Making the case for short-term rentals in Las Vegas

Not all of the more than 40 million tourists who visit Las Vegas annually stay at the 150,000 hotel rooms in the area. Some choose to stay in short-term rentals in the resort corridor and in neighborhoods throughout the valley.

By Paul Szydelko

Travel Weekly

More than 13,000 short-term rentals are listed in the Las Vegas area, according to AirDNA, a subscription-based service that provides market data and analytics for Airbnb and Vrbo listings.

According to Jackie Flores, founder of the Greater Las Vegas STR Association, about 40 percent are owner-occupied — people who live in their property and are renting a bedroom out of their house. The others are entire houses that are rented on a short-term basis (no more than 31 days).

But only about 7 percent of those listed have licenses to legally operate, even after a 2021 law passed by the Nevada Legislature that required local governments to adopt new regulations and strengthen enforcement mechanisms for short-term rentals.

“The vast majority of them are still operating in the shadows, which is why we have been advocating for them to make a process that's easy for people to get licensed,” Flores said.

Flores' organization filed a federal lawsuit on June 30 challenging the short-term rental regulations of Clark County and the state, which owners of those properties say violate their constitutional and property rights. The state law is too restrictive, Flores said, and it allows local entities to be even more restrictive.

“We have the right to rent our properties, and we know that the county and the state have a right to regulate things,” Flores said. “But what we're against is them making regulations that, in the process, violate our constitutional protection, and that's what they have done.”

The current laws

Before the state law was passed in 2021, short-term rentals were banned entirely in Clark County, home of the Las Vegas Strip. Clark County created its own regulations in 2022, limiting short-term rental licenses to 1 percent of total housing units (no more than 2,940 units for 2024) and forbidding short-term rentals within 1,000 feet of each other and 2,500 feet from hotel-casinos. The county accepted applications through a lottery.

It's an expensive, cumbersome process that discourages homeowners who want to rent out their property, Flores said.

According to a report in the Las Vegas Sun, as of March 24 only 174 licenses have been approved in unincorporated Clark County (which includes rental properties closest to the Strip); about 150 have been denied, and 515 applications are still pending. And no new applications are being accepted.

Other localities, such as the City of Las Vegas (with an average of 126 STR licenses, according to research provided by Flores), North Las Vegas (219) and suburban Henderson (350), add to the count of short-term rentals in Southern Nevada. But each jurisdiction has different requirements, restrictions and licensing staff.

The Nevada Resort Association and the Culinary Union, protective of the hotel-casinos in the tourist corridor, have been a powerful force in the fight against the short-term rental industry. But Flores said renters are sometimes large groups that need a big, private place because they don't want to stay in separate rooms on the Strip. And many of those renters end up visiting those resorts and casinos anyway, often multiple times, while in town.

“Even though they stay on our properties, they don't really stay the whole time,” Flores said. “They stay here to sleep, to cook, to hang out in the backyard, but they still go to the Strip and spend their money there. They go gamble, they go watch shows. They go to the fine restaurants out there.”

Other typical short-term rental occupants are people visiting family members who don't have a big enough home for them to stay. Those who are not interested in the Strip — people who want a more convenient base for outdoor recreation, or workers in town for a job assignment, for instance — may seek a short-term rental instead. Still others who have health problems or are recovering from surgery may want to be in a more private setting than a hotel.

And prices on the Strip may propel tourists to explore the STR market, Flores said.

“Now that everybody's seeing how expensive the Strip is getting, people are starting to look at short-term rentals as another option because it's affordable now for them to stay compared to the Strip,” Flores said.

Where agents fit in

While it's not common, travel advisors can have a role in finding short-term rentals for their clients, according to Flores.

“I know several property owners that work with individuals and companies ... where they do get commission for referring guests to the property. Even our association is starting to do that,” she said. “We're trying to bring those [travel advisors] to work with us, and then we can work with the property owners, as well.”