Fair game
It’s not just government officials who are taking note of the booming homestay business.
Local professionals in the hospitality industry are starting to speak out against the largely untaxed, unregulated competition created by Airbnb.
For Susan Lanterman, who’s been running the Leathers-Snyder Bed & Breakfast on Ridge Street for nearly a decade, it’s a matter of what’s fair.
“There should be accountability,” Lanterman said. “I have to pay my taxes, and they go back into the city for things like repaving the roads, making parks beautiful. It comes back around, and we know we’re paying toward something that’s going to encourage more tourism. Airbnb people should be responsible for some of this.”
Money aside, Lanterman said she also worries about the integrity of Charlottesville’s hospitality industry.
“My concern is mostly that when people rent, they have a certain expectation,” Lanterman said. “And if somebody has a bad experience coming to Charlottesville, it affects all of tourism, in my mind.”
A 17-year city resident who’s been operating her bed and breakfast for a decade, Lanterman said Charlottesville’s transformed from a quirky little college town with a few historic attractions to a sought-after tourist destination. And despite the fact that hotels are still popping up throughout the city—the Courtyard Marriott at the corner of West Main and Ridge McIntire is well underway, and a Midlothian-based company has plans to build a Country Inn and Suites on Emmet Street—there will always be a need for smaller, more intimate lodging options, she said, and those guests who choose B&Bs are a specific breed.
“They look for interaction with other people, something quiet and homey,” Lanterman said. There are only six registered bed and breakfasts in Charlottesville, she pointed out, and the ever-growing number of unregulated Airbnb rentals is disconcerting. “Last time I looked at the website, there were 200-something listings on there. That’s real scary.”
Joyce Kaswandik, owner of reservation service Guesthouses, noted that the concept of Airbnb is not new to Charlottesville. In fact, she’s been a “matchmaker,” connecting travelers and visitors to local homeowners, since 1976. Guesthouses features rental properties in Charlottesville and Albemarle, most of which are owner-occupied (if not, Kaswandik said the owner is still close by). Travelers can choose between private rooms or suites in bed and breakfast style houses, suites with private entrances, or entire properties like cottages and log cabins. Kaswandik handles the booking, marketing, and deposit collections and pays the lodging tax for property owners. Unlike property management rental companies like Stay Charlottesville—which places visitors in upscale homes that often have out-of-town owners—she leaves it up to the hosts to maintain their accommodations and greet the guests.
It’s tempting for homeowners to get involved with homestay arrangements for the money, but Kaswandik said it’s essential that hosts get involved for the right reasons.
“I weed out the owners who are just doing it for the money, and look for those who are doing it because they have a true interest in hospitality,” Kaswandik said. “The first thing I want to know is that they’re really interested in meeting people and being hospitable.”
The problem with Airbnb, she said, is the lack of oversight, and the fact that hosts may or may not be playing by the same rules as nearby bed and breakfasts and inns vying for business from the same clientele.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with Airbnb,” Kaswandik said. “The problem has always been are they paying their taxes? Are they legally the owners of the properties, and do they carry insurance so the guest is truly in safe property? Are they being responsible renters?”
Some homeowners’ and renters’ insurance policies protect hosts from certain lawsuits resulting from injury to a visitor, according to Airbnb’s website. Airbnb recently partnered with insurance company Lloyd’s of London, and now provides free coverage of up to $1 million for hosts.
Even if an Airbnb host is in compliance with zoning and tax requirements, there’s still the risk that the guests coming to stay won’t treat the property with respect.
That’s what happened earlier this year to one unlucky New York resident, who rented his upscale one-bedroom Chelsea apartment out for $300 a night, only to come home and find it ransacked and still occupied by what he described to The New York Daily News as a “huge posse of large men and women in hip-hop attire.” The renter claimed to be in town for a friend’s wedding, but charged $20 a head for a “booty bash advertised on Twitter.”
Airbnb is paying the host $23,817 to cover the damages, according to the article. Luckily for hosts (and guests), Airbnbers use an Amazon-style review system to either shower one another with praises or warn others who to stay away from.
Even for seasoned hosts like Brown, it’s not always easy to determine which guests will be problematic. Renters of the main house tend to be a little more “hoity toity” than the more free-spirited travelers interested in the treehouse, she said, and she once found herself arguing with a family who insisted that the odor from the Murphy’s Oil Soap she’d used to scrub the hardwood floors before they arrived was actually the scent of cat pee.
Brown, who’s been renting her property out for about three years, said she went through the process of applying for and obtaining a business license, but she hasn’t yet begun paying the Transient Occupancy Tax, and no one from the city has approached her about it.
But in the meantime, she leaves a packet about local nonprofits in the treehouse for guests to flip through, and she donates $50 per person per stay to the charity of their choice.
“It was originally not for profit anyway,” she said of the little house, which she built for community groups to use at their leisure. “So now I use part of the money to go back into the community.”
Brown said she won’t complain if the city enforces the lodging tax on Airbnb hosts.
“I think that’s fair enough,” she said. “It’s a lot of tax dollars.”
City Councilor Dede Smith said she hopes the city can come up with regulations that aren’t too restrictive and don’t limit hosts’ ability to bring in money, both for themselves and the city.
“I see the appeal to it,” Smith said. “I see the advantage in terms of affordability. It’s another venue for making city life more affordable for residents.”