Proposed Airbnb regulations are needed, not perfect
It’s about time City Hall put limits on how frequently landlords can rent out their apartments in Boston. More South End residential streets are now loaded with travelers changing the culture of the neighborhood.
Suitcases are almost as prevalent as strollers at this point.
Mayor Walsh introduced his proposal yesterday saying, “Preserving Boston’s affordability is key to keeping our communities stable and ensuring every person and family who wants to live here can afford to do so.”
The Walsh administration has proposed limiting short-term rentals to 90 nights a year for owners renting out an apartment or house. That’s still too frequent, but at least it’s better than the status quo.
Landlords are now essentially running unregulated hotels and are forcing the people sharing the common areas of their brownstone or condo complex to welcome total strangers.
Many people leave their bikes or strollers in that common area and now have to worry about some person they don’t know stealing their items or simply wandering the halls.
Most older buildings in the city don’t have condo documents to address this issue — others are rewrit- ing their regulations to prevent this from happening.
Airbnb provides a unique opportunity for residents to make some extra cash, given the sky-high cost of real estate in the city. Renting out your apartment a few times a year while you are away is very different from one of my neighbors who rents the condo unit out nearly nightly.
Oftentimes these Airbnb customers will scurry around the building late at night to try to get in. The first few times it happened I thought someone was trying to break in as they were using their cellphone light to find the lockbox. We have had to ask one neighbor to stop putting their lock for Airbnb on our fence. Sorry, no front desk services are offered at Casa Cashman.
The mayor acknowledged the strain this unregulated industry is having on residents, saying his plan “allows for the continued use of short-term rentals in scenarios that are nondisruptive to our neighborhoods and support our tourism industry.”
The short-term rental market will be divided into three categories and will be regulated accordingly: owners renting a spare room; owners renting their primary residence while away; and owners renting a unit that isn’t occupied full time.
The key here is it’s a start.
‘Landlords are now essentially running unregulated hotels and are forcing the people sharing the common areas ... to welcome total strangers.’