Atlanta is one of the many cities that has gotten serious about cracking down on short-term rentals.
Airbnbs and other short-term rental platforms became a go-to for investors during the pandemic as high home prices and rising interest rates made it unaffordable for regular homebuyers to enter the market.
Investors sought to maximize their returns by renting homes to growing numbers of vacationers, travel nurses, and remote workers. But as the calendar turns to 2023, there is more competition than ever for short-term rentals which will make it more difficult for investors who are looking to capitalize on the travel boom created by the pandemic.
But that hasn’t stopped a number of vacation rental owners and property managers from cashing in — in both the US and Canada — which has left some of their neighbors frustrated.
For many, it’s paying off. Airbnb reported the average US host’s income grew to over $13,800 in 2021 — an increase of 85% since 2019. By early 2022, there were a towering, industry-record 1.5 million listings available, according to the analytics site AirDNA.
Locals say the mounting presence of short-term rentals in their neighborhoods can lead to a variety of issues, from mundane annoyances (noisy parties) to substantial challenges (they make it more difficult for regular people to buy homes).
Cities and towns are caught in the middle, trying to balance these concerns with the revenue that vacationers bring in and the rights of property owners. From the beaches of California to the mountains of Vermont, communities are grappling with what the future of short-term rentals looks like.
Some local governments, like in Honolulu, have passed regulations like banning rental stays under 90 days, while others, like in Aspen, Colorado, have proposed new taxes on owners. Some cities have simply called timeout: Chattanooga, Tennessee, paused new applications for non-owner-occupied units as it considered short-term rentals’ future there.
An Airbnb spokesperson said in an emailed statement that “short-term rentals have been part of the fabric of popular vacation destinations such as these for decades, and our goal is to work with communities on balanced rules that support local tourism economies, provide certainty and clarity for Hosts, and address community concerns.” Airbnb also maintains a page on its site dubbed City Portal, which has resources for local governments.
Here are 23 cities in the US and Canada where residents and local politicians are fighting back against short-term rentals. They are presented in alphabetical order.
Alamosa, Colorado
The Great Sand Dune National Park and the nearby Sangre de Cristo mountains draw visitors to southern Colorado every year.
Dan Ballard/Getty Images
A four-hour drive south of Denver, Alamosa (population 10,000) is known for its proximity to Great Sand Dunes National Park, where visitors flock to see the tallest dunes in North America.
As of November, Alamosa had 24 short-term rentals registered with the city — and many more unregistered ones, the Alamosa Citizen reported.
In April, the Alamosa City Council unanimously passed an ordinance and two resolutions that were seen as a compromise between the interests of short-term-rental owners and frustrated residents.
Under the new regulations, short-term rentals that are available for less than 30 days can only be in certain types of dwellings, including single-family homes or one unit in a multifamily property. Renting units in multifamily buildings with more than four units is no longer allowed.
Short-term-rental owners will also have to obtain a license for an initial cost of $750 and a yearly renewal fee of $300. There is now a 5% cap on the number of short-term-rental licenses that will be issued per zone, or city neighborhood.
When a new short-term-rental license is issued, neighbors must be notified.
The Alamosa Citizen reported that area employers were struggling to recruit workers given “a tight and increasingly expensive housing market.”
“It is important to bring resolution to this item so business owners can predict what will be expected of them, neighborhoods will have some protections from nuisances, there is reasonable preservation of housing units for residents,” Heather Brooks, the Alamosa city manager, told the Valley Courier.
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado
VisionsofAmerica/Joe Sohm
Aspen voters approved a ballot measure in November that imposes a pair of new taxes on short-term and vacation rental properties. Ballot Issue 2A imposes a 5% tax on nightly room rates for short-term rentals with lodge-exempt permits and a 10% tax on investment properties.
The measures were approved by the local city council just days after Steamboat Springs, another popular Colorado resort town about three hours north of Aspen, passed a similar ordinance imposing new taxes on vacation rentals.
Aspen City Council member Rachel Richards told the Post Independent in November that the vote is a “re-affirmation that Aspen is a community, wants to be a community, and supports the community.”
There are 979 STRs in Aspen and they charge an average daily rate of $749, according to AirDNA. Aspen is also the most expensive city in Colorado to live in with an average home price of more than $3 million, according to Zillow.
