re: New Orleans Council proposal would halt some short-term rentals, including some licensed

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Move to some place that isn't a tourist destination if you don't like it.

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That's the problem...the areas where most of these Airbnb's are at are NOT tourist destinations...they're regular neighborhoods that have become tourist destinations because of residential houses that have been turned into de facto hotels. So now the residents who've lived there for years are forced to either sell and move or put up with the BS that comes with living next to a house with a different group of party goers every weekend.

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dgnx6

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All good points, bit really it's just the hotels that would see the hit.

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The problem is that even though there's a 15.75% effective tax/night/room on New Orleans Hotels, NOLA sees that amount cannibalized amongst 6 different statutory authorities per the Legislature:

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You are getting an Airbnb because it's most likely cheaper.

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Complete conjecture on your part. There's no way to prove/disprove the habits of Short-Term Renters for airbnb.

But even if it is cheaper, it's because they're circumventing overhead costs due to the exact things I stated. STR's do not contribute any jobs to the local economy moreso than any other residence or longer-term rental unit, and this job generation comparison is even more stark when compared against the hotels and motels they compete against, who routinely present a broad spectrum of job opportunities to a cross-section of the local community, starting with the very bottom rungs of the ladder when we talk about immigrant and/or minimum wage jobs.

They (short-term-rentals) present a huge donut hole to the relationship the tourism industry presents in exchange for their revenue stream in Orleans Parish proper.

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If the place you are staying is cheaper, you might be more inclined to spend that money elsewhere, spread it around the city. Instead of most of it going to a hotel.

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This is-again-complete conjecture on your part. There's no way to prove or disprove savings realized by a cheaper STR/AirBnB stay gets pumped into the local tourism or economy of NOLA as a whole.

However there is an absolutely quantifiable measure of the amount of money and economic/job opportunity lost with the proliferation of STR/AirBnB in NOLA.

This is an disingenuous statement-at best-on your part. One I doubt seriously you can provide any hard data to defend.

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So the net really isnt much different is it?

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What a hum-dinger of a daisy-chain of logic this post ends up being.

You're telling me that this graphic doesn't present a huge loss of tax revenue, quality of life and job opportunity in New Orleans? This infographic came from data.nola.gov and is a real-time listing of just the licensed STR/AirBnB's in the city since you could begin being legitimately licensed since 2017.



NOLA is missing out on millions of tax revenue. I'm not here to argue about whether NOLA has a spending problem. That's another thread for another day. One that we probably agree on. But you cannot ignore this stuff and act like the entrepreneur is being pressured here.

The loss of revenue for governmental operation, and the pressure this puts on low-income employment, affordable housing, home prices, quality of life and the tourism industry in general is something that it quite frankly takes either willful ignorance or a vested interest in Short-Term Rentals to continue to look past when you really dig into this.

There's too much harm being done to the industry, and the city and said industry at this time are too interdependent upon one another to keep ignoring the issue and acting as if it doesn't matter.

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That's the problem...the areas where most of these Airbnb's are at are NOT tourist destinations...they're regular neighborhoods that have become tourist destinations because of residential houses that have been turned into de facto hotels. So now the residents who've lived there for years are forced to either sell and move or put up with the BS that comes with living next to a house with a different group of party goers every weekend.

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BINGO!!

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NOLA is missing out on millions of tax revenue. I'm not here to argue about whether NOLA has a spending problem. That's another thread for another day. One that we probably agree on. But you cannot ignore this stuff and act like the entrepreneur is being pressured here.

The loss of revenue for governmental operation, and the pressure this puts on low-income employment, affordable housing, home prices, quality of life and the tourism industry in general is something that it quite frankly takes either willful ignorance or a vested interest in Short-Term Rentals to continue to look past when you really dig into this.

There's too much harm being done to the industry, and the city and said industry at this time are too interdependent upon one another to keep ignoring the issue and acting as if it doesn't matter.

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So if we create more short term rentals and generate more tax revenue...when can I expect my property taxes to go down??

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baldona

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Man you are incredibly off and clearly don't understand the industry well at all, clearly you don't ever stay in an Airbnb either.

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I've never been to Washington, DC. I guess that prevents me and 99.9% of the contributors on the Political Talk Board from ever commenting on any subject relating to national politics based on this rationale. Perfectly unassailable logic obviously on your part

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First off, short term rentals pay hotel and bed tax also. In many places anyway, if they don't in NOLA that's NOLA's fault. In many places they pay the same as a normal hotel.

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You say I clearly don't understand the situation, but you are talking about your local, anecdotal situation and later on actually admit you don't know the situation in NOLA.

But I'm the one who doesn't know what's going on. Gotcha. For the record, since 2017-barely over a year's time, there have been that many STR's/AirBnB types that have applied for and been approved. I'm well aware that AirBnB takes out local taxes if they need to. In NOLA's case, they have a collection agreement.

But that only applies to actually licensed folks. People who are willing to apply. I could've overlaid that data infographic with pending and/or denied applications for licenses. Do you REALLY think those folks aren't continuing to market as STR's and simply paying no taxes at all? LOL

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Secondly, the whole idea that someone staying in an Airbnb takes jobs away is in your term conjecture and frankly BS.

