Threat of Short-term Rentals to mountain towns

https://www.outsideonline.com/2198726/did-airbnb-kill-mountain-town

This is becoming an issue around here LP, Jay, Wilmington all have seen a huge jump in these Short term rentals.

Yup, big deal in Colorado. Messing up an already expensive long term market. But this is an issue world wide in any tourist destination. I recently saw a report about Iceland, which has a very hot tourist market at the moment, and young people are moving out of the country because housing has gone through the roof. I'm sort of conflicted, because I'm starting to use AirB&B in my retirement travels. There are some awesome deals out there, especially if you stay longer than a month, when serious long term discounts kick in. I'm about to pull the trigger on one in northern Italy for the month of November, and that with points on my card for the flight s going to be a very affordable trip. I was at a gathering last year with a bunch of Boomers, and all had used Air for recent Euro trips. But, I'll bet I'm making it just a little harder for even a middle class Italian to find an apartment in that city.

That's horrible.  The guy in the article is being forced out of his home so it can become a STR.  IMO that's basically eminent domain being used for private gain.

This also happens in large cities and other tourist destinations.  Areas that were once tight nit, thriving communities are being turned into Stratton style homogenized resort villages.  I will never use airbnb or VRBO after reading this.

snoloco wrote

That's horrible.  The guy in the article is being forced out of his home so it can become a STR.  IMO that's basically eminent domain being used for private gain.

This also happens in large cities and other tourist destinations.  Areas that were once tight nit, thriving communities are being turned into Stratton style homogenized resort villages.  I will never use airbnb or VRBO after reading this.

It's not his home, he rents it. It's a sad story but it's the way things go. He would be better served to contact the owner and convince him that his property would be in better shape if he let him stay, offer to be more than a tenant. Get facts to show that the STR route will not be as advantageous for them. Become a partner with the landlord.

PeeTex wrote

snoloco wrote

That's horrible.  The guy in the article is being forced out of his home so it can become a STR.  IMO that's basically eminent domain being used for private gain.

This also happens in large cities and other tourist destinations.  Areas that were once tight nit, thriving communities are being turned into Stratton style homogenized resort villages.  I will never use airbnb or VRBO after reading this.

It's not his home, he rents it. It's a sad story but it's the way things go. He would be better served to contact the owner and convince him that his property would be in better shape if he let him stay, offer to be more than a tenant. Get facts to show that the STR route will not be as advantageous for them. Become a partner with the landlord.

From a practical point of view that is his best strategy. On the bigger level, I wonder why the millennial/hipster crowd is so enamoured of this trend. I understand saving money but it seems like the same folks who want to raise the minimum wage and mandate every benefit in the book for hotel workers have no problem undercutting the whole system. The Uber/Lyft business model raises the same issue. It's called a "ride sharing" app because it was originally presented as a way for somebody who is, for instance, going to the airport, to pick up another person going in that direction and get a little cash for his/her troubles. The STR/AirBnB was supposed to be similar. You have an apartment or home in a cool spot and you're gonna be out of town so you get to monetize your real estate while you're not using it. Both have morphed (or we're always meant to be) into something else. They benefit from being more lightly regulated then traditional businesses in the same field. Liberals should object to this based on exploitation or undercutting of low paid workers and conservatives should object based on a desire for a level playing field.
Regarding the lack of affordable housing in mountain towns, it seems like that's an old story. Of course the STR trend will make it worse.

The millennials like Matt don't care about whether or not their actions cause harm to others, they like to think they have a purpose but at the same time the want it all, the want it now and they want it for free. I like to think of them as a bunch of cats, the Me-now generation.

PeeTex wrote

The millennials like Matt don't care about whether or not their actions cause harm to others, they like to think they have a purpose but at the same time the want it all, the want it now and they want it for free.

Thats pretty rich coming from the generations preceding, who have since the 1980's cut taxes to the lowest levels since the great depression but left spending at levels that have caused us to run deficits since then. So if you want to talk about "want it all, but for free", take a good look in the mirror because you have been living it.

Anyways, back to the AIRBNB issue.

This is just another example of an impending housing issue the country faces in the years to come. Affordable home ownership was the backbone of the rise of the middle-class in the late 40's- 1960's. If you consider the build out of suburbia and how that dynamically changed the cost of living it was virtually unparalleled in modern history. As build out of land has occurred, home prices have increased and with it rental prices increase. AirBNB is just another layer of investment realestate that removes homes from the market.

Eventually its going to need to be regulated, near me a few towns already have 30 day per year limits for AirBNB type rentals.

evantful wrote

PeeTex wrote

The millennials like Matt don't care about whether or not their actions cause harm to others, they like to think they have a purpose but at the same time the want it all, the want it now and they want it for free.

