Movement to ban STR's

[Robin Searle]

I've been trying to follow what is happening on the STR front nationwide and would love to hear from BP members about what's happening in your particular city/location as far as restrictions? When we bought our property in Colorado Springs, I knew there was a chance we only had a window to do STR's in as I saw Nashville beginning the start of a ban. A year and a half ago, the city of Colorado Springs was extremely STR friendly. After we closed on our property, we heard about restrictions being discussed and I was very involved in that whole process. The permitting process and rules which were instituted at the start of this year seemed very fair and reasonable to people on both sides of the issue. Somehow in the past several months, all on our city council except for two members have decided they pretty much want to ban any further STR's other than owner/occupied despite the lack of any verifiable data showing any issues (no permits have been revoked and very, very few complaints to code enforcement). I do believe they will grandfather in those who currently have a permit. We had quite a bit of success at the start by banding together and forming an alliance of owners, but that influence doesn't seem to be helping at this point. I did see the Texas State Appeals Court just struck down the city of Austin's attempts at banning non-owner occupied which could mean more STR owners will turn to the legal system if they feel the city isn't treating the issue fairly. If you are an STR owner, I'd love to hear what your city is doing?

[Chris Mason]

The market for furnished rentals is a lot larger if you think of it as a "furnished rental" rather than as a "short term rental."

When a nurse is in town on a 3 month contract gig, where are they staying (healthcare is a big employer in my area)? When an actor is in town for a play that's going to be in rehearsals for a month then run for 2 months, where are they staying? That wedding planner has a short list of suggestions for where the bride and groom should stay, are you on that list as an option (near me is wine country => lots of weddings happen there)? XYZ Medium Sized Company takes on 3 unpaid interns per year but covers their lodging, who do you know at XYZ Medium Sized Company? Almost any industry or region you can name has stuff like this. Hotels dominate these things b/c they are markets that typical AirBnB hosts don't even know exist, meanwhile the hotels are building corporate B2B relationships (& not giving a cut of their action to AirBnB to boot).