Winthrop issues first Airbnb permit under new ordinance

On Aug. 25, the Winthrop Zoning Board of Appeals issued its first permit under a new ordinance designed specifically to address the growing number of residents renting out rooms and homes through the online service Airbnb.

Winthrop’s zoning code had already required a special permit for bed and breakfasts, which allows up to four bedrooms to be rented as guest rooms. It did not, according to Town Manager Jim McKenna, have any zoning that allowed residents to rent homes.

The new transient lodging definition allows a homeowner of a private, owner-occupied single-family home or two-family home to rent up to two bedrooms for a fee.

McKenna said that rental housing is the “biggest industry” in this almost entirely residential community of 18,000 people, located on a peninsula across from East Boston. He said the community wanted to find a way to continue allowing Airbnb rentals while addressing any concerns about impacts on neighbors. People who rent their homes on Airbnb helped craft the ordinance, which has been well received so far.

“Some people who live on quiet residential streets don’t have the expectation that their neighbor is going be the renting out their house to people from all over the world,” McKenna said. “The impact of Airbnb certainly took a lot of people by surprise.”

Requirements for a transient lodging special permit include that the property owner must be home when guests are staying overnight; the owner must maintain a guest register that can be inspected by local public safety officials; cooking appliances cannot be used in guest rooms; and one bathroom must be dedicated for the use of guests.

Those renting on Airbnb must put up a small window sign on the home, because, McKenna said, “Sometimes late at night people are driving up and down the street looking for the right house to go to.”

Renting fewer than four bedrooms exempts Airbnb from state and local hotel taxes, McKenna said, so Winthrop is not seeing additional tax revenue as a result of the ordinance. (The final version of the economic development bill signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in August did not include MMA-supported language that would have changed the room occupancy tax by adding a classification for “transient accomodations,” which would have resulted in tax revenue from services such as Airbnb.)

The attorney general’s office did not review Winthrop’s ordinance, according to deputy press secretary Emily Snyder, but did review and approve a Manchester-by-the-Sea bylaw regulating Airbnb rentals and requiring licenses to operate. No licenses have been issued yet in Manchester-by-the-Sea, as the town continues to work on its application process.