I live in a tourist hotspot and the short term rental business is so lucrative you can buy a house specifically for use as a short term rental and make a tidy profit even while the place sits empty for at least half the year. This area is also in the grips of a severe housing shortage for both buyers and renters that is driving sale prices and rents out of reach for average earners. I'm kind of torn on this, on one hand it's very thin ice to be telling someone else what they can do with their own property, but at the same time there is a moral issue around taking homes off the market for personal gain at a time when they are badly needed. I was on a local social media page yesterday and someone was complaining that they had friends coming to visit next month and the Air B&B they had booked in February had canceled on them. Someone else piped in and said she had three new ones coming on ine at the beginning of July, all three bedroom townhouses. Something in there doesn't feel right.