Student Corner: Regulating Short-term rentals in the Staycation Future?

<p>While COVID-19 is changing many facets of our world, one thing that seems unlikely to change is the proliferation of short-term rentals (e.g. Airbnb, VRBO, etc). With current interest in local travel outstripping 2019, pre-existing questions around if and how to regulate these businesses are only going to be more urgent. This post examines the current state of the short-term rental market and note the ways that COVID-19 and the economic downturn may, and may not, influence the conversations around short-term rentals for local governments.</p> <p>Short-term rentals (or STR) have proven a force to be reckoned with in the hospitality sector, upending the traditional hotel/motel product with an explosion in STRs. And while that upending has been a welcome phenomenon for travelers facing an ever-widening selection of vacation housing options at reduced prices[1], there has been an opposite reaction from housing advocates, economists, and local governments.</p> <p>The effects of short-term rentals on local housing markets have become a topic of significant study; studies have identified an increase in Airbnb listings as a causal mechanism driving long-term rents upwards, and that landlords are shifting their units away from long-term rental to short-term rentals. Concerns around the negative externalities of transient residents in more traditional residential neighborhoods have been widely cited. Many major cities have begun to regulate Airbnb type rentals, limiting STR to primary residences only, and requiring that these properties be registered and licensed. These concerns have begun to crop up in smaller communities as well, as evidenced by Asheville’s widely publicized struggles to regulate STR, [...]</p>