I just got wind that the town had an emergency meeting and have enacted an ordinance banning all hotels, motels, B&B and STVR's as a tactic to prevent the spread of COVID-19. No news on how they will enforce or what the penalty is for violation. It is a remote mountain town and already socially distant by nature. Wondering if anyone else has had this happen in their markets and what their experience was. I already have several sets of guests slated to check in over the next week or two during the "banned" period.
Dare county on the Outer Banks has now closed the county to everyone but residents. They started banning vacationers but some PMs and owners were printing bogus entry passes to get renters across the bridges. To shut the cheaters down, they closed access to all but residents and "extreme hardships".... So as a non-resident property owner, I am denied access to my house. On one hand I get it.. on the other... "are you freakin' kidding me?" Never thought I would ever be banned from my own property.
I just got an short notice inquiry from a couple that had been staying up in Bryson City, NC who said that they had been told that they would have to depart by tomorrow. When I looked up the town, I found the following:
Swain County closes hotels, vacation rentals to reduce coronavirus spread
Found this in the Smokey Mountain Times:
I told them I could accommodate them for the next two nights as we haven't heard anything like this in my part of the Smokeys.
@Paul Cox. Did the municipality actually show up and kick out the renters? Just curious how they intend to enforce an ordinance and notify out of town owners?
STR owners need to get ready to weather the storm no matter where you reside. In my area they are issuing misdemeanors and some jail time to those breaking the ban (even out camping on BLM land). They can't be everywhere but they just need to make an example of a couple ordinance breakers to be effective. Good luck!
Public sentiment had been mounting in this direction for some time now in town. I'm surprised it took this long, however with Graham county leading the way we were right behind. Our bookings were basically normal compared to our year over year numbers. They are threatening a class 2 misdemeanor as the penalty, I'm not quite sure on the legality of this but we are complying and have cleared our calendars. To be honest I have no idea how they would enforce this as the majority of the county is very remote and they would have to comb a lot of data to determine where to go looking for people. I am actively pursuing 30 day rental guests and business travelers in addition to potentially clearing my calendar through Labor Day and renting long term. My best hope is that there will be some semblance of normalcy restored by July 4th, but my gut is saying Labor Day.
If they shutdown short term rentals in my area, then I will likely go to my STR which is a lake house, work remote, and be able to fish and ride my jet skiis. There is always some minor work that I can do while I'm there.
Dare county on the Outer Banks has now closed the county to everyone but residents. They started banning vacationers but some PMs and owners were printing bogus entry passes to get renters across the bridges. To shut the cheaters down, they closed access to all but residents and "extreme hardships".... So as a non-resident property owner, I am denied access to my house. On one hand I get it.. on the other... "are you freakin' kidding me?" Never thought I would ever be banned from my own property.
Dare county on the Outer Banks has now closed the county to everyone but residents. They started banning vacationers but some PMs and owners were printing bogus entry passes to get renters across the bridges. To shut the cheaters down, they closed access to all but residents and "extreme hardships".... So as a non-resident property owner, I am denied access to my house. On one hand I get it.. on the other... "are you freakin' kidding me?" Never thought I would ever be banned from my own property.
How are they proving residency? Drivers License address?
I don't know how much this helps, but in our area and in many other metros they need more medical staff than they have in the area. So the long term plan is to have staff from other areas come in if necessary. This may be changing as travel restrictions change, but it might be worth reaching out to your medical providers to see if your short term housing can be used to house medical personnel or anything else related to this.
You may need to take extra precautions between tenants, and I'm not sure of the legality here, but I know at least a couple people investing this as a possibility to keep their short term rentals afloat.
I just got wind that the town had an emergency meeting and have enacted an ordinance banning all hotels, motels, B&B and STVR's as a tactic to prevent the spread of COVID-19. No news on how they will enforce or what the penalty is for violation. It is a remote mountain town and already socially distant by nature. Wondering if anyone else has had this happen in their markets and what their experience was. I already have several sets of guests slated to check in over the next week or two during the "banned" period.
