Coming soon to a vacation town near you...

Short-Term & Vacation Rental Discussions

Coming soon to a vacation town near you...

Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2017 · 31 posts · 12 votes

Things were going well until my vacation rental town I own in literally shut the entire town and county down. If you think your in the woods/wilderness cabins and homes are immune to this right now, you might want to reconsider. Moab is about as remote a place in the US where you'd think would be a good place to get away from it all. The health department in these counties even closed camping anywhere in the county even if you're 100 miles from anyone else. They managed to shut down the wilderness for any non-locals. STR's and hotels were given a 9 hour notice to clear all reservations starting the next day for 14-30 days. Interesting times.

https://moabtimes.com/2020/03/17/moab-hotels-now-closed-to-nonlocal-visitors/

0 Reply

43 views

Most Popular Reply

John UnderwoodPro Member

Investor · Greer, SC · Member since 2014 · 13k+ posts · 17k+ votes

I never would have considered a local government banning people from renting a STR. How could they enforce this?

As the weather warms up and if my Lake House goes unrented for periods of time, I plan on working remotely from there. I can self isolate and fish off my dock and ride jet skiis.

5 Reply

See this reply in the discussion

9 Replies

Jump to latestLatest

Sort by

Michael BaumPro Member
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
6y
Hey @Dan Bunker, very interesting but Moab is hardly remote. It may be out there, but it gets an estimated 1 million plus visitors a year.
And Vegas, fuggedaboutit. Millions of folks go to Vegas.
Me personally, we are out in North Idaho and we don't anywhere near that many visitors in a year.
Bummer deal but here's to hoping it gets opened up in the next couple of weeks.

0 Reply
John UnderwoodPro Member
Investor · Greer, SC · Member since 2014 · 13k+ posts · 17k+ votes
6y
I never would have considered a local government banning people from renting a STR. How could they enforce this?
As the weather warms up and if my Lake House goes unrented for periods of time, I plan on working remotely from there. I can self isolate and fish off my dock and ride jet skiis.
5 Reply
Dan Bunker
OP
Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2017 · 31 posts · 12 votes
6y
There are 3 counties in this part of Utah that have put together a Southeast Health Department. As of last year they started requiring STR owners to purchase a health license to legally operate an STR in these 3 counties. The health department issued the mandate and the county and town are enforcing. It was interesting in the legal/gov doc they sent out. They said they would be issuing class B misdemeanors for every night they found guests in a property and claimed they would go door to door knocking and checking. They certainly don't have the manpower to do that so it's an idle threat but one that "encourages" compliance.
0 Reply
Ryan MoyerBusiness Member
Property Manager · Orlando Kissimmee Davenport Salt Lake City, Park City · Member since 2019 · 996 posts · 1k+ votes
6y
The problem with Moab is they have like 5 hospital beds and a crapton of people were flocking to the area to "get away from it all". The problem is that even though the town itself is located remotely, when it is compact and full of tourists it is very crowded.

I know it sucks for STR but I absolutely think they did the right thing there. Things could have gotten out of hand and overwhelmed there very quickly.
I doubt they are the only place in a similar scenario.
Cosmic Vacations4.9175 Reviews
Website View Page
2 Reply
Megan Arzt
Investor · Moab, UT · Member since 2016 · 101 posts · 27 votes
6y
Even camping on private property has been banned unless you are a resident.... In the health department's defense, we have tons of tourists. With kids off school many people took it as a free vacation and came to Moab. Last weekend town was packed. We have a very small hospital with very few beds and something like 6 surgeons total. The next bigger hospital is a 2 hour transport.... With just our normal tourist load getting injured (biking, keeping, climbing) the hospital can barely keep up....add corona, it would be impossible. That said I am truly relieved to have just sold my STR and 1031ed them into long term. The long term tenants are already asking if they have to pay rent though because many are currently jobless. Wild times!
0 Reply
Dan Bunker
OP
Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2017 · 31 posts · 12 votes
6y
I get the limited resources and what not. Moab's situation isn't much different than St. George with Zion or any other small town by a national park (West Yellowstone, etc.). I know St. George is bigger but ventilators there to population size is probably comparable. Anyway, I'm not bummed about trying to protect the health of the community and as a result I lose with my STRs. What I am disappointed about is how they went about it. A 9 hour window to shut everything down and then threats of legal action starting after that 9 hour window. We really didn't have any advanced notice. Even if we had 48 hours we could have had a better chance of talking to guests about the problem and then trying to move them to fall time or whatever. At this point I have guests cancelling even out to fall now because they think Moab is the plague and no one wants them there. This hurts many more locals than it does me and it makes me sad for my cleaners, handy guys and all others now that it's a ghost town.
2 Reply
Jim Hudelson
Member since 2020 · 34 posts · 19 votes
6y
Not to be glib, but it sounds like Moab is going to have a window where it is 'like the good ole days'. Estes Park (Larimer County) has now initiated a similar ban on short term rentals and motels. The fact that government is acting fast and strong is a good thing in my opinion. Hunker down folks until this blows over.
1 Reply

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.