Marion resident suing over AirBNB ban

King files lawsuit in response to ‘racially motivated’ ordinance amendment

ralphhardin@gmail.com A Marion resident whose use of his home as an AirBNB rental property issued a press release announcing his filing of a lawsuit against the city for violating his civil rights and targeting him with the ordinance that banned short-term rentals like those utilized by AirBNB renters “Local home owner Brenden King has filed a 24-page Federal lawsuit against the city of Marion, Arkansas, alleging that the Cities attempts to amend their local Zoning Ordinance in order to charge him criminally for hosting his home on the popular home sharing site AirBNB violates his Civil Liberties as well as Arkansas State law,” reads the release.

“King alleges that while the City has repeatedly threatened to charge him criminally, they have largely ignored other non-Asian hosts in the City even going so far as make special exceptions for them. Mr.

King has filed his lawsuit in the Federal Court, Eastern District of Arkansas and requested an injunction against the City to prevent them from enforcing the amended Ordinance.”

The release includes remarks made by King about his motivation for filing the suit. From the release: Brenden King was quoted as saying “The Courts have repeatedly stated a city can pass a law that effects just one person, however the City can’t pass a law that effects multiple people and choose to enforce it against just one person based on racial prejudice.”

Brenden has operated an AirBNB in Marion since October of 2018. He claims that his AirBNB is not the oldest AirBNB in the City, its not the busiest AirBNB, and it’s not the only AirBNB in Marion, Arkansas, however it is the only AirBNB operated by an Asian-American. He alleges he has text messages from the City telling him it was okay to operate an AirBNB in the City prior to City finding out he was Asian-American and it wasn’t until after they found out that they had an issue with him operating an AirBNB, going so far as to tell him to sell his house and move out of town. He also makes the allegation that while he has shut down his AirBNB and other hosts have not, the City officials have decided to ignore other AirBNB hosts and continue to threaten to charge him criminally.

AirBNB is an online home sharing site that allows people to book either rooms or whole houses from others. Last year in Memphis AirBNB generated over $600,000 alone while in the state of Arkansas it generated over a million dollars in revenue.

Several cities in Arkansas including Hot Springs and Fayetteville have their own agreements with AirBNB to collect taxes. AirBNB hosts in Arkansas hosted over 167,000 travelers in 2018.

According to the release, regarding the suit, “Brenden King seeks over $200,000 in real damages and punitive damages against the City of Marion, Arkansas, in what he claims was an effort between City officials to run him out of town.”