A sweeping crackdown on unlicensed short-term rentals is now underway in New Orleans. As of August 1, 2025, platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo must verify that every listing in the city holds a valid 2025 permit—or face automatic removal.

New Orleans has been embroiled in a years-long battle over short-term rentals (STRs) and their impacts on housing affordability and neighborhood integrity. In response, the city enacted some of the strictest STR regulations in the U.S., including:

• One STR per square block, applied through a lottery system.

• Permits restricted to natural persons, excluding corporations, who must also live on-site full time.

• STRs banned in the French Quarter and heavily restricted in parts of the Historic Garden District.

For the first time, short-term rental platforms are being held directly responsible for enforcement. Starting this summer, platforms must ensure only licensed listings remain active—removing or disabling bookings for unpermitted properties. Violations can result in fines up to $1,000 per illegal listing per day.

Operators tracking listings estimate that over 1,000 listings have already been removed from Airbnb alone since enforcement began. In one notable example, listings in the Garden District dropped from 331 to 199—a 40% reduction.

Those monitoring the data observed that total New Orleans listings averaged about 7,750 in the first half of 2025. The city reports just 2,315 issued licenses (residential and commercial combined), with 3,447 pending.

Airbnb and several local hosts have pushed back legally, filing lawsuits claiming the regulations are overly punitive and infringe on property owner rights. They argue that platforms should not be turned into enforcers of municipal law and raise concerns about privacy from mandatory data-sharing with the city.

For residents, the sharp reduction in short-term rentals could open the door to more long-term housing options and may help stabilize rising rents in the city. Travelers, on the other hand, may notice a smaller supply of available properties, but the listings that remain should be safer, more transparent, and properly licensed. For neighborhoods, the new regulations are designed to preserve community character and reduce the strain of heavy tourist traffic in residential areas, helping restore balance between visitors and locals.

The bottom line, New Orleans is taking a hard stance on short-term rentals in the name of housing affordability and community preservation—making Airbnb and similar platforms active partners in enforcement. For currently listed properties, the path forward is clear: only permitted rentals will survive the purge. The outcome of ongoing legal disputes will determine how much this model will persist.