Is Your Town Considering an Airbnb Ordinance?

BY MIKEL HUBBARD

FORMER HGTV PRODUCER | CO-FOUNDER, THE HOST CO |
OWNER, TIMES EIGHT PROPERTY & DESIGN


Towns everywhere are implementing short term rental ordinances to regulate the explosion of Airbnbs. In such a short time, it went from “weird having a stranger in your house” to big business with major hoteliers jumping to get in on the game. Is your town considering a short term rental ordinance? Here’s what to expect:

BUILDING CODES

They are probably going to want you to get your rental up to code. On a small scale, that means smoke detectors, visible street addresses and setting square footage minimums as to what’s considered a bedroom. In California, that seems to start at 70 square feet.

On a bigger scale, it can mean anything from proving all work done in the home has been permitted to having bedroom windows open wide enough for people to jump out in a fire to a fence around a pool if there isn’t one. Hotels have to be up to code, so expect that your home will need to be as well.

PARKING

Neighbors don’t want your guests taking all the street parking, so most short term rental ordinances will require you to limit the number of cars that park in your driveway and on the street to correlate with the number of guests your home sleeps. That’s often one car for every 2-4 people.

TRASH

You will probably need to prove you have regular trash pickup, so if you’ve been skimping and saving by hauling your trash off site, it might be time to have regular trash service in containers that are animal proof.

FIRE EXTINGUISHER

Be prepared to have a large fire extinguisher mounted on the wall of each floor of your home that’s visible. Often, municipalities want them to be mounted 3-5 feet off the ground or in a labeled cabinet. It’s not pretty, but it’s not supposed to be.

OWNER OCCUPIED

A big downer if you run a lucrative vacation rental business from another town can be the requirement that the property is owner occupied. They want to make sure you’re onsite at least half the year to ensure that guests are behaving. If you’re renting out the back guest house, this can be a non-issue. If you’ve got a remote estate that’s great for family reunions and bachelorette parties, this can mean putting it on the market.

LIMITATIONS ON NUMBER OF BOOKINGS

Many ordinances limit the number of rentals per year (up to 50 rental contracts) to keep the turnover from becoming a hotel full of nightly strangers. Some ordinances instead limit the number of days you can rent to protect those homeowners who rent out their place when they’re out of town but punish those owners who are operating a hotel full time.

Got any tips for people whose towns are about to impose ordinances? We’re definitely interested to hear what is being demanded of owners below in the comments!

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