The City is brainstorming how best to regulate online house-renting services like Airbnb in Virginia Beach.
The City Manager’s office, working with its outside lobbyists, recently gathered data on how cities around the world have responded to the room-sharing economy. The City Council had requested the information earlier this month. Currently, there are no regulations for Airbnb hosts in Virginia Beach, something the City hopes to change. The unregulated rentals, which are technically illegal in the City, are problematic for a few reasons, according to Robert Matthias, assistant to City Manager Dave Hansen.
“The City’s interested in three things – health, safety and welfare,” Matthias said in a phone interview.
There are economic and regulatory considerations as well: Virginia Beach’s Airbnb rentals operate without home business permits. They don’t have safety inspections and aren’t subject to a transient occupancy tax, which local hotels pay.
Matthias shared information about other cities’ Airbnb-related policies with the City Council in a letter on July 14. He will give an in-depth presentation on the issues to the council on August 2.
“It’s obvious we’ve got a situation where people are renting houses in neighborhoods by the day, by the week,” Mayor Will Sessoms said in a phone interview. “It’s really caused some concern in the neighborhoods, and justifiably so.”
The rentals create unfair competition for local hotels, which pay taxes and are subject to safety inspections, Sessoms said.
There is no current enforcement of city or sales taxes on Airbnb rentals here. But Phil Kellam, the City’s commissioner of revenue, reported about 50 hosts are paying taxes to the City, Matthias said. This is out of an estimated 4,800 local homes listed for rent, according to Matthias. In an interview with a Southside Daily reporter in April, a Virginia Beach resident said he wasn’t sure whether he would continue to rent his home on Airbnb if the City started regulating the rentals, because of the extra work entailed.
A spokesperson for Airbnb could not be reached for comment.
Matthias’ research includes examples from cities in other countries, like Paris, which fines violators close to $28,000, and Barcelona, which doesn’t allow rentals of private residences. Closer to home, Charlottesville requires registration of six or fewer guests and the spaces must be occupied by the owner.
Richmond does not allow the rentals, according to Matthias’s research.
Earlier this year, the City Council assigned the Beaches and Waterways Commission to study the effect on the City of home rentals, including Airbnb and the rental of large houses for events such as weddings and parties. However, Matthias said he plans to ask the City Council on August 2 to consider having another entity, such as the City’s Planning Department, take on the Airbnb issue.
Because Virginia cities only have powers assigned by the General Assembly, Matthias believes statewide legislation would be the most feasible strategy for regulating Airbnb rentals in Virginia Beach. In April, the Virginia Housing Commission appointed a study group of hotel and tourism stakeholders and Airbnb representatives to help shape Airbnb-related legislation. Matthias has been following the meetings, he said.
Sessoms hopes to put together an ad hoc committee on the issue very soon, he said. He will look to the committee for suggestions the City can add to its legislative agenda.
“I know Airbnb is bigger than the locality,” he said. “I also know we have a great working relationship with our delegates.”
