[A]s far as the Vermont Chamber of Commerce is concerned, the more lodging there is for Vermont’s visitors, the better.
So when Airbnb, the online accommodation-finding service, announced last week that it had generated $7.8 million in tax revenue from Vermont stays, Ronda Burns had a somewhat mixed reaction.
Burns, who represents the state’s lodging establishments for the chamber, was unconcerned at the evidence that Airbnb is taking a piece of the lodging pie from inns, hotels, and other traditional establishments.
What does concern Burns, and others in the Vermont tourism industry, is that online short-term rentals enjoy an unfair advantage over the traditional B&Bs, hotels, inns, and other places to stay in Vermont because they don’t have to undergo the safety and health inspections required of traditional lodging.
“The Vermont Chamber’s mission is to grow Vermont, and bringing in more people to the state is a good thing, not a bad thing,” said Burns. “The only thing we are looking for is if individuals are going to run a lodging business, we’re asking them to follow the same rules as all the licensed properties in the state.”
Airbnb agreed with the state in 2016 to collect its 9 percent rooms and meals tax. It also collects an additional 1 percent in several towns and an extra 2 percent restaurant, hotel, amusements and admissions tax from Burlington. The state collected $180 million in rooms, meals and alcohol sales in 2017, according to Kaj Samsom, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Taxes. Airbnb’s tax revenue makes up about 2 percent of that total.
Burns said the Chamber would like to see anyone who is running a short-term rental, advertised anywhere, to pay taxes and follow the health and safety rules applied to traditional lodging.
“If you own a small B&B, you’re required to do a whole list of things,” said Burns. “We’re just asking someone who is renting a room to follow the same rules.”
Rule change to be proposed
The Chamber will be requesting a change in rules on behalf of its membership in the coming legislative session. A bill that was passed in the Legislature’s special session last year asks operators of unlicensed short-term rentals to deliver health and safety information voluntarily, she said.
“We would like to see them required to do it just like a small B&B,” she said.
The issue of regulating short-term rentals is complex and relatively new. Tim Piper, who runs the Vermont Innkeeper and Bed and Breakfast Association – with many members that advertise rooms on Airbnb – said the giant online service is bearing the brunt of concern that should fall on many other organizations.
“Airbnb is getting a bad rap on this; people like Home Away, Flip Key, they all kind of fall under that too,” Piper said.
It’s not yet clear if the state Department of Tourism and Marketing will support strengthening regulation of short-term rentals. Commissioner Wendy Knight said the department wants to encourage all lodging operators.
“To remain competitive with other destinations, it’s important to have diverse lodging accommodations, whether it’s treehouses or cabins or campgrounds or chalets or ski condos or peoples’ homes,” said Knight. She said the department wanted to make sure it didn’t suppress business. The average short-term rental host is a 50-year-old woman renting an accessory dwelling in her home, she said.
“We don’t want to do anything from a legislative perspective that would impede that,” she said. “It doesn’t work for the state as a whole.”
She also noted that the department is part of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, which is trying to figure out what to do about Airbnb’s impact on the overall rental market, a problem around the U.S. As for a change in rules, “we are figuring out our legislative priorities at this point,” Knight said.
It’s in Vermont’s interest to pay closer attention to short-term rentals, said Wendy Beach, a business partner of Piper in the Hearthside Group, a company that sells hospitality businesses in Vermont and New Hampshire.
“There are lots of others out in the marketplace that aren’t paying taxes, and not only is that not fair to people in the lodging industry in Vermont, but also there is an argument to be made that the state of Vermont is missing out on serious tax income,” Beach said.
Airbnb reported Wednesday that there are 4,500 active hosts in Vermont who had 281,500 guests over the past year. It said the typical Vermont host made $6,400 per year and hosted two days per month. Sixty-four percent of Vermont hosts are women; 28 percent are seniors; and 84 percent are in rural areas, the online service said.
