Communities across the US and around the world are continuing to grapple with the damaging problems caused by Short-term rentals. This page contains a subset of articles that quickly provide an overview of the issues and problems. Sub-pages provide additional articles based on categories. Specific articles on Texas cities are provided on the Local Chapters pages.
KEY ARTICLES
‘So creepy’: Inside CNN’s investigation of Airbnb’s hidden camera problem. For these renters, hidden cameras at their Airbnbs have spiraled into nightmares. CNN’s Kyung Lah investigates how the company keeps its hidden camera problem quiet. (2024)
Cities Are Cracking Down on Short-Term Rentals. Here’s How. Booking platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo are increasingly faulted for limiting housing options for local residents and driving up rents. Vrbo, TripAdvisor and Booking.com didn’t respond when asked how they work with cities to enforce short-term rental regulations. (2024)
FL Gov Ron DeSantis has vetoed legislation that would have overridden several local regulations on short-term vacation rentals like Airbnb. “The effect of this provision will prevent virtually all local regulation of vacation rentals even though the vacation rental markets are far from uniform across the various regions of the state. … Going forward, I encourage the Florida Legislature and all key stakeholders to work together, with the understanding that vacation rentals should not be approached as a one-size-fits-all issue. (2024)
Short Term Rentals are Job Killers. Analysis shows a 4 bedroom STR creates only 0.2 jobs in housekeeping while 4 rooms in a legitimate hotel create 2 to 8 full-time jobs. And the STR housekeeper probably has a “gig” job with low earnings, no benefits and little stability. Bottom Line: compared to legitimate hotels, every bedroom in an STR kills about 1 hospitality job. (2024)
ENTREPRENEUR: I Made $1.4 Million in Profit Last Year as an Airbnb Superhost Working Just 2 Hours a Week (2024) Editor’s note: another article putting to rest the idea that Airbnb’s are ‘mom-and-pops’ just trying to keep their homes.
Airbnb Was Supposed to Save Capitalism. Instead, It Just Devolved Into Garbage. (2024)
How Wall Street Is Slowly Taking Over Airbnb. Airbnb used to be about crashing on a stranger's couch for cheap. Now Wall Street wants in. (2023)
What happened to Airbnb? Financially, the sharing economy darling is thriving, but guests, hosts, and cities have had enough. (2023)
Do you want a Marriott or Hyatt hotel next door to you in your residential neighborhood? Hyatt enters Airbnb territory with new vacation home booking platform. (2023)
Short-Term Rentals Cause a Long-Term Mess. TX Observer. (2023)
Airbnb has lost its way. Even the chief executive agrees. (2023)
Local Progress Policy Briefing on STRs. Core Pieces of a Short-Term Rental Policy: Limit STRs, Establish Mandatory Registration, Establish Taxes and Fees Structure, Establish Enforcement Mechanisms. (2023)
Here’s the damage done in Arizona when cities are not allowed to regulate and restrict STRs - one-size fits all preemption bills are bad for residents, voters and neighborhoods. (2023)
Airbnb Is Running Riot in Small-Town America. The company sent cities scrambling to clamp down on short-term rentals. Now resort towns are feeling the pinch. Notice the damage done in Arizona by their state pre-emption bill which prevents cities from regulating STRs. (2022)
Limit Short-Term Rentals to Improve Affordable Housing, Argues Philadelphia Fed CEO. Those who scoff at the linkage between the rise of short-term rentals and the affordable housing crisis are denying the obvious, although the dynamics are complex. (2022)
An Open Letter to Airbnb Users. Your family vacations are destroying other families. Written by Jared A. Brock is an award-winning biographer, PBS documentarian, and the cell-free founder of the popular futurist blog Surviving Tomorrow, where he provides thoughtful people with contrarian perspectives on the corporatist anti-culture. His writing has appeared in Esquire, The Guardian, Smithsonian, USA Today, and TIME Magazine. (2022)
The Long-Term Horizon For Short Term Rentals. Well written and researched article that delves into many of the challenges Airbnb has on its plate as it turn 13 years old such as illegal listings, crime & safety related concerns, its impact on housing markets, backlash from neighbors, the increase in local STR regulations & its struggle to achieve profitability. (2021)
Airbnb raises violent crime rates in cities as long-term residents are pushed out, says study. Researchers in the United States say there is a link between Airbnb rentals and violent crime in cities. Researchers found there was a positive correlation between higher penetration of Airbnb properties in an area – for example buildings containing multiple Airbnb lets – and a rise in violence. (2021)
Another study showing that STRs do have an impact on local house housing market prices and availability. See full study. (2021)
Father Says Airbnb Aid After Daughter’s Death Was Damage Control. Company provided money and support when a New York high school teacher was found unconscious in a rented villa in Mexico. Her father now says the family was caught up in an effort to avoid a ‘public relations nightmare.’ (2021) See also: Airbnb has secretive 'black box' team paying out $50 million a year to keep disaster stays out of press. See also Bloomberg: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away.