Opponents of the measure have argued that it will depress tourism in one of Colorado’s best-known resort locations. In the summer of 2020, Aspen hospitality businesses saw their average daily rates increase by 29% year-over-year while their revenue per available room increased by nearly 99%, according to data from the Aspen Chamber of Commerce.
Atlanta, Georgia
Homes in Atlanta’s popular Midtown neighborhood.
novikat/Getty Images
In March 2021, Atlanta passed an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals.
It requires hosts to pay a $150 annual fee for a permit — and provide a copy of the property’s deed and a utility bill — to operate a rental property. The rentals are taxed at 8%, the same as hotels in Atlanta. A violation of the ordinance carries a $300 fine.
“I’m trying to stop the city from becoming a de facto hotel city,” a city councilman, Antonio Lewis, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The bill was approved by a 13-2 council vote to crack down on party houses by making the owner of the unit responsible for violations.
The law was scheduled to go into effect in April, allowing hosts to apply for permits the month prior.
However, according to an analysis of city-permitting data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, roughly 10% of the city’s 7,100 listings applied for permits two months after the application process opened. Less than 3% received permits.
The enforcement date has since been extended to September 6, according to the local NBC affiliate 11 Alive.
For now, all enforcement of the new rules will be complaint-driven and fall under the jurisdiction of the Atlanta police.
Burlington, Vermont
Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, is the downtown hub of the state’s most populous city.
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Vermont’s most populous city attracts more than just autumnal leaf-peepers, welcoming visitors year-round for its breweries, nature excursions, and cultural attractions.
For the past year, the city government was locked in a debate over the growth of short-term rentals. There are now between 200 to 250 short-term rentals in the 40,000-person city, according to the VTDigger, and the major concern for officials is whether short-term rentals take away housing stock from Burlington residents.
In February, the City Council passed an ordinance requiring short-term-rental owners to also live in the house as their primary residence. But the mayor vetoed the measure in March, saying it was too restrictive.
In April, the City Council, with new members sworn in, voted to consider a new set of rules and passed a brand-new ordinance in June, according to the local outlet Seven Days.
Short-term-rental owners must now live on the property, though there are some exceptions. Hosts will also pay an annual fee of up to $110 and a 9% tax on revenue from the rental, according to Seven Days.
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Riverboat cruises draw visitors to the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, where the city has paused all short-term-rental applications.
SeanPavonePhoto/Getty Images
The Chattanooga City Council has paused all applications for short-term rental that are not owner-occupied. The freeze will last the rest of 2022.
The city, with a riverfront and historic battlegrounds that attract tourists, has been debating the merits of its profitable rental industry. A local station, Channel 9 News, reported that Airbnb rentals brought in tax revenue of $3.5 million for the county in 2021.
But some residents are concerned about the ability of outside investors to reap rewards at the expense of Chattanooga locals.
“I’m not in favor of having investors that come in out of state, out of country even, and buy 10 to 15 pieces of property. They’re not invested in the community. They’re not invested in Chattanooga,” Donna Morgan, a local resident, told Channel 9.
There are 1,120 active short-term rentals, according to analytics site AirDNA.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is a resort town that is a 40-minute drive east of Spokane, Washington.
Alan Nick
City leaders in Coeur d’Alene, a resort town along the north edge of Idaho’s Harrison Slough, are working to limit the number of short term rentals in their town.
The city first passed laws concerning short term rentals in 2017, but is considering adding a slew of restrictions as the number of vacation rentals continues to grow. Coeur d’Alene’s General Services/Public Works Committee could amend the law to require off-street parking, increase fees for violating the ordinance, and limit the number of permits issued annually.
“We can’t have a thousand people rushing to get a permit when we might not allow that many,” Councilwoman Christie Wood told KREM 2 in September.
According to Airdna, there are about 790 active vacation rentals in Coeur d’Alene that charge an average daily rate of around $260. However, a large chunk of the rentals may be illegal as city officials told local news station KREM in November that only 453 vacation rental properties have been authorized.
The debate over vacation rentals in Coeur d’Alene comes at a time when the local housing market is shifting in favor of buyers. The average home value is down more than 6% to just under $500,000 as of November while the number of homes sold has dropped by more than 35% year-over-year, according to Redfin.
