Tourists Isabelle Milsom and Kieran Parker did not consider staying at a hotel when they planned their trip to Hobart. 

They quickly settled on two short-stay properties so they could explore the state's south, with the first stop in Ridgeway. 

"A lot of the time we'll stay at a property out in whoop-whoop sort of thing, so Airbnb is good for that, finding people's backyard granny flats and things like that," Ms Milsom said.

The Wollongong couple said they had no trouble finding accommodation options.

"I think the hardest thing was just picking one," Mr Parker said.

"There was a lot around, so we just had to make a decision." 

A new report commissioned by Shelter Tasmania has found that while the glut of short-stay options might be good for tourists, it has had impacts on people searching for houses to rent. 

The report, from the University of Sydney's Peter Phibbs, found greater Hobart was "overloaded" with short-term rentals, which were equivalent to 5.65 per cent of the area's residential rental market. 

That rate was 6.8 times more than Sydney, and 4.5 times greater than Melbourne. 

The study also found 47 per cent of Hobart's short-stay properties were previously long-term rentals. 

Professor Phibbs said that trend reflected how attractive Hobart was to tourists. 

"Tourists are prepared to spend a lot of money to stay for a couple of days in Hobart," he said.

"That's pushed short-term rental rates up, which has made it attractive for investors to park their property in the short-term rental market, rather than the long-term market."

But he said it resulted directly in renters finding it harder to find a place. 

"There might be 30 or 40 households trying to get the one long-term rental property, so as a result their search is longer, harder and the outcome for them a lot of times is more expensive rents," he said.

Short-stay accommodation crucial to economy, Airbnb says

Shelter Tasmania chief executive Pattie Chugg said the report provided clear evidence that finding affordable rentals was becoming increasingly tough all around the state. 

"I think now with this new report we would be really asking our state government to take notice of this and look at some ways of making some changes around regulation," she said. 

Housing Minister Guy Barnett said the state government had largely got the balance of short and long-term accommodation right, but it was holding a housing roundtable to hear new ideas. 

"It's a tough, tight rental market at the moment," he said.

"We're very aware of that and that's why we're having the roundtable to get the feedback," he said. 

In a statement, an Airbnb country manager Susan Wheeldon said short-stay accommodation was crucial to the state's economy. 

"While short-term rentals generally comprise a tiny proportion of the overall property market, including less than one per cent of that in Greater Hobart, we're keen to keep finding ways that we can make a positive contribution to this important issue," she said. 

The Hobart City Council voted to limit the issuing of short-stay permits in a bid to boost long-term rental availability, but Ms Wheeldon said the biggest ways to do so were by decreasing the numbers of unoccupied properties in the state and boosting housing stock.