That's because the lack of zoning in Houston is a huge shell game. Sure, there's no zoning, but there are still location rules that provide similar advances. For instance, if you construct or add to a hotel, you have to provide access via a limited access freeway or a four-plus lane road and cannot access it from a residential street, and it cannot be within a certain distance of a church, school, park, etc.

Which is relevant because hotels and AirBnBs are pretty similar.

I have heard of rules like this. I do think this is quite interesting because laws like this mean that de jure there is no zoning laws in houston but de facto you cannot do major developments without essentially abiding by some zoning laws that are not necessarily codified in the code. It does leave a lot more room open for interpretation than you would have in your typical city though.