Does anyone have problems using AirBnB in a condo/townhouse?

I currently live in a single-family house, in a small PA town, but down the road I’ve considered selling and downsizing to a condo or townhouse, and continuing AirBnB as I still would find the side income useful.

Even with owning the unit, do HOA’s give grief to people renting out their spare rooms? they may say they don’t like people “using permanent residences as hotels” …but those who live in a condo or townhouse and never ran into problems using AirBnB, any tips are appreciated!

I don’t have direct experience, but an acquaintance told me her condo board forbids AirBnB. I asked how they would know, and she said they have a fancy key-fob system that makes it impossible to just duplicate the keys, and on top of that they have 24 hour security at the door. House guests need to be pre-approved and registered with security. Even without all that high-end end stuff, some buildings use special keys that cannot be duplicated at your local hardware store. My mother lives in an old-folks home that uses this kind of key - I went to several different hardware stores trying to get the key duplicated and the blanks simply weren’t available. I only found out afterwards that management restricts the number of keys and you have to pay like a hundred bucks to get one, and I think you’re only allowed to have one or two per unit.

husband’s condo hoa prohibits short-term rentals. Neighbors would turn him in at the first opportunity if he violated. His neighbors have young kids and they keep pretty careful tabs on strangers wandering around on their floor or who show up in the elevator.

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It’s totally dependent on the condo board! Every one is different. My HOA doesn’t care if we vacation rent, but its an entire neighborhood of single family homes.

Some county ordinances might prohibit it though. Check and see what applies in your area.

I would depend on the condo documents.

Even though our HOA allows STR, not by verbiage but by not having verbiage against STR, our neighbors still report us. The HOA can’t fine us for the STR, but instead they have come up with creative ways to make my life lively to say the least. On the flip side we also ABB a single family house, and those neighbors also abhore that we STR. So, I don’t think it really matter, expect in Cond situation you have more people that can complain.