I’m a broker in Columbus, and Full disclosure, I run multiple short term rental units. My thoughts are that first and foremost are property owners rights should allow the property owner to decide what to do with the property, as long as it does not infringe on other’s rights.
There are a lot of Airbnb opporators who do not host responsibily, but I believe that it can be done. We have had a few problem guests in the past, but with proper vetting, expectation setting, and effective communication with guests, you can have consistently great guests. We are also in constant communication with the neighbors of our STR houses, and we work with them. Believe it or not we have many neighbors who kinda like having an Airbnb next door. We hire people from the neighborhood to mow the grass, and clean the houses. They can book it for their friends and family to stay for a discount. One has booked our house for their kids graduation open house, so they don't have to host it at their house (let our cleaning crew do the cleanup!).
Being a host, and interacting with the guests that book these Airbnb houses, I am realizing something that most people weighing in on this question around the world are not considering. The employment market is changing to be more short-term, and temporary. Over 60% of our business come from guests that are in town for work for a week, or a month, or several months. It is just a fact that more companies are switching to contract workers instead of hire for 30 years with a pension. These guests are the reason I believe STR houses should exist. These are real human beings, that have families, pets, that want to stay with them in a house, not a hotel. They want to be a part of a community, and not living out of a hotel by a freeway overpass for their 2 months in (Columbus, or Cleveland, or insert the name of your city).
I had a guest who was put on a 2 month assignment in Columbus by DSW, he was told it may turn into a full time, but it may not. His only options other than Airbnb’s were a 6 month lease, a 12 month lease, or an extended stay hotel room (and we all know how glorious those places are!). I had another’s guest on a 4 month assignment with a wife and kids in school back in Michigan. He was able to bring them down for weekends and holiday season and spend time with them in our house. They celebrated his sons birthday, and Christmas at our house (without the hotel staff bugging them, nor the awesome bleach-y hotel smell).
I understand that an Airbnb house can make for a bad neighbor if it is not run responsibly. I would agree that most hosts today don’t take the proper steps to ensure that their Airbnb is in line with what the community wants. But to ban them completely is the wrong move. They will then go underground, become even less compliant, and the city missis out on a lot of tax. Not to mention the drop in tourism, and a growing portion of the workforce that may end up deciding not to take that temporary assignment in your city because they would be limited to a hotel room as their only option.
Our city is considering ledgislation that would effectively ban non-owner-occupied STRs. I understand that in some vacation areas "neighborhoods have been gutted by Airbnb's" and lots of houses have converted to STR and it changes the feel of a community. However I have done the research here in Columbus. The city of Columbus there are 151,000 rental housing units. There are currently only 119 of those that are being used as STR full time, and only 450 total houses listed as "whole house available" on Airbnb. There is propaganda being put out by Big Hotel that is trying to convince the public that Airbnb is driving up the cost of rents, but the facts are that 119 rentals could not really be affecting the cost of the other 150,800 rental units in Columbus all that much. In other cities like NYC, and SF there are thousands of Airbnb's, and they do seem to be affecting the rental market, but before you go believing the lies put out by your local hotel lobby, look into the facts in your city.