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.
Danny Lehman/ Getty Images
Local leaders on the Dallas City Plan Commission voted 9-4 on December 8 to recommend defining short-term rental properties as “lodging” under the city’s zoning code. The move could effectively prevent the properties from existing in Dallas’ single-family residential neighborhoods.
The Dallas City Council still needs to approve the recommendation before any enforcement actions can take place. The body could vote on the recommendation as early as January 11, 2023.
Commissioner Claire Stanard, one of the commission members who voted in favor of the proposal, told the Dallas Morning News that the proposal could help improve public safety. The commission heard several complaints from local residents about “party houses” with loud music and lots of cars during their debate.
“If my granddaughter is living next to a short-term rental or between them, is that really what my son-in-law bought a house to have as his next-door neighbor,” Standard said.
According to data from AirDNA, there are more than 5,400 short-term rentals in Dallas. The properties charge an average daily rate of $165 and they have a 60% occupancy rate.
Other commissioners weren’t as convinced that adding new regulations would help solve the problems that city residents are complaining about.
“I don’t have any faith that regulation is the sole solution to this problem,” Commissioner Melissa Kingston told the Dallas Morning News.
Other cities in Texas like Fort Worth and Arlington have already restricted vacation rental properties from their residential neighborhoods.
Dauphin Island, Alabama
Dauphin Island, Alabama sits on the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana border.
Barry Winiker
Another vacation destination that has imposed limitations on short term rental properties is Dauphin Island, Alabama, a small island off of the gulf coast in Pelican Bay.
In August, Dauphin Island’s Planning Commission finalized several STR restrictions in a rewrite of the town’s zoning code. The restrictions include limiting where short term rental properties can be located on the island, restricting the number of vehicles that can be parked at a rental property, and imposing a $75 annual fee for rental property owners.
The new limitations have put residents at odds with one another, according to a report by AL.com. Some claim the properties are improving the island by attracting tourists. Those who want to limit the number of short term rentals say the regulations are striking a balance between business interests and the local community.
“One group will say they are renting out (their house) and the next thing you know is you have eight cars parked all over the yards,” Dauphin Island City Councilman Earle Connell, who is also the local liaison for the planning commission, told AL.com in August. “To them, it’s a vacation. I understand that. But these people who do that don’t understand we have a community and neighborhood that is protected.”
There are 574 vacation rental homes in Dauphin Island, and they have a 68% occupancy rate, according to AirDNA.
Dillon, Colorado
Dillon, Colorado is a ski town near Breckenridge.
Brad McGinley
Dillon, Colorado’s city council is considering how to move forward with the town’s new short-term rental regulations after voters approved a slate of measures aimed at curtailing the properties in November.
Currently, city council members are debating a new ordinance to increase the annual fee charged to short-term rentals from $50 to $250 and include new application questions about how the rental unit will be used, according to a report by Summit Daily.
The ordinance comes after voters approved a pair of ballot questions that levy a 5% excise tax on short-term rentals and increased the city’s lodging tax from 2% to 6%.
The city – which has just over 1,000 full-time residents – is located in Summit County, home to some of Colorado’s favorite ski attractions such as the Breckenridge ski resort, Copper Mountain, and Grays Peak.
Overall, the city estimates that the new taxes could return approximately $3 million in annual tax revenue. Dillon can collect up to $4.5 million of this specific tax before triggering a tax refund under state law, town finance director Carri McDonnell told Steamboat Pilot & Today.
Voters approved the new taxes at a time when Dillon’s housing market is soaring. Dillon’s median home price has increased more than 30% over the last 12 months to $915,000, according to Redfin.
Frisco, Colorado
Frisco, Colorado is another ski town near Breckenridge.
Bloomberg Creative
Frisco, Colorado – a small town in central Colorado – capped the number of short term rental properties within its jurisdiction at 900, or 25% of the local housing stock, back in October.
The new regulations also require short term rental landlords to live at their property for at least 10 months out of the year but passed on the opportunity to create a new license for short-term rentals versus traditional rental properties, according to the Summit Daily.
The ordinance could also have a significant impact on tourism in Fisco, which is seen by locals as a cheap midway point between popular resort destinations like Breckenridge and Copper Mountain. Frisco currently levies a 5% excise tax on short term rentals and a 2% lodging tax.
