A traveler from Ohio who has twice made the trip to Mobile for the First Light Marathon has written to city officials, asking them to close a regulatory gap she says gives short-term rental hosts an unfair advantage over the bed-and-breakfast owners who follow the rules.
The visitor, who has stayed at the Kate Shepard House Bed and Breakfast downtown during both of her trips, said her concern is not with the inn itself but with the widening difference between how licensed lodging businesses are regulated and how the growing number of Airbnb-style rentals operate with far less oversight. She said the inn’s innkeepers, and the personal attention they give guests, are the reason she keeps coming back to the city.
Her letter argues that many short-term rental hosts in Mobile are not held to the same tax collection, licensing and safety requirements that apply to hotels and bed-and-breakfast operations. Those businesses typically must register with the city, collect and remit lodging taxes, and meet inspection standards tied to their occupancy permits. Homeowners renting out spare rooms or entire houses through online platforms can often sidestep those same obligations, even though they are competing for the same guests.
The gap has become a familiar point of friction in cities across the country as home-sharing platforms have expanded rapidly over the past decade. Local governments have taken a range of approaches, from requiring short-term rental hosts to obtain business licenses and pay lodging taxes to capping the number of nights a property can be rented or restricting rentals to certain zoning districts. Some cities have reached agreements directly with booking platforms to collect and remit occupancy taxes on hosts’ behalf, while others have left the rentals largely unregulated.
In her letter, the writer said she has rented Airbnb properties herself and enjoyed the experience, but that learning more about how unevenly the rules are applied has changed her view of the practice. She said she does not blame individual hosts for taking advantage of an opportunity to earn extra income, but argued that the disparity puts licensed operators, who invest in permits, insurance and upkeep to meet city standards, at a competitive disadvantage.
Bed-and-breakfast operators in historic districts like downtown Mobile often point to the cost of maintaining older properties to code as one of the reasons a level playing field matters to their business model. Innkeepers who restore and maintain historic homes for use as lodging say those expenses, along with licensing and tax obligations, are built into their rates in a way that many short-term rental listings are not.
The letter urges city leaders to review the current rules governing short-term rentals and consider bringing them in line with the requirements already placed on hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, arguing that failing to act could eventually cost the city some of its longtime hospitality businesses if they are unable to compete on uneven terms.
Mobile has not announced any pending changes to its short-term rental regulations, but the issue has drawn increasing attention from lodging owners and residents in neighborhoods where short-term rentals have become more common.