Thats pretty rich coming from the generations preceding, who have since the 1980's cut taxes to the lowest levels since the great depression but left spending at levels that have caused us to run deficits since then. So if you want to talk about "want it all, but for free", take a good look in the mirror because you have been living it.

Actually the federal revenue as a percent of GDP had been relatively flat.

The issue is that spending has been increasing.

(Source: usgovernmentspending.com)
That's not my fault, I didn't vote for the welfare state the Matt wants.

AirBnB needs to be on the same accommodation tax plan as hotels for short rentals and be considered as a lease for longer term rentals. Otherwise it's just tax avoidance.

@ Brownski +1

My take is that these STR need to be aggressively policed for paying state and county lodging taxes so that they don't unfairly compete with local legit hotels and inns.  They're also should be either a max of less than 30 days they should be allowed to STR per year or better yet set the min rental period to be 30 days to prevent this altogether.

NYC already has done this.  They don't allow short term rentals less than 30 days and will fine you big time if they catch you.  Since they already have a lack of affordable middle income housing units, having lots of STR's will only make it worse.

Mountain housing for local workers has been a problem for as long as there have been workers at and around ski resorts. There is nothing new about that. When resorts fail to hire enough workers to operate, they will have to raise wages and/or offer some kind of housing subsidy.

Short term rentals have been around for decades. Now that owners have direct contact with the renters, they have been able to cut out the rental agents. It is hard to fault owners for going this route. Trying to make money with a ski house is very difficult.

F- having more government regulations.

I agree with X and RA.  I don't want more gov't regulations.  Affordabile housing in ski towns or the lack thereof has nothing to do with Airbnb or HomeAway.  Furthermore, I don't want or need big brother telling me what I can do with my own properties and/or homes.  It's one thing if I am buying in a homeowner's association where there are written rules/by-laws, but absent that, I agree with RA's sentiment.

Federal Tax receipts as percentage of GDP isn't the best comparison, just like using Federal Spending as a Percentage of GDP isn't. Deficit is deficit.

And government spending increases have occurred almost irregardless of political control. So you may think you didn't vote for a welfare state or a military state, but you sure did vote for someone who continued spending in spite of the fact the deficit continued to increase.

The point is that its alittle ridiculous for you to take some image you created of a generation and mischaracterize the group as such. Then you try to say, in spite of your generation having no issue with 'free lunch', that you aren't amongst them.

Back when you had to go through a rental agent, it was more difficult to make money off of these short term rentals because you had to pay the agent.  They also likely had standards for what condition the property needed to be in to be rentable and will be more cautious about who to rent to.  If a rental agent rents the house to a prom group that decides to have an out of control party and wrecks the house, the owner will likely put the blame on the rental agent.  While some STR hosts are careful about who to rent to, others just don't care if they have a party house.  Rental agents had to assume that everyone cared about who to rent to.  Now that one can just throw a listing on airbnb, it makes it so much easier to do, so there has been a huge increase in these short term rentals.  The town that I live in has also seen a huge increase in STR's and there have been complaints about people leaving food garbage outside after a party and it attracting bears.  Most of the hosts live in the city and bought second or 3rd houses up here for the sole purpose of renting them out.

Airbnb, VRBO, and similar sites were originally developed to allow people to monetize downtime on real estate.  Because it's so easy to use, you get these wealthy "brokers" buying up everything they can get their hands on and renting it out to make even more money.

I see two sides to this, having an investment and renting it as an airbnb is a way a hard working local can make it in a growing mountain town.

Let the market dictate where this goes without more government regulations. If people want to be somewhere than let em live out of their vehicles or in two bedroom apartments with 4 roommates. If it gets too out of control then people will leave and ski areas and community members will be forced to fix the problem.

Yeah RA. I hear ya. That's kind of my default position too, on most things. Let people work crap out for themselves. But over the years we've put all kinds of burdens on the folks already in the business. We're not just talking about huge companies like Mariot or vail (who actually benefit the most from over-regulation in many ways) but also folks trying to operate actual BnBs, small real estate companies etc... there's a legitimate level playing field/ rule of law issue here in my opinion.

Regarding mountain town housing, of course the article chooses the most sympathetic figure possible as it's example, somebody with kids trying to build a middle class existence. Of course that guys gonna have a hard time. It's like whining that you can't live in Scarsdale or the Hamptons, right? Tough shit. The obvious answer is that he's gonna have to live further away. As we've mentioned, that's a problem that existed before AirBnB.

When it was me working at Alpine, I lived up in Truckee with five other people as you suggest people do now. Young people with no kids, married or not, can do whatever they want. If I could turn back time I would have stuck with my van full time or else packed in even more people into the rental.

There's this too...
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/local/colorado/2017/05/07/aspen-resort-acquires-more-tiny-homes-employees/312363001/
If resorts don't want to pay more, they're gonna need to do shit like this a lot more.

Do you guys think that STR's should be taxed the same as Hotels or brokered STRs?

Yes