With some cities moving to restrict and even outlaw Airbnb style rentals, guests and hosts alike may worry about staying on the right side of the law. Many of the local laws are concerned with apartments that are continuously rented out, rather than the host who occasionally rents a room in the apartment they live in. This is in part because those dedicated tourist rentals eat up housing stock in cities like NYC where affordable housing is already difficult for locals to find. And, if we're being honest, a portion of the Airbnb pushback seems to be coming from hotels who aren't happy about the competition. While Airbnb and other rental sites should prevent strictly illegal listings, sometimes it's not quite that simple. I stayed in a wonderful Airbnb in Tokyo in 2016, and was discomfited to read in mid 2017 that Airbnbs were finally legal in Japan! It seems that they previously operated in a complex legal gray area, or were outright illegal, depending on the rental type. We won't go into specific cities here, since regulations are always changing. However, hosts should always check with their city and state for any restrictions before advertising their home. Airbnb offers some assistance determining and staying in line with local laws here, and here. Guests are far less likely to get into legal trouble, but the worst case scenario of being denied lodging at the last minute, or kicked out of your rental mid-trip could still be disastrous for your vacation. It doesn't hurt to do some research make sure rentals like Airbnb are legal in your destination city.