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No. It's not. The unlicensed units in NOLA-which you admit you know nothing about and automatically blame government for not being as fast as a disruptive, tech-based industry-are costing the city and the other statutory entities tax dollars and revenue. Those operating expenses lost and revenue unrealized absolutely cost jobs in the public sector, and in the private sector the increased competition with hotels absolutely costs jobs. You are far smarter than you're posting like.

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Short term rentals have cleaners, maintenance staff, etc. no different than a hotel. In fact, short term rentals generally pay BETTER than a hotel because they are 1099 positions with fewer hours, but the hourly pay is likely 2-4x more.

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I love it. The funny thing is that you're admitting you're paying workers as 1099 when they're clearly part-time employees. Misclassifying employees is a national problem that-again-helps the employer avoid paying their fair share of payroll taxes and UI-taxes. Much less allows you to avoid paying benefits.

Go ahead and try to argue with me on that...I'd love to compare our relative knowledge levels of state workforce agencies and the subject of misclassified workers, the three-fold test, employment security law, and the like.

Really. I would. LOL.

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I pay my cleaner in Destin $40/ hour roughly as a 1099. She also does my laundry at roughly the same rate. Its still cheaper than taking it to a company. Hotels pay $11/ hour. Most cleaners are not 40 hour a week jobs either, you are looking at 25-30 at most. Bust on the weekends but not 5 days a week.

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You're paying them cash money as a misclassified worker purposefully avoiding paying into payroll taxes which-if you apply your anecdotal example to an STR/AirBnB-allows you to operate at cheaper cost than hotels, which don't get to bend rules about 1099 "independent contractors," and have to hire employees, pay their FICA and UI Payroll taxes, etc.

I'll bait you again regarding misclassified workers though. I'd looooove for you tell a Tax Auditor from your local state workforce agency about your arrangement with your "private contractors." I'm sure they'd listen quite attentively while calculating the penalties and interest along with the payroll tax bill you owed the state you operated in.

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Again, the entire issue is because the city screwed around and let it turn into a mess instead of limiting short term rentals to certain areas from the beginning. They need to make some major changes that will hurt some owners now, that are permanent for the future.

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Reading through the rest of this stuff and then seeing this, I feel like you just wanted to try incredibly hard to disagree with my post before burying the fact that you agree with my basic premise entirely. Weird.

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The idea that "Airbnb's" are bad for a tourism based economy is simply wrong. They just need some very simple regulations.

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If you're just seeing the industry come into the municipality then yes. But it's been wild west and they've proliferated...and many many makeshift hoteliers have been using a historic tax credit to renovate homes and avoided paying even larger sums in legitimate tax bills during the process of renovating a home for STR. This is an issue specific to NOLA that has been an issue for a long while.

Yet again, another subject where you're probably unaware but willing to argue.

Good day sir.

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I think you place a moratorium on new licenses, crack down on folks who are marketing STR's without a license, penalize TF out of them, and then take a look at the whole issue with a fresh set of eyes to ensure the neighborhood is involved with local ordinance and zoning discussions via HOA's.

Until they figure out how to squeeze it, they need to realize they can't afford anymore toothpaste on the bathroom counter.

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Im ok with that

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Dire Wolf

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I’d trust the market to adjust itself rather than put my faith into the government doing what you said.

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The market is already out of control. Look at the graphic I put up. If you Google, "Short Term Rental NOLA Data," you can overlay the pending and denied applications over the graphic I used in my post earlier on this page of the thread.

The market is saturated with STR/AirBnB type rentals. Oversaturated at that. With many more units still either pending or on their way to coming online. There's no way to properly police the Historic Tax Credit/AirBnB situation so that folks don't game the system down there for profit while draining tax coffers.

If the market were able to correct timely, it would've already done so. This requires an intervention.

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yup....i see nothing wrong with that.

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There is a reason cities have zoning. I can't turn my house in the middle of a residential neighborhood into a convenience store or a restaurant just because I want to. People who bought houses in residential zoned areas have a right to be upset when their neighbor's property is now suddenly being used as a defacto commercial hotel space.

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If the market is truly oversaturated with STRs then by definition many STRs would fail by simple supply and demand economics. You are mistaking a house having an STR permit or application for a house actually having renters coming in and out of it. If it is oversaturation as you claim then many/most of those houses wouldn't be getting booked for rentals.

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PokerPlayingTiger

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There’s no way that we can adequately track that...and even if they aren’t successful, you could list that property while still listing it on AirBnB.

We can however figure out that neighbors, hotel/motels and many other public, civic and private groups view the unfettered growth as a problem that requires a more adequate solution. This isn’t some government overstep. You’re cannibalizing an industry that provides large scale employment opportunities with a choice that allows people to avoid paying taxes, hiring employees, and paying them properly.

The numbers don’t lie...and again there is a huge problem with a gaming of historic tax credits used for STR revenue. It’s bilked tax coffers out of millions in legitimate revenue on the front end while putting pressure on hotels and motels competing with STR’s while carrying larger overhead by virtue of employment opportunities they provide.

I haven’t seen someone yet in this thread that has presented a coherent solution that differs from the one I offered to tigerbaitn earlier. Your post is no different.