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Ban Short-Term Rentals in Residential Neighborhoods

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Absentee landlords and short-term rental companies like Air BNB and Verbo are teaming up to destroy too many of our residential neighborhoods by turning what should be homes for families into fly-by-night hotels and party places. Absentee landlords often think they can make a quick buck by turning their residential properties into short-term rentals. The problem is that one's residential street soon becomes infested with these mini-hotels. This has several negative effects on a residential street. 1. Instead of families moving in and solidifying your neighborhood, you have random strangers staying next door, often partying till the wee hours (especially if the short-term rental has a hot tub). 2. Short-term rentals destroy property values. No one wants to move in next door to a 24-hour party place. 3. Short-term rentals breed more short-term rentals, until your residential street is suddenly a commercial street.

Short-term rentals are inimical to residents' quality of life. If Hilton cannot build a hotel in the middle of your block, Air BNB should not be able to turn the three-bedroom house next door into a hotel.

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Profile of Adrian Martin
Posted by:Adrian Martin
11 months ago
Disagree. Short term rentals bring business and money to the City. They are present in every city worth its salt in this world and should be allowed in St. Louis. They address traveling needs that hotels can not fill. If you want the City to fall behind in yet another way, go ahead and ban or overregulate them. This being said, I agree that there should be regulations to hold people accountable on how they run and manage them.
  • 1 like
Profile of N F
Posted by:N F
11 months ago
@Adrian Martin the proposal is more specific than an all out ban and looks to zoning differences to provide regulation on specifically short term use of residentially zoned properties as I read it. City enforcement of neighbor issues is pretty non existent so I sympathize with OPs fruatrations particularly if the owner is absentee. The benefits you cite would also be generated by residents. So at what point does a short term with how many guests get there? The short terms in my neighborhood are hardly ever full and when so usually by people passing through one night. Watching TV with takeout and leaving early. Residents would support our neighborhoods and businesses far more. At least we need a study to establish the costs and benefits in STL particularly because we have an ongoing population loss problem and low property vlaues compared to elsewhere that makes holding onto these properties too easy.
    Profile of Adrian Martin
    Posted by:Adrian Martin
    11 months ago
    @N F yes, regulations are needed but not with a wrecking ball approach and the hostile mentality in the above proposal. There are many ways a city can reduce the bad actors without choking the responsibly run places. Many cities have done it smartly, being open to a dialogue with the owner organizations. Other cities did it in a hostile way and are tied up in litigation and still can not impose their regulations. I totally agree that every property should have real live person local representation and reliable contact info. Require outdoors video monitoring, in and outdoor noise level monitoring, don’t allow one night stays, etc. properties should be registered and have a revokable license, The fees collected for licenses could be used to open up better communication between owners and law enforcement, there are many ways to do it. As for the value- you think that local residents would generate the same income for local businesses and you may be right for some properties. But this is not true for larger well run properties, where guests would conservatively spend tens of thousands of $ a year on local food and entertainment (not online).
      Profile of Joan Chadwick
      Posted by:Joan Chadwick
      11 months ago
      I agree that short-term rentals should be strictly regulated by the city. So far they have not done a good job with that. But I think they should distinguish between short-term rentals with absent hosts and those with live-in hosts. People who live in the short-term rental and are just trying to make ends meet by making a few extra dollars should not be penalized because the absentee hosts are not being responsible.
      • 1 like
      Profile of christi Sexton
      Posted by:christi Sexton
      11 months ago
      I disagree. Short-term rentals are good for tourism and are successfully done in other cities with the right legislation and compliance in place. Short-term rentals should be regulated properly so that it is not only safe for the neighboring families but also for those that stay in the properties.
      • 2 likes
      Profile of N F
      Posted by:N F
      11 months ago
      Agree! I have no way to contact the owner of the rental next to us should something happen and they are not being taxed commercial for at least two more years cause of the cycle.

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        Profile of Chris OrletChris Orlet on October 17, 2025

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