Short-Term Rentals: A View From The Other Side And a Way Forward
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By Lisa Sievers
Guest Columnist
No one wants to live next to a “party house” including short term rental operators. That said, please entertain an alternate view of short-term rentals.
We own and operate two short-term rentals in East Dallas. We are five-star “Superhosts” with over 780 reviews who meet guests personally and oversee our properties with commitment and respect for our neighbors. We don’t allow parties. There are hundreds of us “good apples” in the Dallas area.
With all of the strong opinions right now, people forget the good things about short-term rentals and why they exist in the first place: They allow guests to stay closer to the areas they like and where their friends and family are located, they provide a safe and cleanly staycation or work from home alternative, and they allow guests to experience neighborhoods by frequenting local restaurants and shops. Each is a unique setting and provides a unique experience.
Short-term rentals are popular and to many, a preferred place to stay. So, how many party houses are we talking about anyway? Assistant Dallas City Manager Joey Zapata had noted about 40 complaints of specific houses from October to December of 2020. That is out of 3,125 active short-term rentals according to airDNA.co as of October 28, 2020. Are we really talking about 1.5 percent here?
So, how to move forward?
If you boil the “party house” problem down, the guest or the host should be suspended from the short-term rental platform (such as VRBO and Airbnb). Airbnb has a link on its homepage to a 24/7 neighborhood support hotline, as well as an email complaint window. VRBO has a property complaint email window also.
The platforms are trying to self-regulate. As of September 29, 2020, ten “party houses” in Dallas had been suspended by the Airbnb platform and Airbnb has taken legal action against some guests nationally. Let’s start here.
Second, the City of Dallas does have existing ordinances for noise, trash, and occupancy with enforcement for all. The 311 program exists for these issues and has a portal for short-term rental survey. A thought: What is the city’s process for disciplining a bad landlord of a rental property? Can the same process be used for short-term rentals? Let’s go there next.
Everyone knows where the party houses are located — even some Dallas City Council members. If we can beef up enforcement, it becomes cost-prohibitive for the party house owner, and legal channels are observed. It may be a slow process, but it will work.
The Texas Supreme Court has come out in favor of property rights and have disallowed some of the more restrictive laws and covenants cities and HOAs have enacted. Let’s do this right and legally.
Third, the City of Dallas needs to allow the platforms to collect taxes and send the money directly to them. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the City may potentially add $4-plus million to their coffers per year. The huge uptick in tax collection should enable the city to add a few more inspectors specifically to deal with the party house issue.
In conclusion, yes, “party houses” need to be shut down. We all want this. The larger question is why do we need a volume of new ordinances/regulations and a new level of bureaucracy when it appears that the problem can be resolved by leveraging the short-term rental platforms and using existing ordinances and existing personnel for enforcement?
Regardless of how we move forward, let’s be careful to craft rules that are fair for everyone, including the 98.5 percent of responsible short-term rental operators who don’t allow “party houses.”
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Wow! What a sensible piece. It’s wild how few solution-based articles we see in the media like this. This article really puts things in perspective and shows how we need to look at the laws already in place. Once someone believes that all STRs are bad or that every STR is a party house, it’s hard to look at STRs objectively with a balanced approach to regulations. This article did just that. Great work.
THIS IS AIRBNB’s COMMITMENT TO CITIES IN STARK, TERRIFYING TERMS….
…Airbnb’s IPO document filed with SEC, November 16, 2020, page 45:
“We have no control over or ability to predict the actions of our users and other third parties, such as neighbors or invitees, either during the guest’s stay, experience, or otherwise, and therefore, we cannot guarantee the safety of our hosts, guests, and third parties. The actions of hosts, guests, and other third parties have resulted and can further result in fatalities, injuries, other bodily harm, fraud, invasion of privacy, property damage, discrimination, brand and reputational damage, which have created and could continue to create potential legal or other substantial liabilities for us. We do not verify the identity of all of our hosts and guests nor do we verify or screen third parties who may be present during a reservation made through our platform.”
It is unrealistic to think that Airbnb or any platform can monitor a guest’s actions…you can’t even do that in your own house!
This from Airbnb:
Airbnb Announces Global Party Ban
By Airbnb · August 20, 2020
· Policy
Today we’re announcing a global ban on all parties and events at Airbnb listings, including a cap on occupancy at 16. This party ban applies to all future bookings on Airbnb and it will remain in effect indefinitely until further notice.
