Airbnb’s New Phone Numbers Break Hosts’ Quick Replies. Birmingham, MI, Shows Short Stays the Door. New Orleans Wants $20 a Night. A Flood Photo Fails Reddit’s Smell Test. Your weekly lookout has landed.

Newsbites

💵 New Orleans Raises Its Nightly Short-Term Rental Fee to $20
The New Orleans City Council adopted an ordinance on October 15 that raises the nightly fee from $12 to $20 for both commercial and non-commercial short-term rentals. The council expects about $3.5 million in additional revenue. It also adopted rule changes to follow a Fifth Circuit ruling on corporate ownership of residential rentals.
SEE THE COUNCIL’S SUMMARY →

🚫 Birmingham, MI, Bans Short-Term Rentals Under 30 Days Citywide
The city commission voted unanimously on October 19 to ban rentals of fewer than 30 consecutive days, and the ban takes effect a week after approval. Existing licenses stay valid until April 15, 2027, and the city won’t renew them.
READ WHAT BIRMINGHAM APPROVED →

🏛️ A New Haven, CT, Committee Advances a Ban on Investor-Owned Short-Term Rentals
A committee of New Haven’s city council, the Board of Alders, voted 5-2 at its October 22 hearing to send a proposed short-term rental license program to the full board, which votes next month. The program would allow rentals only in the host’s primary residence. Several council members said they expect to back amendments that would let more small-scale hosts keep operating.
FOLLOW THE NEW HAVEN VOTE →

⚖️ Clark County, NV, Proposes Ending Its Short-Term Rental License Lottery
Commissioners introduced an ordinance on October 20 that would end the application lottery and set a 45-day review period for licenses. The county drew more than 1,300 names in its March 2023 lottery. The public hearing and possible vote are November 3, after the Ninth Circuit narrowed the court order that has left the county with almost no rules.
CHECK THE PROPOSED CHANGES →

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The Toolbox

Platform status, bugs, and product updates across the tools you use every week.

🎃 Airbnb Turns Its Anti-Party System Back On for Halloween Weekend
Airbnb’s system flags higher-risk bookings and either blocks them or points guests to private rooms and hotels. Last Halloween weekend it deterred more than 23,500 people in the US from booking an entire home.
SEE AIRBNB’S HALLOWEEN PLAN →

📞 Airbnb’s Temporary Phone Numbers Break the Guest Phone Number Quick Reply
Airbnb is assigning temporary phone numbers to some hosts and guests in the US and Canada, and the numbers expire 2 days after checkout. The guest phone number shortcut in quick replies no longer works, and existing quick replies that use it stop sending until you rewrite them.
CHECK YOUR QUICK REPLIES →

What The Heck Is That?

Conditional Use

A conditional use is a use that zoning allows only after the city or county reviews your application and approves it, usually after a public hearing. The approval can come with conditions, such as parking requirements, and the city can deny it. A use “by right” works differently: You meet the rules, and you get the permit with no hearing.

Clark County’s proposed ordinance would add short-term rentals as a conditional commercial use in certain zoning districts. To check an address, find its zoning district on the local zoning map, then find short-term rental in the zoning code’s use table. Look for the letter beside it: ‘P’ usually means permitted by right, and ‘C’ or ‘S’ usually means conditional or special use. Each code uses its own letters, so read the table’s key.

READ THE HEARING NOTICE →

1 Sells the Ocean, 1 Sells the 80s

Ocean View at the Carillon: $925 for 3 nights

A 1-bedroom condo for 4 on the 8th floor of the Carillon resort in Miami Beach, FL, right on the sand. Valet parking, beach chairs and towels, and the resort’s pools and hot tub come with the stay. It’s rated 4.87 across 127 reviews.

SEE THE BEACH CONDO →

Totally Rad 80s A-Frame: $926 for 3 nights

A 2-bedroom 1980s A-frame for 4 near Fairplay, CO, 30 minutes from Breckenridge, restored in 2024 by its architect-designer owners. It has a private hot tub, a wood-burning stove, a turntable, and an arcade table in the loft. It’s rated 4.94 across 101 reviews.

SEE THE A-FRAME →

Airbnb shows both at about $308 a night before taxes for November 13 to 16. Halfway down the condo’s description, the host notes that the City of Miami Beach requires a 4% resort tax that “WILL BE COLLECTED SEPARATELY.” Airbnb says taxes it doesn’t collect “will not be displayed before booking,” so guests compared these 2 prices without that 4%.

If you collect a tax yourself, check whether your area is on Airbnb’s list of places where it collects taxes. If it isn’t, Airbnb encourages hosts to build the tax into the nightly price and not charge it separately at check-in. That way the price a guest compares in search is the price they pay.

Valuable Host Camp Resources

The Shopping List

This is our list of the household essentials and extras to stock in a short-term rental. Go through it before your first booking, so nothing a guest needs is missing when they arrive.

GET THE ULTIMATE MASTER SHOPPING LIST →

The Ultimate Airbnb Dream Team

This is our guide to building the team that helps you run your Airbnb. Read it before you hire anyone, so you know which roles you need before the work outgrows what you can do alone.

GET THE DREAM TEAM GUIDE →

An Airbnb Host Allegedly Tried to Charge a Guest AU$1,700 for an AI-Generated Flood

A guest in Australia says the host sent a photo of an overflowing toilet and asked for AU$1,700. The guest posted it on Reddit, and the internet did what it does: It zoomed in. Water poured over the seat without a single splash, the door handle sat at eye level, and a flood that big should have taken the rest of the house with it.

Then someone spotted Google’s SynthID watermark, a hidden mark Google puts in images made with its AI, the equivalent of signing your forgery. The guest’s defense was hard to argue with: “I did not even use toilet paper during my stay.” A day later, the guest said Airbnb ruled the claim ineligible, which Airbnb hasn’t confirmed. The toilet declined to comment.

SEE HOW REDDIT SPOTTED THE FAKE →

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