RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 3 (Reuters) - When Carlos Eduardo

Muzy first rented his beachside Rio de Janeiro apartment on

Airbnb ( ABNB ) in 2019, he just wanted some extra cash. What he got was

a career managing some 100 properties - and a front-row seat to

how the tech platform is transforming one of South America's

most famous tourist destinations.

In Rio's Ipanema neighborhood, there is now one Airbnb ( ABNB )

listing for every seven homes, a Reuters analysis of Airbnb ( ABNB ) data

collected by analytics firm AirDNA showed.

Since 2019, the oceanfront neighborhood made famous by the

bossa nova classic "Girl from Ipanema" has seen a 24% rise in

listings, in line with neighboring tourist hot spot Copacabana.

The surge has changed Rio's rental landscape, sparking

tensions in condo associations, bringing fresh competition for

hotels and creating businessmen like Muzy, who charge apartment

owners fees of 20% to 30% to manage their short-term rentals.

Like many, Muzy started small, renting his own Copacabana

apartment, but saw an opportunity when neighbors asked him to

manage theirs too. His rental-management firm SuhcasaCopacabana

employs 17 people and has accumulated around 5 million reais

($916,136.83) in reservations in the last 12 months.

"We basically double in size every year," he said about the

number of listings his firm handles.

Muzy books reservations through short-term rental platforms

like Airbnb ( ABNB ), but has also created his own site and opened a

storefront in Copacabana to offer hotel-like services, such as

free bag storage before check-in.

Rental management firms like Suhcasa often hire teams to

clean homes, wash linens, decorate and photograph properties -

and sometimes even cover the costs of minor repairs, which are

discounted from future rental revenue, owners told Reuters.

The emerging market is not without tensions in Rio, echoing

issues in other cities where Airbnb ( ABNB ) has taken hold.

In Mexico City, another hot Latin American destination

for tourists and remote-working "digital nomads," residents have

complained about the platform pushing up rental costs, leading

the government to tighten the rules for short-term rentals.

Experts say it may be a matter of time before authorities

push back in Rio, as they have also done in New York, Los

Angeles and Montreal.

"In Brazil it takes a little longer for these things to

happen," said Leonardo Schneider, vice-president of Secovi-Rio,

a real estate industry association. "But I have no doubt the

state will intervene."

Legal restrictions on short-term rentals are a possibility,

but Schneider said he believes authorities will want to tax

rental management firms now competing with hotels.

LONG-TERM RENTALS TAKE A HIT

Airbnb ( ABNB ) takes housing concerns seriously and is willing to

work with governments to establish good policies, share best

practices and partner to contribute to tourism, the firm said in

a statement.

The surge in short-term rentals started making waves in

Rio's real estate market a few years ago, Schneider said, making

long-term rentals harder to find in the most touristy

neighborhoods and complicating life for building managers.

Horacio Magalhaes, president of the Society of Friends of

Copacabana, a neighborhood association, even called a meeting

between administrators and a local law firm to explain legal

issues involving short-term rentals.

He said administrators' concerns ranged from annoyances like

tourists partying on work days to higher utility bills and

safety concerns about building access.

While some building managers looked for ways to ban

short-term rentals, most did not want to curb them for fear of

upsetting opposing owners who have come to rely on the revenue.

"They were just looking for guidance on how to create

rules," Magalhaes said. "The hard thing is to find a balance."

($1 = 5.4577 reais)