Anaheim, Home to Disneyland, Proving Popular for Short-Term Rentals

Hugo Martin reports on the wave of popularity for short-term rentals, like Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway, in the city of Anaheim—home, of course, to Disneyland. "Anaheim thrives on tourism," according to Martin, "But now city officials must respond to frustrated homeowners while trying to oblige rental owners — a new tax source — who host visitors to Anaheim's biggest tax-generator and employer: Disneyland."

Martin speaks with homeowners living in Anaheim fed up with the effects of short-term rentals in their neighborhoods, who describe late night parities, traffic, and overflowing trash bins as some of the more noxious realities of the intermittency of the city's population.

The Anaheim City Council, however, is trying to strike a balance, passing a temporary moratorium on permits for short-term rentals in September, "to give its staff time to research new regulations." The permit application already in place was adopted in 2014, which requires short-term rentals to pay an annual $250 registration fee and a 15 percent room tax. Those fees are generating "$200,000 to $300,000 a month for the city government," according to the article.

And those fees seem to be working for people looking to rent their homes. According to Martin, "By the time Anaheim adopted its temporary moratorium in September, it had already approved 221 permits for short-term rentals and was in the process of reviewing 182 additional applications. Although Anaheim is home to 150 hotels with nearly 20,000 rooms, the city was receiving five to 10 applications a week to operate new rentals."