They’ve been praised for delivering extra cash to property owners while being accused of worsening the housing shortage and outcompeting tax generating hotels and motels. Tuesday morning, Butte County officials will consider regulations on short term rentals in unincorporated areas, better known by the names of market leaders Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO) and Airbnb.
The goal of the regulations are simple — allow short term rentals, but protect neighbors from irritation and start collecting tax revenue.
Arranged via the internet, websites likes Airbnb and VRBO connect prospective landlords hoping to use an extra space to make an extra buck with vacationers seeking to avoid more traditional lodging.
There are other differences. Inns, motels and motor lodges are highly regulated, extra rooms in private homes, not so much. Typical overnight accommodations are mainly in commercial areas, short term rentals meanwhile, could be anywhere. Hotels and motels pay a hotel tax — the Transient Occupancy Tax. In Butte County’s unincorporated areas, that’s six percent. For extra rooms, apartments or even homes rented out as short term rentals, it’s currently zero.
Hoteliers around the nation grouse that tax avoidance by short term rental owners put operators of traditional lodging at a financial disadvantage.
Affordable housing advocates claim that short term rentals worsen the housing crunch. They say units rented to tenants on a monthly basis, are increasingly held off the market by property owners pursuing potentially higher profits by renting to holidaymakers.
Under the proposal being considered, short term rentals would be prohibited in both the most rural and most urban residential zones of unincorporated areas. The stipulations are meant to protect tranquility in rural areas and affordable housing in highly populated areas.
The meeting gets underway Tuesday at 9 a.m.