Short-term rentals booked through platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo can be an attractive option for large families or groups visiting Las Vegas and looking to save a buck and avoid paying for several hotel rooms.

However, permits for short term rentals in Southern Nevada are hard to come by. 

There are only 208 licensed short-term rental listings (defined as units or rooms available for less than 30 days) in Clark County as of October, but flying under the radar are 14,000 illegal listings, according to Inside Airbnb, a website that scrapes and publicizes Airbnb listings in an effort to lobby against the company. 

The county has sparingly issued permits since Nevada lawmakers in 2021 passed AB363, which lifted the prior ban on short-term rentals. But frustrations over the county’s slow licensing process led a coalition of short-term rental owners to file a federal lawsuit in June against the county claiming the rules impede “fundamental rights of property owners.” 

It’s the latest development in the long struggle between the short-term rental industry and the state’s powerful casino resort industry — with the county caught in the middle and accused by short-term rental owners of siding with the Strip.

“It’s very complicated, and I think we’re trying to do it the right way,” Clark County Commission Chair Tick Segerblom said in an interview with The Indy. “From my perspective, there’s no rush because I don’t like them anyway.” 

The licensing process 

Prospective short-term rental licenseholders were required to enter a lottery before their eligibility could be tested — this application period was open from September 2022 to March of 2023.

The process to list a short-term rental in Clark County is arduous, critics say. Under the county ordinance, properties must be at least 2,500 feet away from a resort hotel, 1,000 feet from other licensed short-term rentals and 660 feet from other rentals. Owners must live on the premises and can only have one license, and the units are subject to random inspections.

There is a cap of about 23,000 licenses the county can issue, which is based on county population. The permits have to be renewed annually and fees for the first year are either $945 or $1,695 depending on the size of a home. 

Segerblom is openly against short-term rentals and has said he would prefer they be banned. But he said the county has done the best it can processing new applications, while acknowledging the licensing process was “a moving target.” 

“We’re slowly getting there,” he said, adding that he would like to see no more than 1,000 or 1,200 short-term rentals licensed. 

Airbnb host Jackie Flores, founder of Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association, said the rules imposed by the county unfairly penalize homeowners and represent an effort to quell competition on behalf of hotels. Major players in the resort industry have been vocally opposed to short-term rentals.

“The court will see that property owners in Las Vegas are facing harm due to the county’s inability to put a functioning licensing system in place,” Flores said. “Once you start looking into it, you realize it’s actually a ban in disguise.”

Flores said the cost of violating county regulations can be steep — fines range from $1,000 to $10,000 a day for failing to comply with the county’s rules or not having a license. 

However, many of these laws go unenforced with the huge number of illegal listings in Las Vegas.

The county has pressured Airbnb to comply with the new rules and remove the 14,000 or so illegal listings on their platform, though a judge temporarily blocked the county’s short term rental ordinance late last month. 

Airbnb does not reveal the addresses of their units until someone rents it, which can make it difficult for the county to find illegal listings unless a neighbor or citizen files a complaint.

Airbnb did not respond to questions on the legislation in time for publication.

State regulation, county implementation 

Prior to the passage of AB363 in 2021, Clark County banned Airbnb and short-term rentals entirely. The bill's sponsor, then-Assm. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas), said she was shocked to find out about the ban while seeing a large number of Airbnb listings in her neighborhood. Her intention in bringing the bill was to ensure there was some oversight for unregulated listings. 

“We wanted to protect the community, to protect affordable housing and protect the safety of our tourists coming into the city,” Nguyen, now a state senator, said in an interview. 

According to Nguyen, coming up with a bill that appeased both sides was difficult but needed to be tackled. 

“I don’t think anyone came out of that particularly happy,” Nguyen said. “But this was something that everyone recognized that we had to address in our community. You also had a lot of input from community members that were seeing like a ‘hotel-ing’ of our neighborhoods.” 

Nguyen said she couldn't comment on the lawsuit, but said it was clear some people were displeased with the implementation. When asked if more could be done to increase the number of licenses, Nguyen said it was a question best answered by Clark County. 

“They’re the ones running this show,” Nguyen said. “It’s a big undertaking to come up with a new regulatory licensing structure, new ordinances and enforcement, so I think there are some growing pains.” 

Clark County declined to comment on the implementation process for licensing, citing the ongoing lawsuit. 

With potential declines in tourism and complaints of high prices and inflation, anything hurting revenue streams for the Las Vegas Strip — which saw nearly $9 billion in revenue in 2024 — is being heavily questioned by local leaders. According to Segerblom, the county designed its 2021 regulations to protect the city’s tourism industry. 

“That’s our lifeblood,” Segerblom said of The Strip, “So anything we can do to protect Culinary workers and Strip hotels, I support it.” 

During a 2021 hearing on AB363, Nevada Resort Association President Virginia Valentine said it was essential to regulate short-term rentals in order to protect the economic heart of Nevada — resorts. The Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which represents hotel and casino workers, has also publicly supported the legislation to limit short-term rentals.

“As the state's largest taxpayer, the resort industry pays a long list of general business and industry-specific taxes,” Valentine said during the hearing. 

In a statement to The Nevada Independent, a Nevada Resort Association spokesperson said short-term rental agencies, as well as hosts, should follow local laws “just like hotels,” meaning they should license their properties and remove illegal listings. 

Pushback from residents 

Many locals are not pleased with short-term rentals. Users on local forums such as Reddit, X and Facebook have dismissed Airbnb rentals as “party houses” that attract loud tourists. Instructions on how to report illegal rentals have popped up online, with locals encouraging others to “do their part” by helping delist unlicensed rentals. 

Dane Madsen, a Vegas area resident who was on the board of a now-shuttered short-term rental company, said he loves Airbnb as a consumer but understands the hesitancy from people who live in the area. 

“A community needs to preserve its community,” Madsen said.

He said the idea of Airbnb being disruptive is enough for entire cities to turn on them. 

“It only takes one kind of party house to taint the perception,” he said.

Madsen’s chief concern was the effect on Las Vegas’ housing market. He said short-term rental owners can buy houses and make a return on their investment within a year, taking that property off the market for locals and further straining the housing supply. Studies of other cities have shown that Airbnb does decrease the supply of long-term rentals and can lead to minor increases in housing prices. 

“We have a housing problem in this city,” Madsen said. “It’s not like Airbnb set out to kind of change the housing market. They saw a need for short-term rentals, and they wanted to make money. The whole broader picture has become much more unintentional.” 

Mark Tremblay, an economics professor at UNLV, said his research shows that San Francisco’s long-term housing prices dropped significantly after the city removed nearly 50 percent of its Airbnb listings in 2018. 

However, Tremblay said a near total ban on the company would likely hurt those who used the app as a secondary income source. He said nuanced and moderate regulation would allow Airbnb and other short-term rentals to operate without drawing community or governmental ire. 

“We don't want Airbnbs to be completely unregulated due to noise. … No one wants a hotel as a neighbor,” Tremblay said. “These are fair points. At the same time, you don’t need to ban Airbnbs to solve some of these issues.” 

Madsen said it’s a case where the interests of Las Vegas locals and the gaming industry overlap. According to Madsen, resorts fear Airbnb and other online short-term rental businesses will decrease hotel revenue, while locals might not want disruptive short-term rentals in their communities. 

“The communities that don’t want to have a plethora of Airbnbs would certainly receive a benefit from the casino lobby winning, but the reality is that the casino lobby doesn’t give a crap about the communities,” Madsen said. “It just so happens that their interests happen to align in this case.”