The legislation would bar people from short-term rentals of secondary homes and limit rentals of primary residences to a maximum of 90 days a year if the owner is not physically present. There would be no restriction on short-term rentals if the owner is there.
Passing the legislation would make Washington the latest city to try to regulate the skyrocketing use of platforms like Airbnb, following other cities facing housing crises, like New York and San Francisco.
AirDNA, a website that tracks Airbnb rentals, says there are nearly 7,000 Airbnb listings in Washington, and annual growth is 39 percent. Data on the total number of short-term rentals in Washington were not immediately available.