New York City says goodbye to short-term rentals

If only my town would follow suit. Unfortunately the tax revenue generated by these STRs is more important than housing for locals.

travel4fun, that's a shame. Duluth has done away with short-term rentals, which i am happy about as there is a real housing shortage here. Of course, the surrounding areas in the county allow it, but at least not having them in the city provides some relief.

The city of Duluth says that the shortage is 3600 homes. There are currently about 300 airbnb listings in Duluth ... INCLUDING the back bedroom rentals. So, airbnb isn't the whole problem. Maybe this is a part of the problem: https://www.duluthmonitor.com/2023/07/09/faced-with-housing-shortage-city-rezones-land-to-limit-housing/

BUT: it is the prerogative of the citizens to rule as they believe best ... so, I neither support or reject .... I simply respect their decision. I would need to be a local to understand enough to do more than that.

Others, more in tune to the RS topic include a recent decision in Vienns to ban all rentals after 90 days other than spare bedrooms. Budapest, in most districts, put a moratorium on new licenses. And I suspect there are a lot more. Good subject to track.

A start

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/083115/top-cities-where-airbnb-legal-or-illegal.asp

There are currently about 300 airbnb listings in Duluth.

James, are you sure they are in Duluth? And by that I mean the city proper? I say I live in Duluth and if I had an Airbnb to rent, I would advertise it as being in Duluth, but I don't actually live within the city limits. I live in a township that uses the county's zoning laws.

And fwiw, the restrictions vary in that you can rent for 30 days or more with a separate house or apt (one you don't live in) or you can rent it for fewer days as long as you live on the property; i.e, renting an extra bedroom in your house. So I would imagine one of these two paragraphs applies to what you saw.

I don't really know. Airbnb says they have 316 listings in Duluth. That would include full properties and spare bedrooms. The city says they are short 3600 homes. Tends to make me think short term rentals are an easy target, but not the problem. But I could be wrong.

I am glad I stayed at an Airbnb in Manhattan earlier this year. It’s a superior stay to a hotel, especially the locations which are away from commercial areas.

I use Airbnb too much to welcome these types of actions.

My reading of the articles, and from what is being debated here in my city, is that it's not the number of housing units that's the problem. It's that people buying up properties to use as short-term rentals are driving up the price of real estate. Thus making it difficult for locals to find affordable housing.

It seems to me that a large number of short-term rentals means there're not enough hotel rooms. Thus, building more new hotels may be the solution, something problematic as well.

Stan, that's what happened in one town I know. They put a moratorium on new short term rentals, and in response corporations purchased entire apartment blocks and converted them to hotels. Geee, that's better.

I started renting apartments and houses to make travel as a family affordable, but I’m now hooked and would travel less often if restricted to hotels. I’ve come to feel that hotel travel is “travel lite,” insulated from the local culture and not embracing it, always separate and standing apart.

I’ve grown to love the supermarket and bakery stops, the wine around the kitchen table in the evening. Trying out new foods like kefir milk. Puzzled by why in both Prague and Budapest, paper and plastic bottles are recycled but not glass or cans/tins?

I've removed a post. Keep the subject matter about how this affects travel, please.

Tom mn , interesting, I feel the opposite! We rented a lot of apartments to be able to travel with 3 kids, but now that it’s just 2 of us, i prefer a hotel. We tend towards smaller choices, guest houses etc, and enjoy the interaction with the hosts. We still grocery shop to picnic etc

While i suspect that more often than not there isn't a lot of fact behind the arguments against short-term (airbnb) rentals; I also prefer hotels when I travel. The few short terms I have rented have been half Hotel.com and half AirBnb .... sort of preferred the arrangement with AirBnb a bit more.

Wow... that sucks. I know people who invested a lot in real estate because of Airbnb. I wonder who will be next? LA?

If the hotel industry weren’t lavishly financing the campaigns of politicians to criminalize AirBNBs, I might be more pleased. I personally never use Airbnbs. I can also understand how locals don’t want tourists going in and out of apartments on their floor at all hours of the night. Our building doesn’t allow Airbnb and if a tenant were caught renting out his or her apartment, he or she would be evicted.

I can also understand how locals don’t want tourists going in and out
of apartments on their floor at all hours of the night

That is exactly how you prevent "tourists going in and out of apartments on their floor at all hours of the night"

I live in an apartmrnt block with 3 (out of about 40) short term rental units. Rarely notice it. The businesses pay a higher condo fee and that's nice as it goes to building repairs. The tourists have also attracted a few nice restaurants to the neighborhood, and that's nice too. And thanks to all of that my unit is worth more and I appreciate that.