New Hampshire’s Supreme Court has upheld a Portsmouth ordinance that doesn’t permit a couple to rent their second, adjacent home through sites like Airbnb.
Barbara Jenny and Matthew Beebe was renting out their house. But Portsmouth zoning regulations forbid hotels, motels and boarding houses that cater to short-term, “transient” occupancy in that area of the city. The couple argued that definition is too vague.
Robert Sullivan, attorney for Portsmouth, said the city views the short-term rental like a hotel operating in a residential zone.