Louisville should find way to accommodate home-sharing
The growth of the popular home-sharing website Airbnb over the past few years has engendered opposition in some quarters. Most recently, Louisville, Ky. is the latest city to try and essentially ban...
View ArticleNew Orleans takes step in right direction on ridesharing
New Orleans has traditionally been hostile to the sharing economy. Airbnb and other room-sharing services are still effectively outlawed in the Crescent City. Ridesharing companies have not had it any...
View ArticlePlan to regulate Airbnb might lead to total deregulation in Maine
A summer trip to Maine has it all: fresh air, ample boating, moose watching, covered bridges, picturesque lighthouses, lobster rolls, blueberry pie, perhaps a visit to downtown Portland’s International...
View ArticleComments to Federal Trade Commission on the sharing economy
Thank you for the opportunity to take part in the Federal Trade Commission’s Sharing Economy Workshop. I offer the following comments on behalf of the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank that...
View ArticleFTC should heed advice on the sharing economy
Regulation shouldn’t be used to make new business platforms fit the rules crafted for older regimes. That was the consensus of policy experts, bureaucrats, economists and industry representatives who...
View ArticleConfronting public misconceptions about ridesharing
I had a conversation with my mother several months ago about how I commute on a regular basis around Washington. As many young Millennials would reply, I told her how I frequently use Uber, the...
View ArticleStudy shows Airbnb has positive economic impact for New Orleans
Like many cities, New Orleans has struggled with whether and how to crack down on short-term rentals such as those offered through services like Airbnb. Some neighborhood activists believe the rentals...
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Airbnb faces trouble at home
Airbnb’s fate in San Francisco may soon be up for a vote. While the village that raised the 7-year-old company is not yet ready to abolish it completely, many citizens are hoping to use a ballot...
View ArticleHillary Clinton, old person, does not like this newfangled Uber app
A week or so ago, my friend Lisa De Pasquale penned an article over at Breitbart about how this election cycle is shaping up to be Gen-X versus Baby Boomers. In it, she pointed out that, while Hillary...
View ArticleProgressives turn their backs on the sharing economy
Santa Monica, Calif., is now spending $410,000 a year investigating, ticketing and fining residents who sublet their houses and apartments on Airbnb. In Key West, Fla., a new city ordinance outlaws...
View ArticleR Street urges Austin City Council not to hinder the tourism economy
AUSTIN, Tex. (Sept. 15, 2015) – The R Street Institute today expressed deep concern about proposed regulations currently before the Austin City Council that would restrict short-term rentals in the...
View ArticleAirbnb isn’t killing hotels, after all
Much as Uber and Lyft are transforming the taxi industry, Airbnb is transforming the lodging industry. Airbnb connects hosts to guests. Hosts can rent out anything from a couch to an entire house to...
View ArticleJersey City brings legal spacesharing to New York area
With average hotel rates upward of $350 a night, Manhattan is perhaps the costliest tourist destination in the United States. Thankfully, much more affordable accommodations are available just a short...
View ArticleProp F fails, but news not all rosy for Airbnb on home turf
On a night of statewide and city races across the country, the highest-profile vote may have occurred in San Francisco. There, voters decided by a 55 to 45 percent margin to forego strict control on...
View ArticleRoomscore 2016: Short-term-rental regulation in U.S. cities
See the report’s full methodology and results at Roomscore.org. In recent years, discussion of the so-called “sharing economy” has dominated local politics in many cities across the country, and drawn...
View ArticleGalveston, Savannah offer nation’s best rules for short-term rentals
WASHINGTON (March 16, 2016) – As services like Airbnb and HomeAway grow in popularity, a new study from the R Street Institute of 59 of the largest U.S. cities finds Galveston, Texas and Savannah,...
View ArticleAmid Airbnb debates, Arizona offers sensible solutions
Ronald Reagan famously summed up the federal government’s view of the economy as, “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.” And perhaps no sector has...
View ArticleMoylan talks Roomscore on the In the Tank podcast
R Street Institute Executive Director Andrew Moylan joined John Nothdurft and Donny Kendal of the Heartland Institute’s In the Tank podcast to discuss Roomscore, R Street latest report grading 59 of...
View ArticleMoylan talks Roomscore on the Tech Policy Podcast
R Street Executive Director Andrew Moylan sat down recently with Evan Swarztrauber, the host of TechFreedom’s Tech Policy Podcast, to Roomscore, R Street’s new report and website looking at local...
View ArticleOregon town ponders onerous short-term rental rule
The Hood River, Oregon, City Council has delayed its decision until May 9 on an ordinance that would restrict short-term rentals to a family’s primary residence and ban them in granny flats. Here is...
View ArticleTexas cities shouldn’t block short-term rentals
The past few years have seen the rise of the “sharing” economy. First, ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft allowed thousands of drivers to earn extra cash (and in some cases, make a nice living)...
View ArticleArizona flips the narrative, legalizes spacesharing statewide
Did you see the one in which the terrorist organization recruits a kid to destroy a government facility, killing millions of innocent bureaucrats in the process? What about the one with the lonely...
View ArticleDC takes aim at Airbnb, hits existing rental industry
From The Freeman: The DC-based R Street Institute, which has graded cities by their friendliness to short-term rentals in its Roomscore index, notes that as short-term rentals have spread across the...
View ArticleThe gig economy could defy regulation
Austin, Texas, has been taking a lot of heat after passing a proposition that essentially regulated Uber, Lyft and other ridesharing companies out of town. This is unfortunate for many of the city’s...
View ArticleTestimony before the Texas House Committee on Economic and Small Business...
Good morning. My name is Josiah Neeley and I am the Texas director for the R Street Institute, which is a nonpartisan research organization. The R Street Institute has done extensive research on the...
