Tag: airbnb

Categories
Culture Living

Out, out and away

A cabin within driving distance is a nice change of pace during the ongoing pandemic. he Potomac Appalachian Trail Club offers great choices, such as Charlottesville’s own Dunlodge. Courtesy of PATC

By Erika Howsare

Most of us have experienced some degree of cabin fever during the past year. As we near the anniversary of the dramatic upheaval brought on by the pandemic, we look back on a full 12 months lived much closer to home than many folks are used to. At the same time, spring is coming. How can we safely stretch our wings?

Hopping a plane to the usual spring-break destinations is not the smartest idea right now. Neither is road-tripping, unless you have an RV or another way to avoid public restrooms and hotel stays. For the COVID-cautious traveler, renting a standalone cabin or cottage might be your best bet. The only caveat is, as with RVs and campgrounds themselves, demand for such rentals is high. Be prepared to plan ahead.

We’re lucky to have an excellent state park system in Virginia, and many of our parks offer lodgings. Some of these are as comfortable as your average suburban home. James River State Park, for example, has 16 modern cabins (from $129) with board-and-batten siding, fireplaces, big porches and decks, and conveniences from microwaves to air conditioning.

At Belle Isle State Park, the Bel Air “mansion” (a slight exaggeration, though the 1942 Colonial-style home is certainly lovely) and a smaller guesthouse offer refined stays near the Rappahannock River. And Hungry Mother State Park in Marion offers 20 cabins starting at $84, some of which were log-built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. Though these retain their rustic character, they don’t ask you to give up any of the conveniences of home (except TV—but hey, isn’t this supposed to be a getaway?).

A total of 25 state parks contain cabins, and some provide more unusual lodgings. Check out the yurts at places like Lake Anna State Park and First Landing State Park (from $75). Think of the yurt as a big, sturdy tent—it offers no electricity or running water, nor cooking facilities, so plan on cooking or grilling outdoors. In the warm months, other parks, like Westmoreland State Park near the mouth of the Potomac, rent “camping cabins” starting at $47—electrified but not heated or cooled, and lacking kitchens and bathrooms.

A somewhat clunky reservation system at virginiastateparks.reserveamerica.com is the way to secure your state park cabin—and you’ll have to work around some COVID restrictions, like 24-hour rest periods between visitors. During the pandemic, the parks aren’t providing linens as they usually do. Go anyway; it’s worth it.

Our backyard national park, Shenandoah, is another great option, with two rather different sets of cabins starting at $135. Lewis Mountain cabins are off Skyline Drive in the upper elevations of the park. They offer comfy bedrooms and bathrooms, outdoor cooking areas, heat and electricity. Shenandoah River cabins are down in the valley, right on the waterfront, and more luxurious—each one has a hot tub, even the Vintage River Cabin that dates back to the 1700s. Jockey for reservations at nationalparkreservations.com.

There’s another way to experience cabin life in Shenandoah and other areas, if you’re not afraid to go primitive. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club maintains 42 cabins, in an area stretching from the southern end of Shenandoah up into Pennsylvania. While some do have modern amenities, most are free of electricity, heated by wood stoves, and—in some cases—reachable only on foot, with your gear on your back.

The closest of these to Charlottesville (besides one called Dunlodge that’s actually located right here in town) is called Doyles River ($45), and it’s less than half a mile off the Appalachian Trail. It’s primitive and, like some of the state park cabins, was built by the CCC. There are other PATC cabins in and around Shenandoah—like the Argow Cabin ($55), boasting big mountain views—and the Vining Cabin ($100), with electricity inside and solar panels on the roof. But Doyles River is one of the select PATC cabins that doesn’t require you to buy a $40 annual membership.

Read more, and link to the reservation system, at patc.net. But note: The pandemic has restricted PATC cabin rentals to weekends, and all stays have a two-night minimum.

Of course, in the age of Airbnb, we’d be remiss not to point out that there are scores of privately owned rentals scattered throughout the land, representing all manner of styles, price ranges, and quirky amenities. A few that invite a second look: an $84-a-night treehouse in Sandston, just east of Richmond, which has a hot tub, a fire pit, and a cute loft-type bed reached by a ladder. Or a sleek, modern shipping-container house in Forest, near Lynchburg, can be yours for $145 per night. Down in Farmville, a cottage on a goat farm goes for $114 a night. (Baby goats just born on February 8, says the listing!)

You may not need to stray very far at all to find an escape. Six miles from downtown Charlottesville is a $125-a-night “Tiny Tree Cottage,” essentially a tiny house with rustic detailing and a roof deck featuring hammock swings. For almost anyone, that sounds like a real change of pace.

