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I am a 34-year-old Vermonter trying to plan my future. How will continue to afford my property taxes? How will I take care of my elderly parents? If I have children, how long will they need to live with me at home? So I decided to build a 730-square-foot cottage in my backyard last year. That was my solution. I would join the short-term rental marketplace as a temporary pathway towards a long-term goal of family security and future prosperity.
Short-term rentals, STRs, are accommodations rented for less than 30 days at a time. STRs are commonly advertised on platforms such as AirBnB and VRBO, and can be anything from a single room in a residential home to an under-utilized hundred-acre estate on top of a mountain. They are currently unregulated, as local municipalities have struggled to catch up with the rapid pace of innovation within the gig economy. Vermont state legislators are expected to address the issue of STRs in their 2021 session.