How we got here
Unauthorized parties have always been prohibited at Airbnb listings. In fact 73 percent of our listings globally already ban parties in their House Rules, and the vast majority of our guests behave in manners that show respect for House Rules and for neighbors. We’ve historically allowed hosts to use their best judgment and authorize small parties – such as baby showers or birthday parties – if they’re appropriate for their home and their neighborhood.
Last year, we began imposing much stricter limits – starting with a global ban on “party houses” – meaning, listings that create persistent neighborhood nuisance. We also launched a 24/7 neighborhood support hotline in the U.S. and Canada – with plans for global expansion – to communicate directly with neighbors and help us effectively enforce the party house ban. This complemented new initiatives to stop unauthorized parties – such as manual review of high-risk reservations, as well as restrictions on allowing guests under the age of 25 without a history of positive reviews to book entire home listings locally.
When the pandemic was declared, and social distancing became an important element in promoting public health and responsible travel, we updated our policies. We started by removing both the “event-friendly” search filter from our platform as well as “parties and events allowed” House Rules from any event-friendly listings. Most importantly, we introduced a new policy requiring all users to adhere to local COVID-19 public health mandates. At the time, most local governments were imposing strict limits on gatherings, which effectively created a form-fitting, patchwork ban on parties and events.
However, in many large jurisdictions, public health mandates on gatherings have changed – and in some places swung back and forth in response to the changing rates of COVID cases – as have regulations on bars, clubs and pubs. Some have chosen to take bar and club behavior to homes, sometimes rented through our platform. We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible – we do not want that type of business, and anyone engaged in or allowing that behavior does not belong on our platform.
Based on these developments, instituting a global ban on parties and events is in the best interest of public health.
Here’s how the ban will work
Parties are now prohibited on all future bookings
Occupancy at Airbnb listings will be capped at 16 people. This is primarily relevant to larger homes that we previously allowed to list as able to accommodate 16+ people.
We are currently scoping a potential exception process for specialty and traditional hospitality venues (i.e. boutique hotels)
Guests will be informed about Airbnb’s party rules and informed that they may be legally pursued by Airbnb if they violate our policy. This work is currently being operationalized and will be rolled out in the near future.
Here’s what’s next
We are currently in the process of communicating this new policy to our global community. We are partners with our hosts on this important issue and we both feel the pain when an unauthorized party occurs during an Airbnb reservation. We believe having a simpler, global policy will allow us to better support the vast majority of hosts who already ban parties in their homes.
We acknowledge that there will always be those who attempt to break the rules. This is why we’ve implemented steep consequences for hosts or guests who try to skirt them – including bans from our community and even legal action.
We also understand that 16 is not a magic number, and issues can occur with groups of any size. To be clear, we are not sanctioning smaller gatherings with this policy and all community members are expected to comply with local health restrictions on gatherings. We are capping guests at 16 in these large properties as one step amongst several, all designed to mitigate any efforts to misuse an Airbnb for a party. We will continue to enforce our party rules against groups of any size and will be taking action both on guests and listings if we receive reports from neighbors.
Airbnb’s “party house bans” are nothing but meaningless PR spin that do nothing to actually proactively prevent parties. Airbnb announced a “party house ban” in Nov 2019 after a mass shooting at an Orinda, CA Airbnb (1 of 161 reported shootings that have occurred at a short term rental since May of 2019. 2 of those STR shootings occurred IN DALLAS). Despite the fact Airbnb had already supposedly “banned” party houses, they issued a new party house ban in Aug 2020. However, if you read the fine print of the new Aug 2020 policy, it states that “disruptive parties” are banned “until further notice” – which means disruptive parties were once cool with Airbnb and apparently will be again at some point in the future. ♀️
The idea that we should eliminate the protections provided to residents by residential zoning & trust the profit-driven STR industry to “self-regulate” is a joke.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2704/party-and-events-policy
I tend to agree that Party House bans by ABNB are pointless. I’m sure they have anti-theft rules too. Public nuisances, just like theft, should be handled by the police. If my neighbors throw a party (even if they are not ABNB), the police will come stop it. All of us have been to college parties, so we know how this works.
I love ABNB. It gave my family a way to visit and stay nearby even when we were in a small house. My parents were definitely not party animals and the ABNB allowed them to be near my kids. It appears that you are judging 100% of a industry off 1% causing the problems. It also appears that most hosts agree with you. What’s odd is that people are fighting when they actually agree.
Is this a joke? Airbnb promised in October of 2019 after a mass murder at one of their listings to ban party houses. With each new shooting or super spreader party publicized, Chesky and the idiots that run Airbnb come with another press release about how they are really really going to ban party houses this time. If you believe Airbnb will actually do something about this then you really need to familiarize yourself with that company. As is the case with most STR operators they want to use our communities as a commodity fro personal gain. All while dismissing our concerns.
