.
The fight for short-term rents reveals something bigger-as urban policy, although intention well, too often bend towards wealth and external interests. This is a component of a deeper pattern during which individuals who built New Orleans are pushed to the side, while profits and real estate flow to those that have never planned to remain.
