Insider Finance - Business - The fight over Airbnbs

Hello, Insiders. Short-term rentals — like the accommodations available on Airbnb and Vrbo — are at the center of nationwide debates over how to regulate them. Today’s big story focuses on the fight over these rentals in one small city in Montana.

What else is on tap:

Airbnb has descended on America's small cities. Now locals must decide how to contain it.

In many ways, Bozeman, Montana, sits at the eye of the short-term-rental storm. It's small and rural, the type of destination that boomed during the pandemic. 

But some say the rise of short-term rentals is causing cities like Bozeman to hemorrhage residents. And if investors continue buying up homes for wealthy vacationers for another decade, “there will be no more Bozeman,” one resident said. 

For Bozeman Tenants United — a group that’s pushing for a ban on whole-home, short-term rentals — the solution is simple: Bozeman homes should be occupied by Bozeman residents first, before out-of-towners.

For others, it’s more complicated. "The city is in a catch-22," a local real-estate agent and short-term-rental owner said. "They can't really function without the short-term rentals."

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