At first I was a huge proponent of Airbnb because I liked the ease of use and less expensive than your standard hotel. But then I moved into an apartment in downtown Nashville that was overrun with Airbnbs. Multiple nights I would call the cops to come tell the people to calm down. Im talking like 1am on a Wednesday. I know this isn't Airbnb's problem per se, its the apartment and their lack of control but these STRP running companies seem to not care and I think that does some damage to the brand.
On top of that, multiple quiet neighborhoods have been wrecked by Airbnbs/STRP using the whole house as a glorified hotel versus renting on one bedroom and living there.
I believe this is the norm everywhere. It's the collateral damage of travel democratization.
The few AirBNBs I know of near me are basements or homes someone lives in. I don’t think it’s a huge driver.
Really the bottom line is people want to move here and our town needs to build more housing.
Now most rental contracts are "student contracts" basically allowing you to rent from September to June.
This means finding a year-long contract has become almost impossible for any reasonable price.