“There are a lot of people very unhappy — as one person had mentioned — with having the short-term rentals next to them because some people might be very careful to who they rent to and how they monitor it, but others are not,” city councilmember Lisa Holenko told Summit Daily.
There are currently more than 1,700 STRs in Frisco, according to AirDNA. These properties charge an average daily rate of $299 and have an average occupancy rate of about 50%.
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky is home to the world-famous Kentucky Derby horse race.
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Popular tourist towns like Lexington, Kentucky — which is home to the annual Kentucky Derby — are starting to crack down on vacation rentals at a time when their housing markets are growing more competitive by the day.
Lexington’s Special Planning and Public Safety Committee is considering requiring Airbnb and Vrbo landlords in the area to acquire a special business license and imposing an additional transient tax on the properties, according to a report by WKYT.
Business owners like Heath Green, co-owner of the Kentucky Life Property Management Group, told the committee that the additional measures could decrease tourism, which is Kentucky’s economic bread and butter.
But the measure also comes at a time when real estate values in Lexington are outpacing the national average in terms of home price appreciation. Data from Redfin shows that Lexington’s median home price has increased 14.4% over the last year up to nearly $298,000 as of November 2022. That’s compared to the national average increase of just 2.6%, according to Redfin.
There are more than 1,200 active vacation rentals in Lexington that charge an average daily rate of $171 and have an occupancy rate of more than 50%, according to data from AirDNA.
Marco Island, Florida
Marco Island is a barrier island near Naples, Florida.
Marc Frei
Voters in Marco Island, Florida approved an ordinance on August 23 that created a registration program for short term rental properties and imposed several new restrictions. After months of debate, it was narrowly approved by the local city council in December.
To register a property, short term rental owners must hold a liability insurance policy of at least $1 million, provide city officials with a phone number that is answered 24-hours per day, and pay a $50 registration fee.
The ordinance was submitted by a group called Take Back Marco, a nonpartisan political action committee. Ed Issler, who leads Take Back Marco, told WINK that additional regulations are necessary because short term rental properties have “gotten out of control” on Marco Island. According to data from AirDNA, there are more than 2,400 short term rental properties, which charge an average daily rate of $329.
Vacation rental property owners have filed a lawsuit to prevent the ordinance from going into effect. David Di Pietro, an attorney representing the property owners, told Gulfshore Business in August that the ordinance is overly restrictive.
“Once this ordinance passes, until you receive the certificate from the city, which means you have to have an inspection from the fire department and the city, you can’t rent until that’s done,” Di Pietro said. “There are over 2,000 rentals and there’s nobody doing that job right now. So, we think that it’s going to be a ban for an indefinite amount of time.”
Montréal
The nighttime skyline of downtown Montréal.
Nicolas McComber/Getty Images
It’s not just Americans who oppose the barrage of short-term rentals.
Activists in Montréal, the largest city in Canada’s Quebec province, are trying to curb the wave of listings in order to preserve housing for residents.
“In recent years, we have lost thousands of apartments in Montréal to short-term rentals,” Cédric Dussault, the spokesperson for the Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenants Associations of Quebec, told CBC in a May interview.
Some restrictions are in place. Currently, in order to rent out a unit, the owner must obtain an establishment number and, in some cases, a classification certificate from Quebec’s tourism body. Since May 2020, it is required that operators put the establishment number on any advertisement or posting to rent space. The maximum stay is also capped at 31 days.
Montréal, however, has had a tough time enforcing these regulations.
CBC cited data from independent watchdog group Inside Airbnb stating that 11,639 Montréal Airbnbs are unlicensed. That’s about 95% of them, it estimated.
“The simple story is that the province put a very good set of rules in place, but has not put in any effort to make sure that anybody follows those rules,” David Wachsmuth, the Canada Research Chair in Urban Governance at McGill University, told CBC.
New York City, New York
There may be upwards of 10,000 short-term rentals operating illegally in New York City.
Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Mayor Eric Adams has moved to require Airbnb and Vrbo hosts to register their properties with the city, provide proof that the hosts live in the units with their guests, and show that the property meets local zoning and safety guidelines. The proposal will go into effect in January and hosts who fail to comply could face between $1,000 and $5,000 in penalties.