Ms. Sievers doesn’t seem to understand the TX Supreme Court’s decision in Tarr v Timberwood. It said NOTHING about cities not being able to zone & regulate #STRs & said HOA’s absolutely CAN prohibit #STRs as long as the by-laws are unambiguous (page 6 of the slip opinion).
Also, the voluntary tax collection agreements (VCA’s) she endorses are a bad deal for cities. Airbnb will only provide anonymized aggregate data – impossible to audit & worthless for enforcement purposes & they require cities to waive their right to go after hosts for unpaid back HOT taxes.
Right now MuniRevs, whom the City has retained to collect taxes for STRS, has been able to collect taxes from about 1/3 of the total number of STRs in the City…. what’s a bad deal about allowing the platforms to send several millions of dollars directly to the City from ALL STRs?
Recent STR industry data shows 55% of short term rental revenue is coming thru direct bookings. If the city will still need an alternative process to collect that HOT tax, why sign a VCA & give up the right to go after back HOT tax (something city staff has stated they want to do) in exchange for worthless anonymized aggregate data that can’t be audited or used to identify unregistered/ illegal STRs?
https://vrmintel.com/vrbo-is-performing-better-than-airbnb-for-vacation-rental-managers-but-direct-booking-still-number-one-source-of-revenue-by-a-lot/
It’s NOT millions of dollars. And two-thirds of the STR operators are NOT paying their taxes. The tax dollars do not benefit homeowners, they are spent on promoting more tourism, which puts more money in the pockets of STR operators. We taxpayers are paying for the city staff to enforce its code and that is not happening. That’s why a zoning change is needed and that’s the worst fear of STR operators and the platforms. Other cities have done this and STRs are operating just fine in commercial areas where they belong.
I appreciate the solutions she offers, which would help discourage bad apples, while not punishing responsible short term rental owners.
It’s a shame that a few irresponsible owners and users are causing so many issues, but let’s not paint the entire platform with a negative brush.
I have 2 rental units and have never once had a guest throw a party or disturb my neighbors. 99% of my guests are moving to Dallas and stay for 1-2 months while looking for a house or apartment. I have really enjoyed getting to know my guests and welcoming them to Dallas, and I would really miss losing the ability to host. During the pandemic I’ve also had travel nurses and doctors who needed alternative housing than they may have otherwise used.
If 99% of your guests are staying with you for 1-2 months, then you really don’t have anything to worry about. A short term rental is generally defined as a rental of 30 days or less. In fact, under the Texas Tax Code, stays of over 30 days at hotels & other commercial lodging businesses are not required to pay HOT tax due to the “permanent resident exemption”.
https://texaslodging.com/the-hotel-occupancy-tax-permanent-resident-exemption/
After living next to an STR Hotel, the only person who benefits is the STR Hotel Operator. The city has FAILED to regulate STRs through code enforcement and the current proposals by the STR Task Force do not affirm our hard fought zoning laws by banning STR Hotels in neighborhoods. The STR Hotel Owner makes a profit at the expense of the neighbors and the children who live nearby. It is not right.
No doubt Lisa is a lovely host. But like so many hosts, she doesn’t seem to fully understand the issue. While party houses ARE a problem, the issue is bigger than that. Residential homeowners don’t want to rely on nuisance laws instead of zoning laws. They want neighbors in RESIDENTIAL neighborhoods to be RESIDENTS, not commercial businesses with a revolving door of tourists. We do not oppose STRs in general, we want them restricted from single-family-ZONED neighborhoods. It is a land use issue. STR operators seem to be saying it’s ok to take away the property rights of people who bought homes zoned for single houses. This is destroying neighborhoods all over Dallas. Take a close look at just who is benefitting. It is not the city or neighborhoods.
All interesting points. The citizens and leadership in Dallas should remember that most Short-term/Mid-term rental owners are already held to existing City of Dallas regulations for occupancy, trash, noise etc. The same standard applies to long term landlords who most of would agree have a harder time keeping long term tenants compliant than STR owners have keeping guests complaint to city codes.
