Emmy Jodoin lives next door to that house with her family. “It is loud, and there is live music and karaoke stuff, and it’s all done outside because of the pool,” she said. “They’re out in front at 4 in the afternoon waiting for their Uber to come, drunk on the front lawn.”

Homeowners had other complaints about guests, including trash bins overflowing with beer cans, public urination, catcalling, foul language, racist remarks, companies throwing events and the appearance of a rainbow-colored painted pony. “Sometimes, when they are outside, they’re playing beer pong just wearing their underwear,” said Hazel Oldt, age 11, who can see them next door from the third-floor rooftop garden of her house.

Many of the complaints result when there are well over six people staying at these houses. So how do owners get away with renting to more people than city rules allow? “Determining how many are occupying versus just visiting is almost impossible,” Carl Smart, who is the director of Austin’s code department, said, chuckling as he did so.

What was so funny? Had some of the guests been coached to say that they were related? “I think so,” he said. “There is no way for us to disprove or to prove it. We could ask them to, but they don’t have to, so we have to take their word for it.” KVUE, a local television station, tagged along with code enforcement officers who heard from guests at one house that there were triplets inside and that someone else was related to a fifth guest by marriage.

The neighbors would prefer that the city simply cap guests at six people — or, better yet, stop allowing what they describe as rogue hotels to operate in residential neighborhoods. (They have no problem with people renting out their entire homes occasionally or renting rooms more frequently, while the owners themselves are in residence.)