A report by NPR suggests the policy could remove as many as 10,000 short-term rentals that are operating in the city illegally.
“Currently as is, this is an entirely unregulated market and the consequences have been disastrous for New Yorkers,” New York State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani said during a hearing about the proposal in early December.
Data from AirDNA shows that there are more than 24,500 active short-term rentals in New York that charge an average daily rate of $234 and are about 75% occupied.
Oahu, Hawaii
The famous Waikiki Beach on the island of Oahu, which brings in nearly half of Hawaii’s annual visitors.
M Swiet Productions/Getty Images
In April, Honolulu’s mayor, Rick Blangiardi, signed a new law requiring a minimum stay of 90 days for short-term rentals in residential areas on the island of Oahu, in an attempt to curb the sprawl of vacation rentals in the city. Hawaii News Now reported that the city estimates there are between 10,000 to 14,000 short-term rentals in Oahu.
“This is a historic moment,” Blangiardi said at a press conference for the bill, which passed the City Council by a vote of 8-1.
The new law applies to the non-resort neighborhoods of Hawaii’s most popular island, Oahu, which is home to iconic attractions like Waikiki Beach and Pearl Harbor. Before the pandemic, the Hawaii Tourism Authority recorded over 6 million visitors to Oahu in 2019, which represented nearly half of all tourism spending for the state.
But local residents complain of tourists overrunning residential neighborhoods, taking away housing opportunities, and causing disturbances.
“Any economic benefits of opening up our residential areas to tourism are far outweighed by the negative impacts on our neighborhoods and local residents,” Oahu resident Thomas Cestare said at a City Council hearing, according to Hawaii News Now.
A group of short-term-rental owners sued the city in June, seeking an exemption for 30- to 90-day rentals that existed pre-ordinance, according to Courthouse News Service. In the suit, the Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance said thousands of owners previously operating legally would be “irreparably harmed” by the new 90-day minimum.
In September, the alliance asked for an injunction ahead of the ordinance’s planned effective date, October 23, according to Courthouse News Service. The presiding judge deferred the decision, but Courthouse reported the parties asked to meet with the judge before the deadline.
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is known for its many golf courses and beautiful weather during the winter months.
Robin Smith/Getty Images
Palm Springs, California, a small town that borders Mt. San Jacinto State Park in the southern part of the state, recently adopted an ordinance to limit the number of short term rentals in its jurisdiction to 20% of homes in residential neighborhoods, KESQ reported in November.
The new ordinance also reduced the number of days that a landlord can rent out their vacation rental property from 36 to 26. All existing permits plus the 300 applications the city received before October 17 will be grandfathered in, according to the report.
There are more than 4,100 active vacation rentals in the city, according to data from AirDNA. The properties charge an average daily rate of $500 and are about 63% occupied, the data shows.
For comparison, there are just 489 homes listed for sale in Palm Springs, according to Redfin, and the market commands a median home price of $605,000, a 14.4% increase when compared to November 2021. Zillow shows there are just 109 homes for rent in the city as well.
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is the home of major tech companies HP, VMware, SAP Labs, and others.
Shutterstock
One of California’s wealthiest cities is planning to limit the number of short-term rental properties in its jurisdiction as it struggles to add new housing units.
Palo Alto’s city council voted 5-2 on December 12 to explore creating new regulations on vacation rentals. The council is exploring regulations that range from requiring the properties to be owner-occupied to banning rentals of fewer than 30 days, Palo Alto Online reported.
Data from AirDNA shows that there are 610 short-term rentals in Palo Alto, which attract an average daily rate of $277 and have a 77% occupancy rate. For comparison, Zillow’s website shows there are just 179 available rental listings in Palo Alto.
“We have more units available through Airbnb through short-term rentals than we do as far as just available rental units in the city,” Palo Alto councilmember Greer Stone told Palo Alto Online. “That’s a concern. Presumably, every short-term rental unit on the market is potentially a housing unit that someone can be in long-term or permanently.”
Other council members noted that limiting short-term rentals in the area could greatly restrict the ability of families who come to town to visit relatives who are being treated at nearby Stanford Hospital.
“If we remove this option, we’re really going to be limiting the people who live here and the people who have a pretty legitimate need to come here,” said councilwoman Alison Cormack.