Most STR hosts, especially those recognized as “Super Hosts” with excellent ratings are already paying taxes to the City of Dallas voluntarily. This tax is verified through str site calendars etc. Short term rentals add a significant increase in tourist traffic and revenue to the city. People want to come and stay close to their relatives and oftentimes do not want to stay in a high rise hotel (especially during the pandemic). Short-term rentals, well-run, provide this option. “Party houses”, the owners who run them, and the guests who stay in them, are very small fraction of the properties on short-term rental sites. They should be gone! I agree. The city of Dallas should focus on enforcement of the existing lodging rules in the city, including long-term rental properties and hotels, which is available via Dallas 311. They should also focus on the party houses hosts and guests and eliminate these. If done so correctly a majority of the neighborhood woes regarding short-term rentals would be eliminated. And then we would have a system that adds revenue, to the city directly via lodging tax, indirectly via tourist dollars (boom to local businesses of all types), as well as beautification of homes to the community Dallas wide. Best of luck to all.
Short-term rentals are hotels and have no place being in single-family zoned areas. These STRs shift the burden of responsibilities to everyone but the owners and provide benefits to the owners at the expense of the neighbors.
I kind of agree with Olive Talley above. But, shouldn’t it be a bit of a moot point if a residentially zoned neighborhood is single family or multi-family? Are there that many multi-family residents (owners or leasers) who would love to have their next door apartment/condo operated as a hotel?
By no means I have any extensive understanding of zoning, but wouldn’t the issue be (at least partially) resolved, if there was a separate zoning for STR, and the people who love STR bought homes and operated there?
A reality check is needed here. When an owner lives out of state and/or owns half a dozen or more properties, the burden falls on the neighbors to preserve the integrity of the neighborhood. 311 cannot respond to complaints in a timely manner, especially at night or on weekends, when the issues usually occur. The city does not have the will to enforce its own zoning and hides behind the need to clarify “definitions.” The majority of STRs in Dallas operate unlawfully and are not paying HOTs. 911 is being burdened with nuisance calls, which impact public safety. Neighbors are left with vacant properties, an invitation to crime. STRs do not belong in single family neighborhoods where neighbors depend on neighbors for their safety, wellbeing and enjoyment of their property.
Thank you for this, Lisa! I retired from corporate life to manage my properties in Dallas: short-term rental at my home in the M-Streets, independent home that’s a short-term rental in Lower Greenville, and long-term rental in southern Dallas. By far, the worst tenants for the neighbors have been some of my long-term renters, where they stay a nuisance until the lease runs out after a year. Some people have attempted to sneak parties in my Lower Greenville home, but security cameras have helped shut those down. They’re out of the house before the evening has begun. My neighbors are so impressed – and happy about the quality of most people they see come and go that they have booked the house themselves for extended family over holidays. One neighbor who was most skeptical has even asked me to help her figure out how to convert a section of her house into a short-term rental so she can stay in it during her retirement.
I love meeting people from all over the world. My 2 kids were exposed to this (I’ve been an Airbnb host for over 10 years, and lived internationally before that), and their lives are so much richer for it. They are now involved with helping international students, refugees, and have thrived in postings to other countries.
I always stay in an AIRBNB when I visit my mother, who is in a retirement facility. I like it because it is convenient, low priced, clean, and a much better accommodation than staying in a hotel. No common area, no breakfast bar, no bar, no interaction with others – especially important in the time of COVID-19. Let’s give short term rentals a chance as they are more desirable than a hotel (for me) and do serve a purpose for my week long visits.
Just remember that your convenience is usually coming at the expense of the locals. STRs increase housing costs and reduce housing availability. They accelerate gentrification and empty schools. In Sedona, AZ, where STRs were allowed to run rampant, 37% of the housing is STRs. One school has closed. STRs have their place but certainly not at the expense of the home team.
The vitriol being expressed by those who are anti-STR is irrational emotionality. Lisa, who is a responsible Superhost, speaks for hundreds of us. We are sensitive property owners who don’t allow our guests to negatively impact our homes or our neighborhoods. We’re not the “only ones who benefit”– we are paying taxes, so YOU and the city benefit from guests like ours. Read Lisa’s article again, and this time pay attention to the numbers.
They may be 100’s of superhoats but there are 1000’s of citizens. I guarantee you that if you ask 99% of them will say they don’t want a hotel next to their home. I have had one and it was horrible. If you are not participating in true homesharing meaning you are there staying with the guests then the
STR is not your home. It’s the hotel you are operating in someone else’s neighborhood. I know you need to justify what you are doing to keep the gravy train running but it won’t work. You don’t pay any more property tax and HOT collected can only be used for purposes of promoting tourism. We do not benefit.
