Hochatown Sues Airbnb Over Missing Tax Revenue: How GPS Errors Cost a Small Town Big Money

Hochatown filed a lawsuit this week that shines a light on a problem many small towns probably didn’t know they had. The issue is simple but costly: Airbnb’s tax collection system has been sending Hochatown’s vacation rental tax revenue to Broken Bow instead. The properties are physically located in Hochatown. The tax should go there. It doesn’t, because of GPS mapping errors, ZIP code mistakes, and jurisdictional mix-ups in Airbnb’s system.

For a town that generates over $22 million annually in tourism revenue, these misallocations add up to serious money. Hochatown’s attorney, Liz George, filed the lawsuit against Airbnb, Broken Bow, and the Oklahoma Tax Commission, seeking to recover the lost tax revenue and force Airbnb to fix its faulty mapping system going forward. One of the most important points Liz George made: Hochatown isn’t blaming Broken Bow. Both towns are victims of Airbnb’s technical failures, and the lawsuit is really about making a major corporation accountable for getting basic details right.

This lawsuit also reflects a broader pattern for Hochatown, which has already been battling federal agencies over ZIP code restoration. The town clearly isn’t willing to let errors—whether from tech companies or government agencies—go uncontested. The question now is whether the court will agree that Airbnb needs to clean up its system and pay back what Hochatown is owed. What do you think companies should owe communities when their mistakes cost them tax revenue?