LA sues Airbnb guru over allegedly illegal short-term rental listings

Vlad Yurov built an online following by teaching people how to get into the short-term rental business. He touted himself as a “seven-figure Airbnb host” who could help others quit their day jobs and get into the industry. 

“Real estate made the most millionaires in history,” Yurov said on his website, Vladbnb.com. “And you can become one too.” 

But the Los Angeles-based entrepreneur was allegedly listing properties on Airbnb illegally, and providing false addresses to guests, according to a lawsuit filed by the City of Los Angeles earlier this month. 

“These defendants exacerbated our housing crisis by leasing at least 30 apartments and houses from their owners and illegally renting them out as short-term rentals,” L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto said in a statement, adding the fraud was committed on a “massive scale.” 

The city is suing Yurov, two business partners Anastasiia Medvedeva and Mari Meladze Nagi, and two associated businesses for violating the city’s short-term rental ordinance. LAist previously reported on the lawsuit. 

The ordinance blocks people from renting out rent-stabilized units for 30 consecutive days or less. In the city of Los Angeles, any rental unit built before October 1978 is rent-stabilized — rents can only be raised between 4 and 8 percent per year, based on the Consumer Price Index.

In court records, Yurov’s company Skysun Living denied the firm violated the short-term rental ordinance, and denied that the ordinance was even applicable. Skysun had asked a court to declare that the company had a “right to operate short-term rentals in the city of Los Angeles.” 

Yurov did not respond to a request for comment. His website, plus social media accounts, have been deactivated since the filing. 

Yurov started his short-term rental operation in 2018, according to court records. 

He never owned units, but leased them on a long-term basis, according to the city attorney’s office. Since 2020, the city alleges, Yurov and his businesses have advertised more than 30 units across the city — 10 of which fall under L.A.’s rent stabilization rules. 

One of the units was rented for 170 days over a six-month period last year, the lawsuit says, making it impossible that Yurov or his business partners lived there. 

Often, the apartments were advertised as located in desirable L.A. neighborhoods — on the water in Marina del Rey, for example. But, the city alleges, guests were then given new addresses once the bookings went through. 

For example, a city investigator booked a stay at 4201 Via Marina in Marina del Rey. After the booking went through, however, the “true” address was revealed to be 415 Washington Boulevard, a rent-stabilized building closer to Venice. 

The defendants rented “multiple units” at the building, called Marina Tower, “without the landlord’s consent and in violation of their leases’ prohibitions on subletting.”

Yurov and his businesses had a plan for getting around that, the city alleges. 

“Knowing that Marina Tower prohibited tenants from short-term renting their units on Airbnb, defendants’ instructions warn guests “Do not knock on the leasing office. They can cause you problems,” the city states in its complaint.