Housing Trends and Best Practices in Short-term Vacation Rentals 1 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

New York State City/County Managers Association Housing Trends and Best Practices in Short-term Vacation Rentals 1

Ag Agenda • Introductions • Understanding the Challenge • Best Practices for Enforcing STR Regulations • Available Solutions to Help • Questions 2

Introdu oduct ction: on: Paul Hetherington Co-Founder & CCO • Over 120 City and County • Providing technology solutions customers coast to coast to Local Government for over • First provider of efficient 20 years • Launched Host Compliance short-term rental permitting, compliance monitoring and when asked by local town enforcement solutions for council to study possible ways local governments to address its short-term • Team of seasoned local rental compliance issues • Met with over 400 cities and government technology executives and data-scientists counties on the topic of Short- term Vacation Rentals. 3

More than n 120 120 leadi ding ng citi ties es and count nties es are looking ing to Host t Compli lianc ance e for guidan dance ce, , data and solu lutio tions ns to their ir short-ter term rental al challe llenge nges Select Metropolitan City Clients Select Southern CA Clients 4

Ag Agenda • Introductions • Understanding the Challenge • Best Practices for Enforcing STR Regulations • Available Solutions to Help • Questions 5

Th The Challe leng nge: e: Ad Address ss and Contac act info o is Hidden en on Host t Pl Platfor form Listin tings gs 7

Th The Va Vacatio tion n Renta tal l Pl Platfor forms s Refuse se To To Ex Exchan ange e Detaile iled d User Data With h Local al Gover ernme ments nts 8

Ke Keeping ng Tr Track ck Of 100s Or 1,000 00s s Of St Str List stin ings gs Is A A Sp Spreads dshe heet et Nightm tmar are IT JUST DOESN’T WORK 9

Listin tings gs (And Duplic icates ates) ) Change, e, Come And Go Al All The Time HomeAway Listing FlipKey Listing 10

Market ket Context: ext: AirBnb nb , VRBO and 100’s of other vacation renta tal website tes s have turned ned vacat ation n renta tals s into a booming g (underground) economy… The short-term rental market has grown 800% since 2011 Market is fragmenting Millions of STR listings 100+ other web platforms Sources: AirBnB, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Booking.com 11

Sh Short-ter term Re Rental al By By Jurisd isdictio iction n (To Top 10)

To Tompkin ins s County ty Da Data Br Breakd kdown wn

Ag Agenda • Introductions • Understanding the Challenge • Best Practices for Enforcing STR Regulations • Available Solutions to Help • Questions 14

Best t Practi ctice ce # 1: 1: Re Require e hosts, ts, property erty managers ers (and pla latf tforms) orms) to register ister and provide ide detail ailed ed record ords s of their ir rental tals, s, renta tal acti tivity vity and TOT T remitt ittance nces s by renta tal l unit Allowing permit holders to register multiple units under one permit number or remitting TOT for multiple properties in one payment makes it impossible to verify compliance Property #1 Property #2 Property # 3 Propterty # 4 15

Best t Practi ctice ce # 2: 2: Make e sure e the ordinan ance ce is enforce orceab able e by specifying ifying that at advertisem rtisement nt of unpermitted mitted STRs Rs wi will be considere idered d prim ima facie cie evid idence ce of il ille legal l activi ivity ty Best practice ordinance language example 1: "An advertisement promoting the availability of short term rental property in violation of City code is prima facie evidence of a violation and may be grounds for denial, suspension, or revocation of a license" Best practice ordinance language example 2: "Advertising that offers a property as a Residential short-term rental shall constitute prima facie evidence of the operation of a Residential short-term rental and the burden of proof shall be on the owner, operator, or lessee of record to establish that the subject property is being used as a legal Residential short-term rental or is not in operation." 16

Best t Practi ctice ce # 3: 3: Plan for r the reality ity that at wi without ut system stemati atic c and proact ctive ve enforcem rcement, ent, only a f fract action n of short rt-te term rm rentals tals wi will ll get permits mits and pay their ir fair ir share e of taxes IN IN GE GENERAL LE LESS THAN 10 10% OF F STR OWNERS VOLUNTARILY GET A PERMIT AND PAY ALL OF GE F THEIR HOTEL TAXES Large potential for increasing permit fee and tax collection

