I guess I should have known it was coming. The front page of the local paper says that regulation is on the way for my town of 30,000. The proposal is to inspect our homes, similar to B&Bs, and tax us about 10% of our earnings. Maybe more. What a drag. We’ll probably be passing this on to our guests since our prices are quite low. I guess this is the trend.
Is this Northampton UK or somewhere else?
We have to have a licence but we’re not required to have inspections, (South Florida). But I don’t think it would worry me because I think that inspections are largely safety issues such as fire extinguishers and smoke alarms.
Can they really take 10% of your earnings? That seems weird unless it’s a TOT, which is something that we also have to pay here.
But yes, you definitely need to pass the costs on to your guests.
Northhampton, MA, home of Smith College and a very tolerant and liberal town in the Western part of the state. Well, it is really just west of central.
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It has always amused me that so many places in the USA are named after places in the UK! I still have the English mindset, I think 
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I did read Northampton as English at first but to be honest Americans write differently. A few sentences in and I’d realised…well by the time I got to ‘what a drag’.
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Ummm… when we were settled, you owned us!
Indeed we did! And now we’re back - well, I am
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The ten percent is just tax you need to get from the guest. The inspection thing might not be that big if a deal. Really they would have to hire a,whole department to inspect every ABB that exists!
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It’s Northampton, MA. I’ve been reading about cities imposing regulations to make Airbnb’s closer to B&Bs, but I didn’t think it would happen in our small city. Well, the local colleges I have refused to let Airbnb advertise housing because we are regulated. Maybe will be able to get some advertising at the colleges now.
Another MA town is looking at this too. Malden is not considered to be the “place to be”, but is coming up in the world. Good subway connections to the city, and still [almost] reasonable sale and rental prices. In the old days, “no one” went to Malden. Now they do.