Dwelling Under the Platform: The Sustainability Paradox and Governance Approaches of Short‐Term Rentals

ABSTRACT As a prominent form of the platform economy, short‐term rentals have reshaped global tourism and urban space, making their sustainability impacts a core concern for scholars and policymakers. Using PRISMA 2020, we systematically screened 3495 records from Web of Science and Scopus, identifying 100 high‐quality core studies for thematic analysis. We develop an original analytical framework of the “digital sustainability paradox” to unpack the intertwined positive and negative effects of short‐term rentals across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The findings suggest that sustainability in this sector is less a technical or market issue than a governance challenge, whose trajectory depends on power relations and institutional arrangements among platforms, governments, communities, and users. We propose an adaptive governance framework that transcends “one‐size‐fits‐all” regulation, advocating context‐sensitive, multi‐level, and participatory policy design to balance innovation, justice, and resilience.