Looking For A Seattle Floating Home For Rent On Airbnb?

Or, Are you thinking about renting your Seattle floating home on Airbnb or some other short terms rental platform? It isn’t legal.

We get a lot of calls asking if Seattle floating homes are for rent by the night and the short answer is no.  The majority of the docks have rules against this activity anyway, but the lure of Airbnb income can cause some owners to go ahead and offer their homes up for rent anyway. The Seattle floating homes you find online for short term rental rates and periods are likely operating outside of the law. It is currently illegal to offer your Seattle floating home up for short term rent and beginning in January 2019 ALL types of Seattle houseboats for rent on Airbnb will be operating outside of the law.

The Law against renting your Seattle floating home on Airbnb:

This commercial use is prohibited in the Urban Residential shoreline environment by SMC 23.60A.540. Short-term residential rentals and meeting hall and office uses are defined as commercial under our land use code. See SMC 23.84A.024 (lodging), 23.84A.010 (entertainment uses) and 23.844.028 (office).

The Consequences of Your Seattle floating home for rent on Airbnb or other short term rental:

When a violation is recorded, reported, etc., the city will first send out a warning letter to explain the violation and to allow time for the home owner to comply. Compliance is usually achieved by removing any ads from AirBnB.com, VRBO.com, etc., and discontinuing any short-term rental activity immediately. If corrective action is not taken within a fairly generous time period, then the city will issue a Notice of Violation with fines accruing at $150.00 per day for the first 10 days and $500.00 per day thereafter until the violation is corrected. 

My two cents:

Whether you agree with this or not, there are a lot of reasons why a Seattle floating home for rent on Airbnb should not be allowed.  Privacy, safety, and liability come to mind immediately, but also respect your neighbors by not inviting in a parade of strangers to add wear and tear on our community owned dock and systems.  We are stewards of a fragile ecosystem and are extremely fortunate to have the privilege to be caretakers of this natural beauty and community.  To operate a short term rental violates trust – both with your neighbors most of the time and also with the city which is clear:  They are illegal.

PLEASE HELP

See an ad or short term rental activity?  Please protect our floating neighborhood and report it:

If your neighbor is renting their Seattle floating home on Airbnb or other type of short term rental, then you will want to know how to stop this illegal behavior:  You can call The City Of Seattle’s Code Compliance complaint line at 206-615-0808 or use the Seattle Services Portal online. Complaints can be anonymous but keep in mind that you’ll want to be very accurate with locations and information when doing so as it leaves the city with no way to follow up and gather missing facts. Some people include slip numbers/marina names in the body of the complaint when it’s difficult to input them in the online tool.

Please feel free to email me if you have questions.  I am trying to get the word out to protect my beloved community.  – Courtney  [email protected]