“Your neighbors are new every week”: short-term rentals, housing, and community wellbeing in high-amenity rural places

Abstract Amenity driven in-migration, seasonal home ownership, and tourism are long standing processes impacting housing affordability and community wellbeing in high natural amenity rural communities. Short-term rental (STR) accommodations, such as Airbnb and Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO), are a relatively new phenomenon that can further limit housing options for full-time residents and members of the seasonal workforce. There is tremendous variation across communities in their efforts to regulate STRs. To assess the impacts of STRs on housing affordability and community wellbeing in a high-amenity rural place, we analyze and discuss interviews with 28 residents of the Bear Lake area in northeastern Utah and southeastern Idaho. Most communities around Bear Lake had enacted minimal to no regulations on STRs at the time of this research, making this a suitable case study for the impacts of STRs when no restrictions are placed on them. Community members expressed concern that STRs are driving high housing costs while also negatively impacting community interactions and providing little to no benefit to the local economy. To illuminate avenues for better STR regulation, we discuss alternative examples of how STRs can be regulated in high-amenity rural communities. We conclude with a discussion of the future implications of STR policy, particularly as it relates to housing affordability and socioeconomic inequality.