Hello, all. The city of Annapolis recently (1/13/2020) passed regulations requiring a license and a home inspection in order to Airbnb, *even* if you are a primary residence. So even if you are only Airbnb-ing the guest room in your own home (the same room where your mother sleeps when she comes to visit), you have to get a whole home inspection, including your personal bedroom, personal bathroom and office space.
I find this repugnant, as do many many many other hosts.
The city is going to hire a 3rd party software company to find the unlicensed listings. Apparently, these software companies compare Google Street view photos, as well as the publicly available photos on Zillow/Redfin to match physical addresses with Airbnb listings. It is certainly easy enough to remove exterior-views for your Airbnb listing, and it is obviously easy enough to remove photos from Zillow/Redfin by taking ownership of the listing. However, I've also heard that the city will give TAX ASSESSMENT photos to 3rd party software companies to help facilitate the physical locating of unlicensed properties. So if you have ever fought with the city on property taxes, and provided photographic documentation of your house, those photos could be given to Host Compliance or other 3rd party software companies.
Okay. So. Suppose (hypothetically) an Airbnb host wanted to escape the licensing process as a matter of 4th-amendment principle. In Charleston, the 3rd party software company was only able to find 75% of the unlicensed listings. That is high... but it does mean that 25% escaped. How did that 25% escape? This is my question...
Obviously, if you are a second home-owner and people are coming and going from a vacant home, that is one thing. A neighbor can report, and maybe that testimony is valid. But if you live in your own home and people come and go, how do they know they aren't real guests?
I'd love thoughts from people in Nashville, Charleston, and other places where the city is employing truly intrusive regulations. What are people really doing?
Best,
Susan