Park Township, Michigan
The shoreline of Lake Michigan.
iStock/Getty Images Plus
Starting October 1, 2023, local officials in Park Township, Michigan — which is located about 30 miles due west of Grand Rapids — will start enforcing a town rule that prohibits short-term rental properties in residential neighborhoods.
The ordinance has been on the books since 1974, the town’s board of trustees noted as they voted unanimously on the plan during their November meeting. The ordinance still allows short-term rentals in commercial zones just like hotels and motels.
During the meeting, the trustees offered a range of reasons why they support the ordinance, from keeping the peace to preserving the character of the resort town’s residential neighborhoods.
Data from AirDNA shows that there are 141 active vacation rental properties in Park Township compared to the 119 homes listed for sale and the 22 homes for rent that are listed on Zillow.
Portland, Maine
Sunset over Portland, Maine.
Mark Bibikow
State legislators in Portland, Maine are considering adding new restrictions on short-term rental properties like Airbnb and Vrbo after voters defeated a ballot initiative that sought to restrict how the properties can operate.
The initiative was submitted by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, a political organization, and approved by the local city council over the summer. It seeks to prohibit corporate owners of rental properties from owning short term rentals, prohibits evictions for the purpose of converting a property to a short term rental, and increases penalties for properties that don’t comply with the law. Voters defeated the initiative by a 55% to 45% margin.
Business owners and some employees formed a political action group called “Enough is Enough” to oppose the initiative, claiming that the Democratic Socialists are manipulating the city’s citizen initiated referendum process.
“My biggest issue is, trying to govern the city through referendum I think is a bad idea,” said Nick Mavodone, a former city council member and the chairman of the Enough is Enough campaign. “One thing I know is there are a lot of unintended consequences with everything that comes before an elected body, no matter how simple it seems.”
Now, lawmakers on the Joint Select Committee on Housing are poised to consider new regulations for short-term rentals when the legislature reconvenes in January 2023, according to the Portland Press Herald.
According to data from AirDNA, there are 766 short term rental properties in Portland and they have an occupancy rate of 74%. These properties are also charging an average daily rate of nearly $280, which is less than other popular destinations in Maine such as Bar Harbor.
Red Hook, New York
The Kingston–Rhinecliff Bridge in New York’s Hudson Valley.
OlegAlbinsky/Getty Images
Red Hook, a small town about two hours north of New York City in the bucolic Hudson Valley region, unanimously passed short-term-rental regulations at the end of 2021.
The new local laws limit the number of days a property can be rented out, establish rules for what type of renting is allowed, and require permits for hosting.
In districts that are heavily residential, only one-bedroom rentals are permitted and are limited to 120 days per year. In less densely residential areas, units with multiple bedrooms are allowed to be rented. They are not capped by a day limit.
No matter its size, the rule says, the home must be the primary residence of the host.
To give a sense of the number of short-term rentals in the broader area, a search for available Airbnbs for a weekend in June in and around Red Hook, NY, led to more than 300 listings.
Some Red Hook residents have voiced concerns about their town becoming overrun by weekenders and as a site for party houses.
“With nearly four years of committee and community discussion, input and changes, we hope we’ve been able to strike a balance between encouraging short-term rentals and protecting residential neighborhoods from conversion,” Robert McKeon, the Red Hook town supervisor, told the Poughkeepsie Journal.
Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa, California is a town 55 miles north of San Francisco.
Matt Dutcher
The Santa Rosa City Council voted on August 10 to limit the number of STRs in its jurisdiction to 198.
There are currently 581 short term rental properties in Santa Rosa, according to AirDNA, which means that nearly two-thirds of property owners won’t be able to continue renting their homes. The new limitations have also pitted neighbor against neighbor in the town that sits 55 miles north of San Francisco.
“My problem is I moved into a residential neighborhood and now I live next to a hotel,” resident Bernadette Burrell told the city council in August when they voted on the new cap.
The new cap on short term rentals comes as cities across California move to place restrictions on these properties. Other cities include Lake Tahoe in California’s popular wine country, Temecula, and Riverside.
Property owners say the new cap is just another example of city officials “harassing” them and trying to “solve a problem that doesn’t exist,” according to a report by CBS News.
