The 411 on Thursday's Vacation Rentals Debate

At Thursday’s City Council meeting, councilmembers are prepared to discuss and approve an ordinance and regulations for short term/vacation rentals (ie, when it's OK to rent out the house you live in, or a house you run as a permanent short-term rental property). Here’s what you need to know to argue about it:

• The city isn’t (currently) trying to stop you from renting out your bedroom or house during the big festivals. What they are trying to do is create city rules so that these rentals are no longer an under-the-(kitchen)-counter type business. For instance, the regulations that may be approved on Thursday include new rules that require people who rent out their homes – “short term rentals” – to pay hotel occupancy taxes just like any other hotelier. The current proposed regulations would also limit the number of houses that can be licensed as short-term rentals if the owner doesn't live there to 3 percent of homes by zip code.
   
• Opponents to the regulations throughout the two years during which these rules were hammered out have fallen into two camps – those who say the regulations are too strict and will push this small industry underground, and those who say that regulating the industry at all will help it expand and turn residential homes into mini hotels.
   
• Protect Austin Neighborhoods is the biggest local group in opposition to the short-term rentals ordinance. (They are also holding a press conference at the Thursday council meeting at 11:30 a.m. at City Hall.) On their website, they say they don’t object to people who live in their homes and rent out rooms or houses on a temporary basis during SXSW and ACL Fest. Instead, they are concerned about houses that are NOT owner occupied and are able to be rented out all the time, like a motel without onsite management. They claim that regulations will allow short term rentals to spread, where people will buy homes just to be short-term rentals, taking valuable properties in Austin neighborhoods off the market, driving up prices and hurting the neighborhood cohesion.
   
• The Austin Board of Realtors represents the camp that supports the regulations, saying it is a “balanced solution” that came from two years of debate and which respects the rights of homeowners to lease their homes while also respecting “neighborhood cohesiveness.”
   
• The proposed regulations do draw a distinction between "Type 1" short-term rentals - owner-occupied homes that are rented as a whole (not just by the room) for less than 90 days of the year and less than 30 days at any time - and "Type 2" short-term rentals, which are not owner-occupied, are rented for MORE than 90 days of the year and less than 30 days at a time (which allows for sub leases and rentals of homes that are done normally and not on the short-term, hotel-like basis.) Both types will require licensing under the new ordinance. 
   
• Home Away is the big online service for short-term rentals that has been the focus of a lot of discussion. Two reasons why Home Away is getting the attention? Their world headquarters is in Austin, which is convenient for protests, and the homes being rented through Home Away tend to be the bigger, nicer homes in fancier Austin neighborhoods where neighborhood opposition is more active.
   
• Even if the ordinance is approved on Thursday, it will be a couple months before the city figures out a system for enforcement. That’s when we will find out whether and how the regulations might affect others.