How can anyone tell who’s an owner versus a long-term renter versus a short term renter? All of my houses are full and I told my guests: if anyone comes and knocks on your door, tell them you own the house and tell them to get off your yard and slam the door in their face
We own all our properties in one ocean front community on Hutchinson Island, Florida and the POA sent an email highly encouraging owners who rent to vacation renters cancel all future reservations going out 90 days. They sent this email out March 18th and since that email from the POA, all the individual HOA's (9 different clusters) have now jumped onboard and sent their own version of restrictions, but with much stronger language. Many of the board members on these HOA's are owners not investors and have privately been opposed to those of us who rent out our units. This has been a perfect opportunity to fan the flames of opposition and I think truthfully its going to change how the STR business will be allowed in the future, at least in our gated community! We own in 3 different clusters and I was the HOA Board President in one of the clusters only by default because nobody would step up, so I've always heard the rumblings of discontent on the topic. Its the smallest cluster of the 3 (48 units), with the highest dues and has the most future repairs needed so I think we'll need to make the difficult decision of selling the unit. We already have leases on all 3 units for next Jan-Mar so we;ll have to refund the $2500 deposit. The way I see it, we probably won't see any income coming in on any of the units till possibly Aug-September and by then we'll have burned thru all reserves and roll right into tax season and be facing fat tax bills due.
I wish we could play the LTR or month to month card but until the POA green-lights new renters coming into the community its not an option, since there is 24/7 security. We've reached out to existing renters who may need to extend since they are already on property but had some interest but most are staying in their current units. Feeling like not many options!
We welcome any ideas as we're feeling out of moves.
Dare county on the Outer Banks has now closed the county to everyone but residents. They started banning vacationers but some PMs and owners were printing bogus entry passes to get renters across the bridges. To shut the cheaters down, they closed access to all but residents and "extreme hardships".... So as a non-resident property owner, I am denied access to my house. On one hand I get it.. on the other... "are you freakin' kidding me?" Never thought I would ever be banned from my own property.
How are they proving residency? Drivers License address?
Yes, you must have a government issued ID with a Dare county address. In temporary closures after major hurricanes, you could return with an out of state DL and a copy of your Dare county property tax bill showing that out of state address. They simply check all incoming cars at the bridges. Of course you could still get access by boat like the pirates did... Arrrgghhh 🏴☠️
Dare county on the Outer Banks has now closed the county to everyone but residents. They started banning vacationers but some PMs and owners were printing bogus entry passes to get renters across the bridges. To shut the cheaters down, they closed access to all but residents and "extreme hardships".... So as a non-resident property owner, I am denied access to my house. On one hand I get it.. on the other... "are you freakin' kidding me?" Never thought I would ever be banned from my own property.
How are they proving residency? Drivers License address?
Yes, you must have a government issued ID with a Dare county address. In temporary closures after major hurricanes, you could return with an out of state DL and a copy of your Dare county property tax bill showing that out of state address. They simply check all incoming cars at the bridges. Of course you could still get access by boat like the pirates did... Arrrgghhh 🏴☠️
Get you a pirate flag and sail undercover of night. A parrot would be cool too.
Maybe start a business getting people to their rented STR. Make it sound like an adventure with them sneaking in and upsell it.
Very common now across all of California. Mammoth Lakes (big ski town) shut down a week or two ago, banning STR and demanding that any and all non-locals go home and for no one to come up, to try and stave off the COVID spread. They now have 2 confirmed cases. Places like this have small regional hospitals, they need to try and hold off as long as possible.
My PM automatically cleared the calendar for the matching period that the Town requested as shut down. With the town on lockdown, bars and restaurants closed, ski hill closed, there is not much to do anyway for anyone to go up.
Palm Springs also just announced stoppage of all STR - including hotels, vacation rentals, etc. I was making offers on a few places there recently, and am now glad I did not win any deals. Would have been a brutal start to a summer STR.
Yes, for Mammoth specifically they are still working on enforcement, but are asking that owners and property managers do their part. The specific concern here is that Mammoth has very few medical resources (eg, 12 hospital beds and 2 ventilators) and don't want any tourism at all in town for the time being to preserve those resources for long term locals.
While it absolutely sucks (I manage 14 STRs here) I think it's the best thing for our little town right now. Our local government's budget is 60% funded by transient occupancy taxes, so it's a huge blow for everyone.
Just happy that we are diversified with long term rentals as well and still have some income coming in.
@Mark Miles while this might work, it is probably not the most socially responsible thing to do if your local government is trying to protect from the spread of disease.