Bear Lake • Residents of this tourist destination straddling the Utah-Idaho state line say the communities here have long been close-knit, but new research shows that sense of neighborly connection may be disappearing.
Utah State University’s Community and Natural Resources Institute recently released results from a survey that show growing concerns among Bear Lake residents over the rising number of short-term rentals, such as Airbnb properties, in the area.
Alex Theophilus, a sociology PhD student and lead author of the report, said these properties may be contributing to the weakening of community ties. He spent months in 2024 interviewing residents of Garden City and Laketown in Utah, and Montpelier, Bennington, Paris, Fish Haven, and Saint Charles in Idaho, about their experiences.
“There’s not that same connection built season over season that people felt existed in the Bear Lake area,” Theophilus said. “They think short-term rentals are posing a threat to that.”
The rise of platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo throughout the 2010s, combined with a surge in tourism during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, spurred rapid growth in short-term rentals around Bear Lake, Theophilus said. This was made worse by the limited availability of hotels.
Research shifted focus
In the spring and summer of 2024, Theophilus and his research team conducted interviews with both full-time and seasonal residents of Bear Lake to understand how changes in the environment and community were affecting quality of life. While short-term rentals were not the original focus, the properties came up in nearly every conversation, Theophilus said.
One issue brought up by residents, he said, is housing affordability and availability. Many vacation rental owners don’t live nearby and treat these homes as investments to rent out during peak tourist season and earn some extra cash. This often means homes that could be used by year-round or seasonal residents are instead being taken off the market or built specifically for visitors.
Some residents surveyed worry that neighborhoods with many of these properties lose the stability and relationships that come from long-term neighbors, Theophilus said.
“People talked about how if too many of the houses in their neighborhoods are short-term rentals, then their kids don’t have neighborhood kids to play with,” he said, “because there’s this revolving door of people coming in and out of the community for that short-term rental, rather than building relationships with their neighbors in the longer term.”
There are also concerns about trash, parking disputes, and noise complaints tied to disrespectful renters, he added.
More than 1,000 Airbnb listings are spread across Rich County, Utah, and Bear Lake County, Idaho — areas with fewer than 10,000 permanent residents combined, Theophilus said. And Airbnb is just one of several short-term rental services in the area.
“There were lots of folks we talked to who were concerned that the community is developing in a way that caters to wealthier tourists or wealthier newcomers,” Theophilus said, “and that the values and considerations of longtime community members aren’t necessarily being taken into account as frequently as some folks wish they would.”
Existing regulations
Mitch Poulsen, executive director of the Bear Lake Regional Commission, said regulations for short-term rentals also vary sharply between the Utah and Idaho sides of the lake. While its residents still report concerns, Rich County, Utah, has had a permitting process for these properties for about seven years, with some basic rules, he said.
But Bear Lake County, Idaho, has almost no regulations, leading to overcrowded properties, camping in yards and overloaded septic systems, Poulsen said. In some cases, he added, old farmhouses with just one or two bedrooms are packed well beyond their capacity with large groups.
“I would like to see them regulated,” Poulsen said. “The attitude right now is let the market dictate, and I just don’t know that’s a good idea. When you’ve got houses that have 60 and 80 people in them, it’s not really a residence anymore.”
He feels Utah’s requirements, which call for a license and limits on guests and parking, are not particularly burdensome.
“It’s just unfortunate,” he said, “that Idaho can’t see that.”
Regulation on the Idaho side would have to come from the state Legislature. Some homeowner associations here have taken matters into their own hands. Kevin McLeod, president of the Bear Lake West HOA, said his community bans short-term rentals to protect amenities like pools and water usage.
“When these large groups rent these homes, it impacts your amenities,” McLeod said. “It impacts everything.”
Bear Lake West’s ban on short-term rentals was written into its governing documents before the Idaho Legislature passed a law limiting new HOA restrictions on them. That change prevents newly formed HOAs from outright banning short-term rentals — but communities like Bear Lake West that had preexisting restrictions are allowed to maintain them.
Since then, McLeod said the HOA has continued to survey its members on whether short-term rentals should be allowed.
“Far and away the majority has been ‘no,’” he said, “so we’ve not moved that direction.”
