Adios Airbnbs: The Prairie Village City Council has agreed upon a ban on short-term rental houses, which may cause hosts to alter their booking times

The Prairie Village City Council decided in a meeting on Sept. 16 to begin drafting the paperwork for a ban on short-term rentals under 30 days with a to-be-determined implementation date.

“You can’t just drop a ban out of the sky,” Graves said. “You usually have to give people some time to wind down, maybe that’s 90 days and maybe that’s six months. I don’t want this weird uncertainty, where it’s just everybody’s rental licenses expire at various points in the year. I think it should just be that on this date we’re not doing [short-term rentals] anymore, just so everyone has clarity.”

While the goal is ultimately to satisfy residents living near the short-term rentals, hosts are worried they may experience a loss of profit. 

The ban would make the minimum available booking time 30 days. 

“The reason why we have we capped it at 30 days is because a lot of people rent month to month here, and if you go too far with the number of days, you actually knock out people who have been living here long term anyway,” Councilman Ian Graves said.

With the growing popularity of short-term rentals nationwide, Airbnbs and Vrbos have been popping up across the city. The City of Prairie Village estimated that 30 short-term rentals can be found in Prairie Village. This has caused a storm of complaints from Prairie Village residents.

Native residents identified short-term rentals in a 2023 poll and filed dozens of noise complaints, as the short-term rentals are frequently used for parties. At the meeting on Sept. 16, Prairie Village resident Karen Gibbons described “very real concerns with noise, trash, (and) strangers coming and going every week.”

Sophomore Burt Sheets has lived next door to what his neighborhood calls “the rental house” since he was a baby. 

Short-term rentals also negatively affect infrastructure such as the Police Department. When police officers are called to residential locations due to noise complaints — which has been happening more often with the rise of short-term rentals — they’re taken away from more pressing issues such as theft or property damage. 

“I believe that a lot of the calls are going to come Friday, Saturday nights when there are strained resources on the police department already,” O’Toole said. “[Hypothetically] I don’t want two of our officers responding to Homestead Drive to stop a bachelor party because there’s too much else happening in the city at that time.”

While short-term rentals are negatively affecting people and Prairie Village infrastructure, the ban will also negatively affect the hosts. 

Senior Evan Platz’s mom owns two Airbnbs in Prairie Village and as a result, has been following updates on the ban closely. Platz explained that since the average time a guest booked at one of her properties was three weeks, a booking of less than the 30 day minimum, the ban made it pointless to acquire more rental properties in Prairie Village.

“A lot of the time it’s someone coming for a funeral or a reunion, and they make a trip it and they visit Kansas City, so then they extend their stay for longer,” Platz said. 

City officials have informed landlords to begin winding down their short-term rentals, as there is no timeline according to the Prairie Village City Council. 

According to Airbnb.com, hosts can cancel reservations when a “major disruptive event” occurs. A short-term rental ban is included under the examples of a a major disruptive event.  

Councilman Terry O’Toole said that he could only think of cons for short-term rentals. 

“I use [short-term rentals] when my family goes other places, and we’re not horrible but I don’t want a family next to us at midnight playing Pictionary,” O’Toole said. “It’s just too loud.”