Categories
News

Show them the money: Revenue commissioner says no to Airbnb collecting local occupancy taxes

Airbnb says it has 1,100 listings in the Charlottesville area.

Over graduation weekend, Fry’s Spring resident Chris Meyer rented his house for a “ridiculous amount of money to someone from California,” he said at City Council May 20.

He appeared before council to complain about the difficulty he encountered in getting the proper city permits and in trying to remit the transient occupancy tax, and asked councilors: Why not do what Alexandria and Blacksburg do and have Airbnb collect the lodging tax? He also suggested raising the rate from 7 percent to 15 or 20 percent, and using that money for affordable housing rental vouchers.

Mayor Nikuyah Walker commended his “very different perspective,” and councilor Kathy Galvin noted that in 2018, the city lost about 250 housing units to short-term rentals.

Commissioner of Revenue Todd Divers is not enthusiastic about the idea of turning lodging tax collection over to a “multinational corporate entity that has repeatedly shown its willingness to flout tax, zoning, and regulatory structures all over the world.”

In a memo to City Council and City Manager Tarron Richardson, Divers says his office is doing a “fantastic” job of collecting transient occupancy tax of licensed homestays—over $1 million since the city created a hotel residential permit a few years ago.

His problem with having Airbnb collect the lodging tax is that the company will not disclose the identity and location of hosts, nor will it allow the city to audit its tax records more than once every four years, which means the city has to take Airbnb’s word it’s collecting all the taxes. Meanwhile, the city still must make sure hosts have business licenses and homestay permits.

Divers also questions how Airbnb can determine the appropriate jurisdiction for an Albemarle rental with a Charlottesville address.

“We’ve done this all over the world,” says Airbnb spokesperson Liz DeBold Fusco. Airbnb has collected more than $1 billion in taxes in 400 municipalities. “I’m not sure why [Divers] thinks our methods don’t work.”

She also “vehemently” disagrees with his characterization the company flouts regulations. “We think that’s baseless.”

Divers points out that 189 jurisdictions in Virginia collect lodging taxes, and he contends that rather than asking why Charlottesville doesn’t follow the Alexandria/Blacksburg model, the question should be, “why did 187 other jurisdictions in Virginia reject it?”

In Meyer’s case, Divers says someone who rents out his home once or twice a year, is “de minimis” by taxation standards, which means the person doesn’t have to get the short-term rental permit. “I’m not going to make you do anything” as far as trying to collect the lodging tax, says Divers, although one is still free to pay the tax if he wants.

However, he’s still checking the Airbnb website, and if someone claims to have an infrequent rental and he finds out otherwise, “I’m going to come to get you,” says Divers.

Meyer met with Divers after the City Council meeting, and learned he didn’t have to do the paperwork, but he still feels the city should be collecting the $125 tax in his case.

And he likes the idea of making a difference between the lodging tax hotels pay and the tax on short-term rentals, upping the transient occupancy tax to 15 or 20 percent on the latter to help mitigate the loss of housing stock.

“That excess revenue should be plowed into rental housing vouchers,” he says, “to help people displaced by Airbnb.”

Developer Oliver Kuttner owns nine apartments on the Downtown Mall that he rents full-time on Airbnb, for which he pays more than $1,000 per month in transient occupancy taxes. He says the city pays “lip service” to affordable housing. In 2015, he wanted to build micro-apartments behind the Glass Building on Second Street SE, but couldn’t get the rezoning needed. An office building is now going up in that spot.

“It cost me $80,000 [in permits] and six months of my life to be denied the permit to build micro-units,” he says. “The city is the single biggest obstacle to lower-cost apartments.”

Now, he wants more decentralized hotels like Airbnb. “We need to support the person who wants to build one hotel,” says Kuttner. “I would like to see more independent hotels than a fifth Marriott downtown.”

Currently Charlottesville has no plans to funnel lodging taxes into affordable housing vouchers, says city spokesperson Brian Wheeler. The taxes go into the general fund, which funds the city’s affordable housing initiatives, he says.

Meyer says he thinks Divers is doing a “very good job” in collecting the lodging tax, but says, “I wonder if we can do better.”

Categories
News

What’s wrong with Airbnb? Homestay hosts wonder why county’s pushing new regs

Albemarle County officials are proposing new regulations for local homestays—and local homestay operators don’t understand why.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That seemed to be the overall consensus of community members who spoke up at a crowded January 8 roundtable to discuss potential “homestay” (read: Airbnb) regulations in Albemarle before they go before the planning commission in February.

