Neighborhood snobs oppose my Airbnb

[Larry430]

I have been an Airbnb Superhost for 3 years.  Recently the city started requiring all AIrbnb's to apply for a permit.  NO ONE has ever complained about my guests or anything at our house--in fact, not even my 5 closest neighbors knew that I was hosting Airbnb until this permit issue came up.  Even so, some neighborhood snobs oppose all Airbnb's in our neighborhood because they think it will hurt their property values.  They are organizing to protest my application at the hearing next Thursday, August 12.  They are loud and dead set against me even though they are misinformed.

Does anyone have any evidence that Airbnb's do not hurt a neighborhood?

Does anyone have examples of Airbnb in fancy or exclusive neighborhoods?

Please reply ASAP.  I have only 6 days to put my case together.  Right now the odds are against me and it's all based on snobbery and misinformation.

**[Personal information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Emiel1]

@Larry430 

The snobs will probably find this:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/656/my-neighbor-is-an-airbnb-host-what-do-i-need-to-know

[John5097]

@Larry430  I was worried about this as well before and during the application process to get a permit. The city official who took the application explained to me that as long as the application met all the requirements (owner occupied, off street parking, etc) that it would be approved. I had discussed it with my neighbors and was only worried about one, who happened to have an unpermitted ABB for several years, but now had moved back. I think you could point out that you also live at the same location, there has never been any complaints. If you have a chance to chat with them, you could state that your neighbors are a very high priority for you, and ask them to please reach out to you anytime with any concerns. I put in my listing that its a very quiet neighborhood with great neighbors and don't want to disturb them, and haven't had a single problem. I think this is smarter to win them over as they could still just start making complaints after its approved. If they take that route you could install a video floodlight camera in the drive to prove there wasn't any kind of disturbance. You would need to look up your zoning codes to see what is and isn't permitted. However back to your original question, if your municipality decided to allow STR you should only need to meet the requirements. I hope that's the case with yours. 

[John5097]

@Larry430 

Our city had a lengthy Short Term Rental Task Force to study the issue, including public meetings, consultants, etc. You can read through it here. Most cites allow the kind that are non disruptive, owner occupied, and use the revenue for enforcement of the illegal disruptive ones. I would think Bowling Green would have also taken a simmular approach and you would only need to comply with the requimrents the city or county council passed. 

https://www.charleston-sc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15468/Charleston-Short-Term-Rental-Task-Force---Pu...


These were the comments from people who attended the meetings. Some were opposed some supported it. You can read through or research why municiplities find some kind of compromise. However they wouldn't have included comments like name calling so maybe not what you are looking for.  

[Larry430]

Thanks, everyone, for quick feedback and some good ideas.  The Bowling Green Planning and Zoning Commission offers two different Conditional Use Permits.  One is for Short Term Rental, meaning that no owner or representative is present when guests are there.  The other is for Bed and Breakfast, including real BnB's that serve breakfast and Airbnb's that don't.  Our application is for the second type, Bed and Breakfast without the breakfast.  My neighborhood association was in an uproar about an application for a Short Term Rental permit.   They are associating mine with that one and some who just don't want any BnB of any kind are mounting a campaign of disinformation to keep the neighbors alarmed about our Airbnb.  

I can answer almost all of their arguments, but here is the killer:  We don't want our property value to go down.  A variant of that is "We didn't spend a lot of money to move into the kind of neighborhood that has a business operating in it.  What next?  A beauty shop in the home?  Automotive repair? etc."  That's why I called it a snobbery problem.

Does anyone have any data or know of any data that suggests that property values don't go down just because an Airbnb operates quietly in the neighborhood?

[M199]

@Larry430 

My thought is that if you have then appropriate permits and your 5 neighbours on board to support you it will help.  I don't think that they can't single you out.  Good luck