Wrong Reason for Renting: Prairie Village residents complain of Airbnb parties causing disturbance in the neighborhood

*Name changed to protect identity

In wake of neighborhood noise complaints on Airbnb’s, Kansas City issued a statewide audit to determine whether rental property hosts have been skirting local regulations. The impact of the audit remains unclear. 

The Kansas City Neighborhood Advisory Council — a city board that represents local neighborhoods — has been pushing for the city to place a three-month ban on all rentals under 72 hours. According to the council, the ban would allow the government time to re-evaluate regulations regarding Airbnbs and Vrbos.

According to AirDNA — a company that collects data for short-term rentals — since Airbnb’s creation in 2008, the US and Prairie Village have seen a boom in short-term rentals. In 2018, due to a particularly high upsurge in Airbnb bookings in the KC area, short-term rental laws were instated. Since then, Airbnb owners require a state-administered permit to legally rent their home, though under 10% of Airbnbs are officially licensed according to CompassKC — a state site for obtaining permits. 

Without licensing, partygoers can easily rent properties any weekend without fear of repercussions. Sophomore Evan Platz — whose family owns four licensed Airbnbs in Kansas City — said Airbnb owners struggle to identify the difference between genuine customers and partiers. 

“My mom and I hear a lot of complaints about noise, vandalism and parking from neighbors around Airbnbs,” Platz said. “Even though hosts are getting in trouble, it isn’t their fault. It’s so difficult to tell whether a random 23-year-old client is just wanting to spend a weekend with his girlfriend or if he’s really a 17-year-old kid wanting to throw a party.” 

Many neighborhoods are adamant the ban proposed by The KC Neighborhood Advisory Council is the only plausible solution. The ban, however, would likely cost the city of Prairie Village and the owners themselves, thousands of dollars in revenue. Platz feels that a ban would not resolve the issue and instead harm hosts that have done nothing wrong.

“Just putting an end to Airbnb’s for an indefinite amount of time isn’t going to solve the problem,” Platz said. “Most hosts have done nothing wrong and depend on the money they make renting to provide for their family. We need to find a different way to solve the problem that targets the partiers and doesn’t involve cutting off people’s salary.”

Another East student, Canon Lee*, commonly rents Airbnb’s in Prairie Village to host parties. He agreed that a ban was not the best way to solve the issue. 

“Airbnb’s have honestly made parties a little safer in my opinion,” he said. “Because the house is ours for the night, most people end up sleeping over instead of driving home drunk. It may be illegal, but we’re not going to end up in a car crash afterwards. If Airbnb’s are suddenly unavailable, it’s not like we’re going to stop having parties, they just won’t be as safe.” 

Whether a ban will be placed on Airbnb’s is still yet to be seen. A popular proposed solution is upping the tourism tax on short term rentals, which according to the state audit, would make them less attractive to partiers and generate millions of dollars. Kansas City can expect to see the option to raise short-term rental taxes on their ballots in the next year.