Sacramento CA hosts please read regarding STMD Assessment

[Jennifer1774]

Fellow Sacramento Hosts,

Most of you will have received a letter informing you we are now subject to the STMD.  Today I delivered the letter set out below to the parties in the address and cc lines. If we are going to be assessed, we need to be part of the discussion and at the table.  If you have interest in meeting up and discussing please respond.  I have asked the policy team at Airbnb to help by sending out an email to all Sac hosts about this but I'm not getting much traction with them on it so I'm for not waiting.  Let me know your thoughts.

February 11, 2020

Tessa St John, Program Manager

Short Term Rental Revenue Division, Room 1201

Sacramento City Hall

915 I Street

Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Ms. St John,

I am writing to request a meeting about the STMD assessment recently imposed on AirBnB owners in the City of Sacramento.  While I am not at this point conclusively opposed to this assessment, I would like to know what we, as short-term rental operators, are receiving in return for our money.  

From your letter dated December 4, 2019 but received by me on January 2, 2020, I understand that this assessment is disbursed to Visit Sacramento and is “designed to provide specific benefits directly to payors by marketing and promoting the city as a tourist, meeting and event destination, thereby increasing night sales.” A browse of the Visit Sacramento website showed me many benefits for hotels, but I am unclear on how we, as AirBnB operators, benefit.  While the individual hotels are called out by name and enjoy the option of bookings directly through Visit Sacramento’s site, I see only a brief mention of AirBnB with a link to the overall AirBnB website.  In addition, when I browse the advisory board for the STMD I see only hotels represented and only hotels mentioned.

It is clear to me that this assessment and the affiliated advisory board was developed with hotels in mind. If we are to be included as members of the STMD, we need to be better represented on the Visit Sacramento website and have a seat on the advisory board.  In other words, if we are to be assessed as a partner then we will require higher visibility and a seat at the table as a partner.

Ms. St John, it was never our intention to become AirBnB hosts. The permit, construction and other fees and costs that are a reality of construction in Sacramento added so much expense to improving the guest house on our parcel that we were faced with few options that allowed for a timely break-even.  I think it would benefit both the city, and the short-term rental hosts that support it, to meet and discuss how we make the STMD work for all of us.

Best Regards

Jenna Abbott

Permit # XXXXX

1. Councilmember Steve Hansen D4
2. Councilmember Jeff Harris D3
3. Mike Testa, Visit Sacramento
4. Adam Thongsavat, AirBnb

[Joel881]

Hi @Jennifer1774 ,

I had posted the below on another email chain about this. Did you ever get a reply to your letter in Feb? I think we need to ask Airbnb to step in and work on this because it sets a disturbing precedent across the country that hurts airbnb.  The meeting minutes from the visitsacramento site continue to be extremely biased towards specific hotels and it appears the city is acting as a revenue collector for hotel’s to have money for their gala’s and conventions.  I’d love to partner up on this and see what we can do.

***

I’m very troubled by some research did below on this. The next virtual committee meeting is on Oct 12 and I highly recommend many Airbnb hosts join. We should ask detailed questions about excluding Airbnb unless the committee agrees to adopt new rules that cease use of funds that directly benefit any specific hotel or cause any appearance of a conflict of interest.   If they refuse, we should contact the media to run a story about the corrupt use of these funds Airbnb hosts are now being forced by the city to pay.

The funds collected are used for funding applications approved by a committee of hotel managers, selected by the hotel lobbying association (Sacramento Hotel Association).  You can read the past meeting minutes on Visit Sacramento site.

There are dozens of examples that prove the use of funds is to directly benefit the hotels that sit on this committee.  I read many that show funds used to market events hosted at specific hotels, support hotels to setup booths at trade conventions, transport hotel guests between over flow hotels. One shows they previously denied and/or reduced funding for events that benefit other hotels not represented in the Committee, such as Downtown Commons.  

It’s not clear how an assessment collected by the city (government), but run by private business is legal and not considered taxation without representation. Anyone a lawyer here?

The most recent committee brought up Airbnb, and it was stated that a few hosts said they didn’t mind paying this “assessment”.  There is another committee on Oct 12. I strongly believe hosts should attend and ask detailed questions about excluding Airbnb unless the committee agrees to adopt new rules that cease use of funds that directly benefit any specific hotel. 

“The funding, raised by the hospitality industry, is directed by the hospitality industry. The funds flow directly into sales and marketing activities that will be reviewed and monitored by a Tourism District Committee of industry peers - hotel managers appointed by the Sacramento Hotel Association.”