Short-Term Rental Enforcement Map

Background

In 2019, a city ordinance was passed regulating STRs within the city as an attempt to stop investors and corporations from buying up housing stock to turn into STRs. The licenses the city gives out is as follows:

Home Share Unit: A residential unit offered as an STR that is the operator's primary residence (operator is present for 9 months out of the year). Occupancy shall be limited to five bedrooms or ten guests in a home share unit, whichever is less. These units were given licenses typed HS.

Limited Share Unit: A residential unit that is the operator's primary residence, a portion of which is offered as a short-term rental while the operator is present. Occupancy shall be limited to three bedrooms or six guests in a limited share unit, whichever is less. One bedroom must be reserved for the operator. These units were given licences typed LS.

Owner-Adjacent Unit: A residential unit offered as an STR that is not the owner's primary residence but that is located within the same dwelling as the primary residence of, and is owned by said owner. Owner adjacent units shall only be allowed in two family or three family dwellings where all units are owned by the same unique owner-occupant who serves as the operator. These units were given licenses typed OA.

However, in this ordinance certain exceptions were made for STRs that would not fall under these categories. They are:

Currently Licensed Lodging Houses and Bed and Breakfasts: Units currently holding a valid Certificate of Occupancy as a lodging house or a bed and breakfast from Boston's ISD were exempt from these provisions. These units were given licenses typed STRBB or STRLH.

Furnished Institutional or Business Stays: The use of a residential unit for which a contract or agreement exists between the building owner, a corporate housing operator, and an institution or business, for the temporary housing of employees or individuals affiliated with such institutions or business, where the minimum stay is at least 10 days, shall not be considered a short term rental. These units are often entire houses. These units were given licenses typed STRES.

So, a unit with an STRES license that could be booked for less than 10 days would be in violation of their license.

Hospital Stays: The use of a unit or portion of a unit thereof for which a contract exists between the owner of the dwelling unit and a healthcare facility, government entity, or non-profit organization registered as a charitable organization with the SOC in Massachusetts that provides the temporary housing for individuals who are being treated for trauma, injury, or disease, or their family members, shall not be considered an STR. These units are often entire houses. These units were given licenses typed STRHS.

So, a unit that is able to be booked on AirBNB, by someone like me who is not being treated for trauma, injury, disease, a family member of one, nor is a traveling nurse, would be in violation of their license.

As of right now the city has one worker manually reviewing possible STR violations, with a supervisor position for the division that hasn't been filled since its creation with the ordinance in 2019. AirBNB has to comply with this by supplying data to the worker for audit. However, the data that AirBNB supplies is often over a month old, which is suboptimal for enforcement when operators delete and repost listings, create new accounts, and change up ownership often to either gain an algorithm boost or to circumvent enforcement.

Methodology

Data for listings was sourced from the most recent listing scrape in 2025 of Boston from InsideAirBNB.com, with data for licenses of 2026 coming from the City of Boston. Listings included a field for license number. Any listing that did not have a match in the license data set or was missing this value was marked to be mapped. Any listings that shared the same license from different locations, the one in the incorrect location was listed to be mapped. With the shortlist, using the listings, pictures, and public property records, the locations of the short term rentals (STRs) were triangulated, checked, and then mapped. After all were mapped, the points were checked against the original license dataset for accuracy.

Those of which on the map say "Potentially Noncompliant" are homes with a STRES license that are potentially in violation for any reason, mostly due to the minimum stay being under 10 days.

Findings

Using the methodology described above, we identified at least 1,040 listings associated with properties that exhibited one or more indicators of potential noncompliance with Boston’s short-term rental requirements. We found at least 388 buildings in Boston with AirBNB listings inside without a valid license, 12 buildings with STRES licenses (there are only 13 properties with these licenses) in possible violation, and 49 buildings with a hospital license in possible violation. OA, LS, and HS units were not scrutinized in this study, as proving their violations en masse would be impossible, but many more violations exist under these labels.

Corporate entities run the STRHS and STRES markets (and overwhelmingly ignore the regulations). Of the 12 STRES buildings on the map, 100% are corporate owned/operated. Of the 49 STRHS buildings on the map, 47 (96%) are corporate owned/operated.

Many high end luxury apartment buildings in the city in places like the Seaport, Ink Block, and East Boston are listing units as short term rentals through platforms such as Blueground or Furnished Quarters, either due to higher profits in STRs, or vacancy issues in luxury units.

Gentrifying neighborhoods are facing higher rates of these STRs, as Dorchester, Brighton, and Roxbury are the top 3 neighborhoods by building count.

Denser neighborhoods also face more of these, as investors can list out multiple units in the same building near downtown in places like Back Bay and Beacon Hill.

Repeat offenders are a common theme, as businesses like Together We Rise/Healing Homes, Evonify, and Alpha Management Company have 237 listings between them.

Regulatory Recommendations

Automatic Detection: Make sure AirBNB provides a live, up to date dataset that can interact with a program that would check each listing to active licenses, flagging ones that are violation for review/deletion.

Audit of Existing Exemptions: Go through existing exempt properties and deduct which are using it as a loophole to accept general bookings. Stronger verification measurements should be put in place for new units hoping to get the exemption.

Harsher Penalties: If a unit were to be found in violation of the ordinance as it stands today, the one time penalty is often less than what the STR charges for one night. Penalties that include increasing fines for repeat offenders, to the point of causing the STR to be unprofitable, a revocation of the license, or all licenses registered to the operator, would do a better job at discouraging blatant violations than what is in place now.

Additional Resources for Enforcement: Strengthening the enforcement team with more people and better technology to identify and fine violators. As suggested by a prior report from the IOC, the cost of additional staff could be financed through money collected from registration fees, STR taxes, and fines on violators.

Disclaimer

This map is an independent research project and is not an official determination by the City of Boston or any other governmental agency that a property owner, operator, or short-term rental listing has violated applicable law.

Properties shown on this map have been flagged as potentially noncompliant based on the research methodology described on this site, including comparisons of publicly available short-term rental listings, City of Boston registration and eligibility data, and public property records. Because these sources may be incomplete, outdated, changed after collection, or subject to interpretation, a property shown on this map may in fact be lawfully operated or otherwise compliant.

Inclusion on this map should therefore not be understood as an allegation or finding of unlawful conduct. Only the appropriate governmental authorities can make an official determination of compliance or violation.

The information reflects the data available to the researchers as of June 2026. We welcome corrections and additional information. Property owners or operators who believe a property has been incorrectly identified may contact jgillis@bu.edu, and we will review credible corrections and update the map where appropriate.