Short Term Rental Sites Like Air BnB Under Scrutiny in Mass.

Air BnB under scrutiny by Lynnfield town leaders after deadly mansion shooting on Sunday.

Lynnfield town leaders are scrutinizing short term rental sites like Air Bnb after a deadly mansion shooting on Sunday.

"This is something where technnology is ahead of the towns ability to track it and regulate it," says Lynnfield town administrator James Boudreau.  But he isn't ready to say there's a direct correlation between this shooting and short term rentals.  Instead, Boudreau is using this opportunity to revisit an existing ordinance in town banning short term rentals which needs some updating.

"There's a conflict in our bylaw.  In one section it says you can't run this type of home in a residential zone.  Then there's another section where it says in the by laws, you can have up to five people you can have rentals," says Boudreau.

The shooting happened at Alex Styller's Mansion.  He rents it on Air BnBand Homeaway for several thousand dollars a night and says up to this point, there have been no problems.

"Everytime I rent it, I do a lot of due diligence," says Styller.

It's now the scene of an on going murder investigation, but Styller says that what happened over the Memorial Day Weekend has nothing to do with his rental business.

"Look at the statistical data.  You see millions of rentals which went perfectly fine," says Styller.

He's against strict enforcement and potential new regulations and says this incident is not a relfection of the entire industry.

"This is isolated accident, which can happen anywhere," says Styller.

There will be a public hearing on this isue and town leaders will meet again in the Fall to discuss the next steps.  Currently there are no state laws regulating this industry.

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