Council to consider regulating vacation rentals

[My 2 cents]

Several valid points have been made on this thread. Perhaps the most important is that tourists spend money here that was generated elsewhere and that is an ideal situation for an economy that we should try to nurture, not restrict. Competition in business is good and generally evens itself out. If the hotels are having trouble competing with the VRBOs then perhaps they need to be more creative with the services they offer. The wider the variety of accommodations we provide the wider the variety of tourists, and they all spend money here.

I don't believe that VRBOs reduce low income housing. It's a different class of housing. When an owner fixes up a rental to the point where it will be acceptable for a tourist it will no longer be affordable for the low income people. The real issue with low income housing is the government obstructionism. If some of the codes could be relaxed to make it easier to provide a low income rental AND an easier avenue for dispute resolution (i.e., getting the undesirables out of your house without spending months of time and thousands of dollars) then the issue would begin to repair itself.