Short-term rental advocacy program

What is short-term rental advocacy?

Short-term rental advocacy strives to protect vacation rental owners’ right to rent their homes, as well as defend the rights of guests and their ability to choose the accommodation that best suits their travel needs.

Why is it important to short-term rental owners?

As vacation rentals have gained more popularity, counties, cities, towns, and villages have proposed and adopted short-term rental ordinances over the years. While many ordinances contain reasonable regulations, others are overreaching and seek to negatively impact an industry that drives tourism, tax revenue, and other economic benefits.

Our approach is pragmatic

At Vacasa, we are in favor of reasonable regulation.

Through our Short-Term Rental Advocacy Program, we engage with state and local officials, other advocacy groups, local businesses, and homeowners to push for effective policies and educate stakeholders on the economic benefits of vacation rentals.

How Vacasa defends our homeowners’ right to rent

Amplifying local voices

We provide our local teams with impactful messaging as they often attend city and county meetings with government officials and other vacation rental industry partners. We also deploy campaigns to broadly engage and inform our homeowner base, encouraging them to get involved when appropriate, while staying within the bounds of state lobbying rules.

Putting facts first

We support local campaigns and other advocacy organizations with helpful resources (e.g. tax revenue generated by Vacasa homes in a given market), which can aid in dismantling some of the claims that are shared from the opposing side.

Funding critical efforts

Vacasa recognizes the value of grassroots efforts and has a dedicated STR Advocacy budget to support local education and PR campaigns that meet certain criteria. We’ll also contribute to viable legal challenges of recently passed regulations.

How to stay informed about local regulations or new ordinances

We do the heavy lifting on behalf of our owners and when new vacation rentals are being proposed, we let them know—especially if there are ways to get involved or engage with officials.

If you want to track on your own, Google is a helpful place to start by conducting a keyword search of municipal codes. You can also reference your city, county, or town website or contact its planning department. Finally, you can join local government email distribution lists to receive updates directly to your inbox.

5 scenarios where we take action

1. STR work sessions and/or listening sessions (precursor to proposals)
2. Draft ordinance proposals
3. Ballot initiatives
4. HOA votes or association regulations (Selectively)
5. Ongoing advocacy work and public education

How to join your local coalition

Vacasa is involved in many local coalitions throughout the country and we encourage our homeowners to get involved, too.

We often direct our homeowners to their local coalition in our communications. Homeowners with questions about how to get involved can also email publicaffairs@vacasa.com for specific information.