View ArticleAustin sharing-economy rules headed to court
Recent controversies involving the sharing economy in Austin are about to enter a new phase, as lawsuits challenging city regulations of ridesharing and short-term rentals have been filed. Over the...
View ArticleGov. Cuomo needs to veto terrible short-term-rental bill
Forces aligned against short-term rentals are on the cusp of victory in their battle to harm the ability of spacesharing services like Airbnb and HomeAway to conduct business in New York state, under...
View ArticleChicago’s spacesharing and ridesharing rules: Not as bad as they almost were!
Maybe it was the Summer Solstice, although more likely it was Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s playing a bit of hardball with dissenting aldermen. Whatever it was, the Chicago City Council headed into the first...
View ArticleLA’s onerous rental rules threaten consumer privacy
The Los Angeles Planning Commission is considering onerous new regulations regarding short-term rentals. Here is a letter that R Street sent to the commission: I am the Sacramento-based Western region...
View ArticleSan Fran threatens Airbnb
It’s ironic that San Francisco, the city so closely identified with the burgeoning sharing economy, would be defending an onerous law that undermines one of the tenets that enables these web-based...
View ArticleHow far a ‘freedom’ city has strayed
The presidential race has become an all-consuming affair on social media, as Americans debate which candidate will do less harm to the republic and our freedoms. I remain more concerned about state and...
View ArticleBay Area making life difficult for tech firms
In most of the country, a region’s “big” industry – think automotive companies in Michigan’s heyday, the oil business in Houston and entertainment in Los Angeles – is treated with deference by locals....
View ArticleBacklash against sharing economy worthy of the Luddite label
From Daily Caller: “A widely publicized report commissioned by the Freelancers Union in 2014 found what appears to be strong evidence of a growing gig economy: About a third of the workforce, 53...
View ArticleBuying a house as an Airbnb investment strategy is a risky move
From MarketWatch: “There’s just this incredible patchwork that’s developing across these cities,” said Andrew Moylan, executive director of R Street Institute, a nonprofit public policy research...
View ArticleNew Orleans could legalize spacesharing this week
The New Orleans City Council is set to vote tomorrow on an ordinance that would allow short-term rentals in the city. The vote comes in the wake of recommendation delivered in August by the New Orleans...
View ArticleR Street Criticizes New York’s Anti-Airbnb Law
Following Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent signing of a New York State law that institutes a fine of between $1,000 and $7,500 for posting a property on a short-term rental site such as Airbnb, R Street...
View ArticleSan Diego council chief trying to quickly push through Airbnb ‘ban’
A common spectacle takes place at the state Capitol at the end of every session. Legislative leaders who have been unsuccessful advancing their bills through the usual system move them ahead instead...
View ArticleLetter to Palm Springs mayor on short-term-rental law
I’d like to express concern about the restrictive short-term-rental ordinance the Palm Springs City Council will consider at its Nov. 30 meeting. I write as the Western region director for the R Street...
View ArticleShort-term rentals: Are they compatible with residential communities?
Internet-based short-term rental companies such as Airbnb have built a burgeoning industry connecting homeowners with vacationers, who rent out rooms or entire houses for short-term stays. It’s a...
View ArticleVideo: Orange County short-term rentals panel
Internet-based short-term rental companies such as Airbnb have built a burgeoning industry connecting homeowners with vacationers, who rent out rooms or entire houses for short-term stays. It’s a...
View ArticleUtah roomshare bill stops local overreach
Local government officials like to argue that “The government closest to the people serves the people best.” The general concept is a good one, in that far-off officials in Salt Lake City and...
View ArticleShort-term-rental rules on the docket in Indiana
Carmel, Indiana, is a beautiful and completely modern community of more than 85,000 folks, just north of Indianapolis. Its 100 traffic roundabouts are the most of any U.S. city and, last year, one of...
View ArticleFlorida lawmakers weigh streamlining short-term-rental rules statewide
New legislation introduced in the Florida Legislature would establish a framework that does away with the hodgepodge of regulations governing vacation rentals across the state. The most publicized...
View ArticleTestimony in support of Texas S.B. 451
Chairman Hancock, members, thank you for allowing me to testify today. My name is Josiah Neeley. I am the Southwest Region director for the R Street Institute and I am here to testify in favor of S.B....
View ArticleShort-term rentals are an opportunity Missouri can’t afford to miss
Whether it’s the cars in their garages or the rooms in their homes, Americans are realizing they’re leaving money on the table when their property remains idle. House Bill 608, making its way through...
View ArticleSan Clemente’s antics could make for a dark comedy
Between binge-watching some Coen Brothers’ dark comedies, I’ve been perusing videos of state legislative hearings and city council meetings. The acting’s not as good in the political proceedings, but...
View ArticleShort-term rentals and property rights
I was surprised to read the claim in Sabrina Shaeffer’s Wednesday commentary, “Short-term rentals could turn our communities into commercial zones,” that prohibitions on short-term rentals are needed...
View ArticleIdaho vacation-rental law is a model for the nation
Most neighborhoods will experience the occasional problem resident. There’s the person who throws a loud party late into the night, leaves junk in the front yard, lines the street with cars, parks that...
View ArticleNebraska should be on the cutting edge of spacesharing
Nebraska’s fame as a place for innovation and leadership is legendary. Even before Warren Buffet became the “Oracle of Omaha,” Nebraskans had invented CliffsNotes, the Reuben sandwich, Vise-Grip...
View ArticleLetter to Savannah Mayor: Oppose temporary stay on short-terms rentals
I am writing to oppose the resolution imposing a temporary stay on short-term-rental registrations. Savannah is an attractive vacation destination because of its historic character and great urbanism....
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