The City of Knoxville is proposing to start regulating short term rentals. WATE reports that "Airbnb says 66,000 visitors stayed in rentals in the area during 2016," 17,000 were in the Knoxville area. Airbnb is a growing online source for "enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging." VRBO and HomeAway are other sources for short-term rentals.

According to the City of Knoxville, "In general, Short Term Rentals are not currently legal in Knoxville. Except in hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts, City code does not permit the rental of residential quarters for a period of less than 30 consecutive days."

Allowing short term rentals will make local "hosts" happy by bringing in additional income. The proposed regulations may also make the city happy by bringing in additional income. Some communities may not be so happy in that they will have to tighten up the restrictions and/or covenants and will be required to enforce these restrictions and/or covenants without any assistance from local law enforcement/codes and zoning officials.

One nice part of the proposed ordinance is that the short term rental must be owner occupied unless the short term rental is in a non-residential district. I would think the owner occupancy requirement will limit short term rentals in neighborhoods, but who knows.

How hard will it be to enforce the proposed ordinance? Will it be up to neighbors to report short term rentals in their community? How will the neighbors know if the host is licensed?