Why As an AIR BNB host, I support San Diego's new Vacation Rental Laws

[Emilia78]

AS an Air bnb host for the last 4 yrs I am 100% behind the new laws in San Diego which limit vacation rentals to on-site hosts. And yes, you read right I AM an Air BNB host and this is my MAIN source of income.

Thankfully we also live onsite in the downstairs of our home and rent out the upstairs. Sometimes we travel and rent out all our units but we are usually never gone more than 5 weeks.

So the usual stunts guests pull can’t fly with us because we are ON SITE. But guests still try. Just today, even though we have house rules:

• No more guests occupying the property than are on the reservation at ANY time , and
• No parties.

They broke both rules. The reservation was for 3 and I went upstairs to find 7 people drinking and playing loud music. I could tell that if I hadn’t intervened it WOULD have been loud, it WOULD have involved a lot of alcohol and possibly noise. And this is not the first time this happened. AIR bnb needs to do a better job of educating guests that this is NOT what AIRBNB is for.

So this leaves me to 110% understand why the new San Diego laws are FAIR and JUST. What if we were not here? Then our neighbors might have had to suffer. Or our other guests.

So stop complaining and brainwashing people that the city outlawed vacation rentals. NO they didn’t OUTLAW them, they just listened to the people who were asking for them to be more tightly CONTROLLED. As they SHOULD be, to protect our neighborhoods.

If hosts are not on site then they shouldn’t rent houses in residential neighborhoods. Period. Because the scenario I described above happens far too often.

And does air bnb help? It took me 15 minutes to get someone, I got transferred to a case manager and then trust and safety. It took 20 minutes and 3 people. What if it was URGENT? What if they broke a different house rules? What if I needed the police. NOT OK on so many levels.

I, as a long time Air BNB host 100% support the City’s decision to limit off-site vacation rentals. I can see why and it’s the RIGHT thing to do.

Emilia Nagy, Air BNB host, San Diego

[Linda-And-Richard0]

@Emilia78, I agree with you 100%.  This CC is full of hosts complaining about damaged property, excess guests, parties, unwelcome pets and more.  Too many rely on Instant Book and Self Check-in so they never set eyes on the people occupying their listing.  There is an Airbnb property in my neighborhood that is managed by an off-site company.  The neighbors recently had to call the police due to an out of control,  late night party with more than 30 persons in attendance.   Neither the neighbors, nor the police, had the contact information for the management company. 

As hosts, we have a responsibility to our guests, but first and foremost, to our neighbors.  My husband and I live right next door to our lisiting and meet all guests upon arrival.   Our neighbors know we will not tolerate any nonsense from our Airbnb guests.  Hosts need to take responsibility for their property and the actions of their guests.

[Morgan134]

Hi Emilia,

You are agreeing to laws that would only increase your income. In other words, if Airbnb was limited in San Diego to on-site hosts who actually live at the property, many would shut down and since you are on-site, you could raise both your rates and occupancy.

Also your readability suffers when you type in itallic font and capitalize many words, all while not using an extra space in-between paragraphs. 

I hope this helps!

[Heather620]

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for your viewpoints! It's very interesting. Here is mine, I thought I would jump in. I am also a host and also have been a renter. I think that the issues with parties and noise you are describing is very specific to areas of the city. It's hard to blanket statement that to all rentals, and restrict all rentals based on your bad experiences.

I have never had a party in a hosts home. Nor have I ever had renters do that to me! My area is Rancho Bernardo area, so it's not at the beaches where I think you would have a higher liklihood of that happening. But even so, my parents used to be short term renters and stay in Mission Beach and they were not like you were describing. Perhaps it should be on the Owner's shoulders to make sure they vet the tenants better versus just blindly banning it for everyone. There are far more nice reasonable people in the world than these types that get drunk and ransack places! 

I am completely against the ban. I think it's unreasonable and unfair and am delighted that it got overturned. My parents occupy their condo for 6 months out of the year and we rent it for the rest. If we were unable to rent it out for the rest of the time then they couldn't afford to live in it. So, it is imperative that we do not ban rentals. I am ok with nightly rentals, but weekly or monthly or 6 month rentals should not be banned. Nor should you have to remain on site. To Morgan's point, that restricts it to the 2 owners that are on site in the city. 

That is my opinion, but again, thanks for sharing yours!

Heather

PS- Does anyone know where we stand with it now that it got overturned?