Good news everyone, It’s Friday!
Airbnb joins vacation-rental sites who have begun to see a surge in demand. Antsy city dwellers seeking to escape their Covid-19 refuges are road-tripping to nearby vacation rentals in surprisingly strong numbers. This shows the first signs of life for an industry that essentially ground to a halt in March.
“People, after having been stuck in their homes for a few months, do want to get out of their houses; that’s really, really clear," Airbnb Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky said in an interview. “But they don’t necessarily want to get on an airplane and are not yet comfortable leaving their countries."
Yes, Captain Obvious. But the key is that a lot of those people know Airbnb will give their money back (against the wishes of the host) if it's an "extenuating circumstance" so hey why not use Airbnb? 😒
Beyond Pricing’s Pandemic Pulse page has some really interesting stats coming out. West Coast and Ski markets in the US have now returned to similar booking pace levels that they were seeing before the pandemic. The East Coast and US Interior vacation rental markets continue to see historically high levels of booking pace. Australia, New Zealand, France, Portugal, and Italy are seeing steady growth in weekly booking pace that will soon get these markets back to a normal level, while other countries like Japan and Spain have yet to see travel demand return.
After contemplation and discussion spanning nearly a decade, property owners who operate short-term vacation rentals in Crow Wing County, Minnesota will now be subject to new regulations and licensure requirements beginning in 2021. The ordinance states short-term rentals will not be allowed to operate in the county without an annual license and defines these rentals as "any home, cabin, condominium or similar building that is advertised as, or held out to be, a place where sleeping quarters are furnished to the public on a nightly, weekly, or for less than a 30-day time period and is not a bed and breakfast, resort, hotel or motel."
Hey, at least they got a decade to discuss it! Most counties jumped on the regulate-short-term-rental bandwagon the moment they could. Who doesn’t like extra taxes?!
Hawaii Vacation Rental Owners Are Threatening To Sue Over Shutdown. A Honolulu land-use lawyer has sent letters to four island mayors saying local rules related to COVID-19 violate constitutional rights of property owners. “The result of preventing these rentals statewide equates to damages of approximately $100 million per month, and the collective impact on property values is easily $1 billion,” Kugle wrote. Hawaii remains under an order requiring all people flying into Hawaii to stay in quarantine for 14 days upon arriving. One issue has been how to make sure people follow the orders. While supporters of short-term rentals say their properties are safer because they’re generally less densely occupied than hotels, hotel industry executives argue that they have established policies and procedures to keep guests safe while they’re bound to their rooms. What do you think? We’re pretty sure we know, but tell us anyway!
