Inspectional Services says short-term rental platforms share data; staff conducting enforcement and outreach
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Sign Up Free
Summary
ISD said it receives data from Airbnb and uses an outside contractor to find unregistered short-term listings; the department has a dedicated assistant director for enforcement and continues to pursue outreach and ordinance clarifications.
Inspectional Services told the City Council it has active enforcement and data-sharing arrangements to find and address unregistered short-term rental listings.
Commissioner Tanya Del Rio said the city receives regular information from Airbnb about active listings and also contracts with a firm that scrapes short-term rental sites to identify postings that lack a Boston short-term rental registration number. That cross-checking allows the department to contact operators and pursue enforcement when listings are not registered.
Del Rio said ISD uses the same housing-inspection workforce that handles other rental issues: 26 housing inspectors supported by clerical staff and managers. She said one assistant commissioner is dedicated to short-term-rental enforcement, conducts hearings and coordinates with platforms; staff indicated the assistant commissioner ‘‘Regina’’ handles a large volume of cases and suggested ongoing review of ordinance language where extended corporate or hospital stays have created enforcement complexity.
Councilors asked for numbers of fines and compliance actions; ISD said it would provide more detailed enforcement statistics on request. Del Rio also said that while the department conducts proactive enforcement, it welcomes council input on ordinance changes to close known loopholes (for example, extended ‘‘corporate-stay’’ exceptions) and noted that complaint-driven and platform-derived enforcement are complementary approaches.
ISD said it remains engaged with neighborhood complaints and with platform partners to ensure registration compliance and that it is prepared to return to the council with enforcement figures when they are compiled.