I want to clear this up in an effort to slow down the circulation of misinformation.
The Fair Housing Act (FHA) does not apply to short-term rentals. Period. Neither it nor its exemptions are relevant to any stay that is for fewer than 30 days. Your Mrs. Murphy Exemption (if you even have one because I find that people are incorrect about their exemption more often than not), has nothing to do with whether or not you have to allow Service Dogs into your short-term rental.
If you are doing long-term rentals (30+ days), then the FHA will apply to you. It is true that you may qualify for one of the exemptions from the federal Fair Housing Act. However, and I cannot stress this enough, the federal FHA is only the beginning, it is not the final say.
49 states and DC have their own Fair Housing Acts. Many cities also have their own. Some of these other fair housing acts grant the same exemptions as the federal FHA, but many many do not. States and city fair housing acts are, for the most part, far more restrictive than the federal FHA. And you must comply with the most restrictive act that applies to you (they are also generally more complex, often giving one level of exemption for one protected class but a lower level of exemption for another protected class).
To illustrate a point, here are some of my favorite examples, using the federal exemption of being owner-occupied in a 4-units or fewer building specific to assistance animals:
Chicago: The feds give the exemption. The state of Illinois gives the same exemption. The city of Chicago doesn’t give any exemptions at all. So if you’re in Chicago the other exemptions are irrelevant.
My state in New England: The feds give me the exemption for both Service Dogs and ESAs because I am owner-occupied with 4-units or fewer (I have 3-units). My state FHA only gives an exemption if I’m owner-occupied with 2-units or fewer; however, the act only applies to Service Dogs, not ESAs, so I still get the federal exemption for ESAs but I don’t get an exemption for Service Dogs.
Massachusetts: They went with go-wicked-big-or-go-home and they specifically applied, by statute, all of their fair housing laws to short-term rentals. And the only exception is for owner-occupied 2-units or fewer. So if you’re in MA the length of stay is irrelevant and you’re only exempt if you live in your duplex or smaller.
But, again, this is only relevant if you are doing long-term stays (that is 30+ days at the federal level but may be as few as 28 days at your state or city level or 0 days if you’re in MA).
Federally, it is the ADA that may apply to a short-term rental (and the ADA only protects Service Dogs, not ESAs). The ADA protects the rights of people with disabilities to bring their Service Dogs into “public accommodations”. I put that in quotes because it is not specific to traveler accommodations but applies to the greater meaning of the word which is “businesses that serve the public” (banks, bars, hotels, sandwich shops, etc).
The jury is proverbially out on whether or not the ADA applies to short-term rentals in general. It has to do with the definition within the ADA of hotel-like accommodations. Most Airbnbs do not fit that definition (but the ADA is due for an update soon so that may change), so it is very unlikely that a host will have to deal with the feds regarding the ADA.
However, another caveat, many states and cities also have their own version of protections that is similar to the ADA. They are often called Public Accommodations laws or plainly Civil Rights laws and many of these do apply to your typical Airbnb. It is why Airbnb requires hosts in NY and CA to accept both ESAs and Service Dogs because NY and CA have very expansive Civil Rights laws.
So it is possible that you are exempt from all the fair housing laws that apply to you for LTRs and it is fairly likely that your business/Airbnb for STRs is either not considered a public accommodation or that you don’t have any state or local Public Accommodation or Civil Rights laws that apply to you, but Airbnb does require hosts to accept Service Dogs regardless.
