Airbnb Limits Portland Property Owners to One Listing

Rental website Airbnb will limit Portland homeowners from listing more than one address. The "One Host, One Home" policy will help keep the company in line with city policy, which requires that residents can only advertise their homes as vacation rentals if they live their at least nine months a year.

The company, which says that the policy will prevent people from buying homes and turning them into vacation properties, will help protect the city's long-term housing stock.

"Airbnb is committed to promoting responsible hosting and working with city leaders to protect long-term housing stock in Portland," Airbnb Public Policy Manager Laura Spanjian wrote Mayor Ted Wheeler and the other members of the city council.

"Like you, we are concerned about Portland’s housing
affordability crisis and unwelcome commercial operators who may be converting housing to illegal hotels on our platform and others."

The policy, which is already in place in New York and San Francisco, goes into effect on January 30.

Spanjian said while the company is making the policy change, they still hope the city takes steps to make things easier for people who use the platform.

"Compliance remains arduous, at best," she wrote. "Currently, a host that wants to share his or her home -- even for just one weekend each year -- is required to undergo a complicated and bureaucratic process."

Spanjian said residents are required to obtain a city inspection, business license, ASTR license, and a tax certificate, as well as mail notifications to their neighbors, neighborhood association and neighborhood coalition.

"Hosts have told us the current registration process is cumbersome and confusing to navigate," she said. "Others have expressed privacy concerns about allowing city inspectors to come into their homes."

Spanjian says that the company hopes to work with the city to streamline the process.

The city has taken issue with Airbnb's ability to police themselves and last year proposed increasing to $5,000 per day from $1,000 per day, the fine for short-term illegal rentals.

Airbnb has stressed that as popular as their service is, they have a minimal impact on the city's housing market. They point to a report by a report they commissioned last year from ECONorthwest that concluded that home units rented out make up less than .03 percent of the city's housing stock.

Airbnb also pointed city officials to a study that the company did showing that they have a positive economic impact on the city.

"Home sharing also helps strengthen the community, driving over $ 128.5 million in economic impact to the city, including $118 million spent by guests at local businesses, many of which are located outside of traditional hotel districts," Spanjian wrote.

"We have also collected and remitted $4.5M million in taxes to the City of Portland on behalf of all of our hosts and guests since 2014."

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