Best st Practice actice # 4: Understa nderstand d that hat the he STR market arket is in constant onstant flux ux so the e City ty will ll need eed to consta onstantl ntly y moni onito tor r 50+ + website ebsites s fo for r new ew non on-com compli liant t opera perato tors rs South Lake Tahoe example: +1,832 4,846 54% 3,358 -1,488 3,014 of the currently active listing were created in the last 11 Active STR New STR Total # of Listings Active STR months listings as of listings Listings deactivated listings as of 10/13/16 between active between 9/16/17 10/13/16 between 10/13/16 and 10/13/16 and 9/16/17 and 9/16/17 9/16/17 18

Best Practice # 5: Don’t expect that traditional code - enforceme orcement nt tech chniq niques ues and processe esses s can ensure re complia liance nce Rental property listings are spread across 100s of different websites Address data is hidden from listings making it time-consuming or impossible to locate the exact properties and identify owners There is no easy way to manually find out how often each property is rented and for how much The vacation rental platforms refuse to provide the detailed data necessary for enforcing local ordinances Manual compliance monitoring and complaint-based enforcement often leads to claims of selective enforcement 19

Best t Practi ctice ce # 6: 6: Make e it easy for r STR R operat ators rs to register ster and pay their ir taxes Make it simple, stupid! 20

Best t Practi ctice ce # 7: 7: Allow w STR R operators ators to get permits mits and pay their r taxes es online (and make the online form rms s mobile frien iendly!) dly!) 21

Best t Practi ctice ce # 8: 8: Syste stematical matically y captu ture re evidence ce of advertiseme rtisement nt and rental tal activity ivity and take ke we weekly ly scre reenshots enshots to prove ve it 22

Best Practice # 9: To eliminate “gaming”, quickly mail notifi ificatio cations ns to own wners s of illegal rental tal units s and include e evid idence ce to maxim imize ize response onse 23

Best t Practi ctice ce # 10 10: Make it easy for neighbors ors to report, rt, prove e and resolve olve non-emer emergen ency cy STR related ted problems ems in re real-tim ime e Step 1 Step 2 Concerned neighbor calls 24/7 short-term Complainant provides info on alleged rental hotline violation and is asked to provide photo, video or other proof of the alleged violation Step 3 Step 4 If property is registered, Host Compliance Problem solved or escalated – Complaints immediately calls host to seek resolution saved in database so serial offenders be held accountable We have received a compliant! 24

Ag Agenda • Introductions • Understanding the Challenge • Best Practices for Enforcing STR Regulations • Available Solutions to Help • Questions 26

Avail ilable ble Services vices To Help lp • Mobile Enabled Permitting and Registration: Mobile/web forms and back- end systems for streamlining Los Angeles’ permitting and registration processes and capturing payments, signatures and required documents • Address Identification: Online dashboard with complete address information and screenshots of all identifiable STRs in Los Angeles’ jurisdiction • Compliance Monitoring: Ongoing monitoring of STRs for zoning and permit compliance coupled with systematic outreach to illegal short-term rental operators (using Los Angeles’ form letters) • Rental Activity Monitoring and Tax Collection Support: Ongoing monitoring of Los Angeles’s STR listings for signs of rental activity. Enables data- informed tax compliance monitoring and other enforcement practices that require knowledge of STR activity level • Dedicated Hotline: 24/7 staffed telephone hotline for neighbors to report non-emergency STR problems 27

Address ss Identifica tificati tion: : Access ss your r jurisd sdict ctions s short rt-term term renta tal l activi ivity ty incl. l. comple lete te address ess informatio rmation and screensh eenshots ots of all identifi tifiab able e STRs 28

TOT Collection: Host Compliance’s online tax collection tools makes s it easy y for host sts s to report rt, , calc lculate ulate and pay their ir taxes es 30