The popular online room booking service Airbnb is taking issue with research funded by the American Hotel & Lodging Association alleging the company is not paying taxes in many major cities, Business Travel News reported Thursday.

AH&LA has so far commissioned two studies by Penn State researchers finding that many Airbnb operators are not paying local occupancy taxes despite the fact they rent out rooms for much of the year. The latest study found that in the Los Angeles region alone, Airbnb operators owed more than $41 million in taxes for rentals occurring from October 2014 to October 2015.

Airbnb defended its business model in an April 4 letter addressed to AH&LA CEO Katherine Lugar. The company said it has worked with local governments across the U.S. to collect the taxes owned to them.

"In an effort to advance our commitment to pay hotel taxes, we have repeatedly offered to collect applicable hotel taxes on behalf of hosts in New York and Los Angeles, our two largest U.S. markets, dating back to 2014, as well as in any other municipality willing to work with us on the tax front," said Christopher Lehane, head of global public policy for Airbnb. "Had we been able to collect and remit taxes in New York and Los Angeles, we would have sent a combined $63 million in new revenue to two cities alone last year."

AH&LA maintains that Airbnb operators should be required to play by the same rules as traditional hotel operators, and that means paying taxes.

"In contrast to Airbnb, these properties do not pick and choose which laws they follow or when they pay taxes or how much they are willing to pay," said Vanessa Sinders, head of government affaris for the association. http://bit.ly/1SEJMoe

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