Tag: homestay

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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.

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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.

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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.”