After years of complaints, Dallas is seeking to regulate short-term rentals temporarily rented by platforms like Airbnb, VRBO and other sites. We wrote about the various possibilities that the city weighs ahead.
While city after city has enacted some sort of regulation or even ban, Airbnb has now announced a complete ban on properties listed for parties and events.
In one blog post On Tuesday, the platform said it was making permanent the 16-person cap it adopted at the height of the pandemic. Families and groups who want to rent something bigger (like a castle or villa) can do so through the company’s categories, which offer larger homes for “responsible guests”.
“The policy will continue to include serious consequences for guests who attempt to violate these rules, ranging from account suspension to complete removal from the platform,” Airbnb writes. “In 2021, over 6,600 guests were suspended from Airbnb for attempting to violate our party ban.”
Airbnb will also temporarily ban certain types of bookings to try to prevent parties, such as not allowing guests who do not have a history of positive reviews to book rentals during holiday weekends, such as, for example, the weekend of July 4th.
This party ban prohibits open-invitation parties that are advertised on social media and “chronic party houses.” Violators won’t just see their Airbnb privileges disappear, either; the platform and VRBO are data sharing when it comes to prohibited guests.
The Dallas City Council appears ready to consider banning short-term rentals in residential areas. Earlier this month, city staff briefed their bosses on regulatory options: updating zoning to allow short-term rentals only in owner-occupied homes, which would mean Airbnb would be relegated to grandma’s apartments or rented rooms. These would be permitted in all zoning districts. Off-street parking would be required and it would be illegal to rent these properties for events, restaurants or other non-accommodation related uses.
The other option would retain those same restrictions but allow rentals to continue in all zoning districts, whether or not the owner lives there. It didn’t look like it would sit well with many Council members, who cite complaints from residents about their temporarily rowdy neighbors.
Airbnb clearly hopes its new measure will appease regulators like the Dallas City Council. We probably won’t know until August if that will be enough, but I suspect it won’t.
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