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Apartment landlords have been wrestling with the question of whether allowing tenants to rent their units out as hotel rooms on sites like Airbnb.com is an amenity or a nuisance for their tenants.
A new survey suggests there is a growing divide among baby boomers and millennials over the issue.
The survey, by the National Multifamily Housing Council and Kingsley Associates, found stark contrasts between a large swath of baby boomers who said they wouldn’t rent in a building if it allowed short-term rentals and younger renters who said they would see it as a perk.
Some 21% of renters between 25 and 34 years old said knowing a building allowed short-term rentals would positively affect their opinion of that community, with 11% saying they wouldn’t live in a complex that allowed short-term rentals.
By contrast, just 8% of those 65 years or older said they would see a permissive attitude toward short-term rentals as a perk, while 32% said they wouldn’t rent in such a building.
For landlords, these results raise the stakes. A decision in favor of short-term rentals could boost their pool of millennial applicants while alienating baby boomers, and vice versa. Both groups are critical components of many landlords’ tenant mixes.
“People are really trying to sort out the boomers and the millennials and how you market to both and how they all live together,” said Rick Haughey, vice president of industry technology initiatives at the National Multifamily Housing Council.
Ultimately, Mr. Haughey said, millennials are a better long-term growth opportunity.
“They’re clearly going to cycle through and your older groups are going to cycle out,” he said.