County staff members say many local homestays aren’t following existing regulations, and in addition to trying to enforce those they’re proposing even more new rules. But residents say these aren’t necessary.

“We are looking to regulate an issue that’s not a big enough issue for us to be investing the time,” said an Old Trail resident and realtor speaking from her seat. She said she has clients on both sides of the argument about whether the county should further manage these types of transient occupancies. “I try to be Switzerland, but I’m also about less regulation and less government involvement in my life.”

For popular homestay sites such as Airbnb, several folks argued that business regulates itself through a guest rating system.

“You live and die by your reviews,” said one attendee. Added another: “Let good old business take place, and it’s going to fall out on its own.”

The second man was perturbed by a seemingly arbitrary 45-day limit the county wants to impose on whole house rentals. The county is also proposing that whole house rentals may only take place where the dwelling is situated on more than five acres, and any rental on a smaller property will be limited to two guest rooms.

He said he inherited a 75-year-old family property. To only be able to rent the whole house for 45 days a year greatly restricts his profit margin.

Amelia McCulley, the county’s director of zoning, attempted to clear up some confusion. Homestay owners with rentals on properties greater than five acres can rent rooms for an unlimited number of days per year, just not their entire houses. Outside of the 45 day limit, an owner or manager must also reside on the property.

That was also a point of contention for some of the 75 attendees, who filled every chair at the meeting.

“Renters tend to be a little more subdued if there’s a responsible party nearby,” explained chief of zoning Bart Svoboda.

One attendee then said that he’s been renting a property he lives only 15 minutes away from. He said he’s had no problems. “We’re there every day, we just don’t sleep there.”

Besides requiring the owner or manager to live on-site, the county only allows homestays to operate in single-family detached homes and only five guest rooms may be rented. Those in favor of not imposing more regulations pointed out the small number of complaints the county has received.

Approximately 350 results turn up on Airbnb for Albemarle County—but it’s difficult to determine whether they’re actually in the county, or just nearby. The county has processed 134 applications for homestays, and senior planner Rebecca Ragsdale says they’ve received 33 related complaints since 2012.

Asked one man at the meeting, “Shouldn’t there be hundreds of complaints and issues if this is a real issue?”

The planning commission will hold a work session on the proposed regulations February 12.

Categories
News

Ready to regulate: Albemarle eyes homestays

Carolyn McGee, president of StayVA and owner of The Inn at 400 West High in the city, says all homestays should be held to the same standards. Photo by Eze Amos

In Albemarle County, about a third of the homestays are flying under the radar. At a May 3 Board of Supervisors work session on the topic, county staff said something must be done to regulate them.

The county has received 60 applications since 2004, and of those, 27 have been approved, according to Rebecca Ragsdale, the senior permit planner in the county’s Community Development department. Take a look at Airbnb, and more than 100 options in the county are listed.

“A fair number of applications came in just recently and are still under review or were denied because smoke detectors were not up to date,” she says, and adds that applications are not approved until building code, fire marshal and health department requirements are satisfied.

Currently, homestay operators in the rural and development area may rent up to five rooms inside a single-family detached home with an owner or manager also occupying the home. In the rural area, residents can rent up to five rooms in an additional structure.

Ragsdale says the county is concerned for a number of reasons and as some supervisors pointed out at the work session, it’s an issue that should be addressed now before the gap between those in compliance and those operating illegally widens.

“Fairness [and] equity issues have been raised in terms of taxation,” she says. “If these homestays are not licensed, there has been no verification that basic safety requirements are met.” This includes up-to-code smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors and compliance with health department requirements.

Carolyn McGee, president of StayVA and owner of The Inn at 400 West High in the city, says unregulated homestay owners should be required to follow even the smallest regulations.

“If you’re going to serve alcohol, you can’t just leave a bottle of wine with a bow on it. You have to have an ABC license,” she says. “As a B&B owner, that’s what we have to do.”

In the last General Assembly session, a bill was passed to give localities the autonomy to regulate their own homestays, though many already do.

Numerous industry professionals and StayVA members sat in the gallery while the bill was signed, she says. “We’re happy with it.”

At the work session, Supervisor Norman Dill suggested the county define a minimum for what counts as a business. “You’re allowed to have a yard sale without having a business license,” he says, and plenty of people rent out their houses for UVA’s graduation weekend. Do they technically need a business license, he asked. “Why encourage people to break the law because it’s difficult to comply?”

Dick Cabell owns The Inn at Sugar Hollow Farm, one of approximately 20 full-time bed and breakfasts in the city and county, all of which have business licenses and collect and remit transient occupancy taxes.

