New Study Finds Paths to More Effective Short-Term Rental Regulations

Dual surveys of STR operators and government officials support reveal opportunities to support local businesses and sustainably manage tourism amongst other community needs

FORT WORTH, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 18, 2024 / Today, Rent Responsibly released the 2024 State of the Short-Term Rental (STR) Industry Report, the largest study of its kind exploring the STR industry and the local STR regulatory landscape across the US.

Researchers surveyed more than 4,000 STR owners and property managers and more than 2,000 local government staff and elected officials to glean new insights that support strategic decision-making, from how to collaborate on effective community management programs to how to operate more responsible private accommodations.

The combined surveys yielded more than 130,000 new data points. The full report can be downloaded here.

Key findings:

• 94.6% of STR operators supported local businesses through purchases and referrals.
• Most STR operators (75%) catered primarily to families, followed by wellness travelers, public event attendees, and corporate travelers.
• 83% of government respondents reported their jurisdiction is facing an affordable housing shortage, citing the cost of building new housing, real estate values, and lack of space to build new housing as the top three factors having the biggest negative impact on their affordable housing supply. Solutions that were deemed most effective in addressing this focused on increasing the new housing supply: opening new space to build new housing (55.3%), supplementing the cost of, or otherwise incentivizing, building new housing (50.5%), and creating more favorable zoning policies (45.9%).
• A majority of government officials rank tourism as important to their local economies and rank guest spending as highly important to their jurisdictions, second only to property values.

"Over one million STR owners and managers and more than 30,000 municipalities in the US stand to benefit from the insights uncovered in this study," said David Krauss, co-founder and CEO of Rent Responsibly, a community and education platform for STR operators. "This report shows there is ample opportunity for short-term rental owners and policymakers to engage on priorities that support local businesses, boost tourism, and respect community needs."

Rent Responsibly partnered with the College of Charleston Office of Tourism Analysis on this research.

"This study allowed us to learn about a broad spectrum of local government communities and capture a diverse perspective of approaches," said Brumby McLeod, Associate Professor and Riley Research Fellow at the College of Charleston. "Particularly interesting to me were the views of staff, their work with short-term rentals, and the perceived effectiveness of their local ordinances. Rent Responsibly continues to get it right by listening to all stakeholders."

On Thursday, June 20, Rent Responsibly will host a webinar exploring top results. Registration is free here.

Support for the research was provided by Vrbo, part of Expedia Group, as well as Hostaway, Superhog, Touch Stay, Avalara, Hostfully, Breezeway, NoiseAware, Proper Insurance, Dtravel, GovOS, and Topkey.

Contact Information

David Krauss
Co-Founder & CEO
david@rentresponsibly.org
617-359-8598

SOURCE: Rent Responsibly

View the original press release on newswire.com.