Speakers:
- Grant Nelson, William H. Rehnquist Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law
- David Waddilove, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Project on the Foundations of Private Law, Harvard Law School
- Dale Whitman, James E. Campbell Missouri Endowed Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Missouri School of Law
Moderator: Amy Morris Hess, Emeritus Professor, University of Tennessee College of Law
In recent years, we have seen the increasing use of private homes, both apartments in urban areas and single-family homes in suburbia, for short term rentals—typically offering a room within the property for a few days at a time, much like hotels. There are a number of societal concerns about this practice—the spaces rented may not comply with health and safety standards required of hotels, the coming and going of strangers may be unsettling to neighbors, the lost hotel tax revenues can be crippling to local governments, and the spaces rented for the short term are not being made available for long-term housing. The panelists will tell us what is behind this phenomenon, how the regulatory regimes (both public and private) have responded to curtail it and comment on the impact on the emerging sharing economy, on communities, and on the meaning of rights in property.