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MINNEAPOLIS – City officials in both Minneapolis and St. Paul are aiming to saddle Airbnb operators with new regulations just in time for Super Bowl LII.
There were 1,400 Airbnb hosts in the Twin Cities area in the past year, hosting a total of 75,000 guests, reports the Pioneer Press. The new regulations might end up significantly reducing that, heading into a high demand event which would likely see Airbnb hosts able to charge much higher than usual rates. Thousands of tourists are expected to seek Airbnb accommodations for the Super Bowl.
St. Paul is considering proposed regulations which would require hosts to collect taxes and become licensed, according to the Pioneer Press. Airbnbs would also be limited in how many people they can rent out space too. The maximum would be four unrelated adults.
Minneapolis has been a little more reticent to begin implementing such regulations. The city’s regulatory plan has yet to be developed, and any efforts to implement new regulations have met resistance from Minneapolis mayoral candidate City Council Member Jacob Frey.
“The sharing economy is coming to town, and we are going to need to figure out how to regulate to ensure safety and just parity with other industries,” Frey said, reports the Pioneer Press. “But this is a new entrepreneurial and innovative model, and I want to make sure that we have it in Minneapolis.”