This Forbes article (2/21/2020) should be required reading for all city and state leaders. The influence of the so-called ‘Airbnb effect’ on local housing markets has grown into a significant cause for concern, particularly when looking at its impacts on housing stock, prices and communities. Economic Policy Institute: ‘While the introduction and expansion of Airbnb into cities around the world carries large potential economic benefits and costs, the costs to renters and local jurisdictions likely exceed the benefits to travellers and property owners.’Harvard Business Review: Airbnb is having a detrimental impact on housing stock as it encourages landlords to move their properties out from out of the long-term rental and for-sale markets and into the short-term rental market. (2020)
The study Short-Term Rentals: Data, Negotiation and Collaboration Strategies for Cities, shows excess difficulty in negotiations between cities and short term rental platforms. The majority of cities participating in the study have attempted to establish negotiations with the STR Platforms operating within their administrative limits. It becomes more flagrant when the results show that none of the cities have reached a satisfactory end as a result of their negotiation efforts. (2020)
Airbnb’s S-1 filing says in black & white they can’t guarantee the safety of hosts, guests or 3rd parties, and that they do not verify the identify of hosts or guests or other third-parties who might be present during a rental. (2020)
An International longitudinal study of Airbnb in popular US and world-wide cities reveals these destinations experienced reduced quality of life for residents, reduced housing availability and affordability, a change in the character of neighborhoods, additional competition for hospitality businesses, and potential safety risks for guests. (2020)
Airbnb is funding deregulation campaigns in cities around the world. Residents beware! Airbnb is on a mission to override your city’s longstanding residential zoning ordinances and commercialize your neighborhoods. See research report. (2021)
Airbnb Fights Its ‘Party House Problem’ - The New York Times. Noise. Damages. Safety questions. Airbnb is racing to address the risks posed by partying guests before it goes public. (2020)
Airbnb’s IPO Warning: Unhappy Neighbors Are Fighting Back - Wall Street Journal. Residents across the country have ratcheted up grass-roots efforts aimed at keeping authority over short-term rentals in the hands of towns and cities. (2020)
Airbnb opponents take fight to U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission ahead of IPO. Copy of letter here. As neighborhood, community and affordable housing organizations actively engaged in efforts to ameliorate the harmful, hazardous affects Airbnb and its operators bring to cities around the globe, we are keenly interested in seeing the Commission exercise its statutory authority to ensure that the corporation’s financial and risk assessments are accurate and complete. The need is particularly acute given that many of Airbnb’s public descriptions of its business model, practices, and operations are controversial and at odds with the findings of independent analysts. Indeed, many of the corporation’s pronouncements are often at odds with reality. (2020)
What Airbnb really does to a neighborhood. Key points included: Airbnbs have measureable impacts to affordable housing, and are linked to rising rents and changes in an area’s atmosphere; Neighborhood surveys showed 95% of neighbors had issues with STRs; These will become even more prevalent as Airbnb pushes to host one billion guests a year by 2028 – one billion guests per year, that’s a lot of new STRs. (2018)
[Airbnb has] been one of the most aggressive companies I’ve dealt with,” says Liz Krueger, a New York state senator… Airbnb will now sue over laws it opposes even when it’s unlikely to win: “They have deep pockets, so it doesn’t matter to them.” (2018)
What is a ‘Bundle of Rights?’ A bundle of rights is a set of legal rights afforded to the real estate title holder. It can include the right of possession, right of control, right of exclusion, right of enjoyment and right of disposition. Real estate ownership carries with it a complex set of rights, and the bundle of rights concept has traditionally been the way in which those rights are assigned.