Rental owners like Gary Lentz told CBS that they try to work collaboratively with neighbors who complain about noise and other issues with their properties. Still, Lentz feels the scrutiny against his business is unjustifiable.
“It’s almost unenforceable what these people are trying to do,” Lentz said.
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota, Florida is on the Gulf of Mexico.
krblokhin/Getty Images
The beachy city of Sarasota has become a hotbed for short-term-rental stays — especially in the early spring months.
With 4,923 active listings, AirDNA listed Sarasota as the No. 3 destination in the country for spring travel in 2022, based nights booked for March and April, behind Orlando and Phoenix. That’s notable, considering Sarasota’s population of 54,842 is a fraction of Orlando’s 307,573 residents and Phoenix’s 1,608,139 residents.
The city passed vacation-rental regulations in May 2021. Sarasota now requires a seven-day minimum for stays, and a 10-person maximum for single-family-home stays.
Some residents — like Caitlyn Marriott, who lives in nearby Venice — believe that isn’t enough and are advocating for further regulations.
“The county and some small towns tried to initiate some local ordinances to try to put a curb on the effects that it would have on neighbors, but not so much the community as a whole,” Marriott said.
Starting June 1, 2022, hosts are required to have a certificate of registration, which costs $250, from the city in order to rent out property for less than 30 days. Registration is not required for owner-occupied vacation rentals, condos, and rentals that exceed 30 days, according to the city.
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Mountains rise behind a street in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Shutterstock/Rachele A. Morlan
Steamboat Springs, an idyllic ski town in northwest Colorado, passed an ordinance in June that created a 9% tax on short-term rental properties to fund affordable housing developments.
The law was passed as wealthy out-of-towners continue to make up a majority of buyers in Colorado’s resort towns. In 2020, nearly two-thirds of homebuyers in Routt County — where Steamboat Springs is located — hailed from other counties and took home an average salary of approximately $150,000, according to a survey by the Colorado Association of Ski Towns.
For comparison, more than 60% of Routt County’s workforce earns less than $150,000 per year, the survey found. Meanwhile, the average home sales price in the county has jumped to nearly $2 million, a 33.7% increase since June 2021, according to data from the Colorado Association of Realtors (CAR).
“There is not a day goes by that I don’t hear from someone … that they have to move” because they can’t afford rent, Heather Sloop, Steamboat Springs’ city council president, told KUNC, an NPR affiliate station in northern Colorado. “It’s crushing our community.”
An economic impact study commissioned by Airbnb in May shows that there are more than 6,800 short-term rentals listed in Routt County compared to the county’s total housing inventory of 16,800 units.
Short-term rental and second-property owners pushed back against the ordinance, saying it could effectively tax them out of the town.
“New people became involved with the politics and the ski resorts and everything, and their goal was to make it a winter and summer destination,” Sara Gambino, a local real estate broker, told Steamboat Pilot & Today. “So, they’re kind of going back on all the work that went into making the county the destination that it is.”
Tybee Island, Georgia
Tybee Island is barrier island in the Atlantic Ocean about a 30-minute drive from downtown Savannah, Georgia.
Jeff Foster/500px/Getty Images
Tybee Island, Georgia, which sits about 20 miles southeast of Savannah along the South Carolina border, passed an ordinance in October that prohibits vacation and short-term rental properties from its residential neighborhoods.
The move comes about 16 months after the local city council initially instituted a moratorium on short term rental properties like Airbnb and Vrbo in August 2021, citing numerous complaints from local residents.
“I’ve seen my neighborhood change from all permanent residents to over half vacation rentals now,” Anna Butler, a Tybee resident since 1994, told Savannah Now in August. “I support the extension of the moratorium so that the new ordinance can be worked out in a fair and equitable manner.”
However, not everyone agrees with the ordinance. Tybee Alliance, a local coalition of business leaders, is suing Tybee Island to overturn the ordinance.
“We believe that the city disregarded their own city charter and state law in passing the ordinance by ignoring the basic rules by which a city government is required to provide written notice and written text of a law before they pass it so that the public can review, comment and provide feedback to their elected leaders,” Dusty Church, a member of Tybee Alliance, told local news station WTOC in December.
According to data from AirDNA, there are about 1,500 active short-term rentals on the island today. That’s compared to the island’s total population of about 3,000 full-time residents, according to census data.