“As a B&B owner, I don’t want to be vindictive about this because we chose to go the route we did and we have benefited from it and we think we have provided some benefit as part of the team,” he says. “This Airbnb thing is a whole different concept and now the county is in a quandary.”

But Cabell says the playing field should be leveled so he can continue to compete with the unregulated homestays.

“Our business has gone down in the last three years, but not in a way that we’re going to go out of business,” Cabell says. “I just can’t donate as much to my grandkids’ college funds. I can’t take my trip to Jamaica because my income as gone down. The guy next door to me who’s renting his house out and not telling anyone—he’s going to Jamaica.”

The BOS will have a public hearing June 14 to discuss regulating homestays.

Categories
News

Homestay hullabaloo: State legislation could bring big change locally

Carolyn McGee, who owns The Inn at 400 West High, says there should be a level playing field for rules and regulations for all homestays. Photo by Eze Amos

While only about one-third of more than 500 homestays operating in town are compliant with local rules and regulations, the city’s commissioner of revenue, Todd Divers, says proposed state legislation is slowing the process of tracking down offenders and demanding they pay up.

The limited residential lodging act introduced by Virginia Delegate Chris Peace, R-97th, if adopted, would restrict local jurisdictions from imposing their own regulations on limited residential lodging—think Airbnbs, inns and bed and breakfasts—and enable the state to collect and remit lodging taxes, rather than the locality. The state would keep a cut of the revenue as an administrative fee.

“Localities are concerned about a local revenue source being sent to Richmond before making its way home,” Divers says. “Thereby, subjecting it to the whims of a state government facing regular revenue shortfalls.”

In Charlottesville, regulations require those operating homestays to have a special-use permit and a business license. They must also pay a 7 percent transient occupancy tax to the city each time someone rents a room in their home, which they are required to live in.

“Those familiar with how the process works for sales tax are extremely leery of having the state involved in local tax collections,” Divers says. “There is little to no accountability. Localities have a very difficult time obtaining information on a timely basis to allow enforcement against businesses that fail to collect, or fail to timely remit, sales taxes, and the state doesn’t have the time or funding to engage in audits and enforcement on behalf of each locality.”

Divers says it’s important to remember that lodging taxes aren’t taxing local businesses, but essentially taxing visitors. And local homestay operators are allowed to impose an administrative fee to cover the cost of them.

“Most everyone involved would like all of these revenues to remain local,” he says.

Carolyn McGee, the president of the Bed & Breakfast Association of Virginia and owner of The Inn at 400 West High, is one of those people. But aside from doubting the state would responsibly collect, remit and report these taxes, she is most concerned with the number of homestay operators—namely the ones renting on Airbnb—who don’t follow mandatory regulations and the city’s failure to reprehend them.

“I fully support the entrepreneurship that Airbnb can provide,” she says. “However, it has to be fair competition.”

While regulations from the health department mandate minute details such as what time McGee must bake the cookies at her inn, she says she’s aware of numerous Airbnb operators who leave wine and snacks for their guests without any special permits. And they don’t have to follow the same parking and lighting rules that she’s subjected to.

“They’re doing exactly what I’m doing without all the extra finances involved,” she says. “Renting out rooms is the only way I can afford to own this historic home in the city.”

And though the rules for Airbnbers are much less stringent, she says the number of people who don’t follow them could cause trouble.

“I just really believe that smart, common sense, short-term rental rules are needed for everybody and [all homestays] need to be legal to protect Charlottesville from this really rapid growth of illegal properties,” McGee says. “I’m afraid it’s going to take a horrible tragedy in an Airbnb for everyone to get it.”

But Divers says any progress made by the city in regulating these operations has temporarily been halted.

“Right now, we’re not really going at people with a stick,” he says. “Eventually, we will.”

He adds that the city doesn’t want to enact new ordinances that could be nullified by the pending legislation, which will be reintroduced at the next General Assembly session.

Another major concern with the bill introduced by Peace is that it would allow homestays to operate without adhering to local zoning ordinances.

Charlottesville’s zoning ordinance was designed to protect the character of low-density residential areas, according to the city attorney’s office. While people are allowed to conduct “home occupations,” as they call them, they are subject to “reasonable” regulations designed to minimize impacts such as noise, traffic and the visual impacts of commercial use.

Mark Kavit, former North Downtown Residents Association president and current board member, says homestays have the ability to quickly change the appearance of neighborhoods if those zoning ordinances no longer existed.

“You could have a place next door to you, where you have people coming and going and you have no idea who they are,” he says, adding that two realtors have approached him and asked to buy his downtown home to turn it into an Airbnb. “People need to be aware that it’s having a dramatic effect on neighborhoods.”