Good, bad or ugly non-owner occupied short-term rentals are a commercial use of the property and have no place in residential zones. These mini-hotels erode the community. Those people staying next door for three days are never going to get to know me well enough to carpool the kids, share house keys or celebrate life’s milestones. Those tourists are not going to participate in our city politics, volunteer in any meaningful way or support the local economy in the long run. Empty houses don’t send children to our local schools. STRs are there to benefit the pocket of the owner and nothing else. What HOT they to remit can’t be used for enforcement. Why should we as taxpayers have to fund the enforcement of nuisance laws when residential zoning protects us all from this problem? Socializing the costs and privatizing the profits is what makes this business so lucrative and why these STR operators put out this drivel to keep it going. Get out of our neighborhoods. We are sick of you ruining them.
Honestly, STRs is the only safe lodging option for people during COVID. Plus, STR’s continues to keep other local businesses afloat during this pandemic.
The lack of zoning rules and enforcement of city codes to protect our residential neighborhoods from these invasive, commercial businesses is ridiculous. This is another example of how unfairly laws and ordinances are enforced in Dallas. A crack house, owned by a slum lord, was allowed to operate on my block with no help from the Dallas police, DEA nor Code Enforcement. Just like the STR’s, it was a business operating in a single family neighborhood. Students from the local high school could buy drugs, but the DPD always told me they could’t make a buy. Traffic and noise all night was allowed to invade our block. Neighbors moved out of fear when cars of men with guns pulled up in front of their houses.
The slum lord, who owned at lease 6 houses on the block, was allowed to neglect his property and rent unsafe houses until the value of our property increased enough to warrant new development. Then the code inspectors came full force forcing low income residents to leave. The affordable, though neglected, housing was cleared and much more expensive houses were built. The speculators who owned the rental housing made a fortune.
I completely agree with those who call these establishments hotels. While the taxes of our homes double and triple in a year, these businesses go untaxed as commercial property. And like the drug dealers on my block, I don’t think they don’t pay sales taxes on their transactions. All the while, making our homes in our residential neighborhoods difficult to enjoy.
If I want to open my house to care of children, I would need a special use permit. These hotels aren’t even required to do that. It is long past time for the city to back the stable homeowners and make these businesses illegal. Then, enforce the laws.
Agree 100% Lisa. Thank you for this piece. I’d like to say the percentage of bad apples is probably much less than 1.5%. If you calculate 40 complaints over a 2 month period for 3,125 listings, you would need to divide the number of complaints by the number of bookings over that time frame in order to get a percentage of bad apples. If we estimate there are 15 bookings per listing per month, and say those 40 complaints came in over a span of 2 months, we get 15 * 3125 * 2 = 93,750 bookings. Then 40/93750 = .04 % of bookings in DFW are bad apples, or maybe a better way to say it is; Out of roughly 100,000 bookings over a 2 month span, approximately .05% have resulted in a “party house” or at least one rowdy enough to have a complaint made for.
Keep up the good work!
STR operators and city staff are portraying the problem as just “a few bad apples.” It’s NOT just a few bad apples when two-thirds of the known STR operators have NOT PAID THEIR TAXES and refused to register — after a year of begging by the city. The STRs are playing “catch-me-if-you-can” with the city and the platforms refuse to identify all their listings. You cannot TAX them or FINE them if you cannot FIND them.
Which is exactly why the city of dallas should allow platforms to collect the tax as they do in McKinney and countless other cities. It’s common sense.
STRs remove housing stock that would ease our affordable housing crisis by removing properties that could be occupied by long-term renters or new owners/ neighbors. (Explanation: Affordable housing does not mean homes for homeless. It affects anyone/families with an income level that prevents them from spending more than 1/3 of their net cash for rent. Teachers, nurses, police officers, etc.
As rents increase in the good neighborhoods with access to public transportation, amenities, schools, healthcare, they keep getting forced out to the fringes like Pleasant Grove where there is little of the above.
STRs WORSEN our affordable housing because they offer housing for tourists and visitors — NOT longterm residents.
Comparing STRs to crack houses, or any other generalization of STR owners, is not a useful contribution to this discussion, and it is proof of only one thing: your fevered emotionality is in the way of your ability to apply logic and understand the statistics. The majority of STR owners are like you: they care about their property and their neighborhood.
Of course STR operators care about their properties. It is how they are making money using our communities as a commodity. They do not care about the neighborhoods or they wouldn’t be operating in such obvious violation of zoning and trying to justify it. Absolutely we are angry. For most of us our home is our single biggest investment. Do you think having a hotel next door increases my home’s value to anyone but another investor? You are messing with our communities, our homes and the safety of our families. We will never back down and never give up trying to get STR hotels out of our neighborhoods.