City Manager’s Office

Memo TO:

City Council

DATE:

October 10, 2017

FAX NO:

805/ 653-2237

SUBJ:

Short-Term Rental September Update

PHONE:

805/646-5581 x 101

E-MAIL:

[email protected]

CC:

FROM FROM:

Steve McClary, City Manager

In the previous update, we noted that recent searches of known short-term rental websites, such as Airbnb, have not revealed many properties that are currently violating the short-term rental advertising prohibition. This is a change from a year ago, where there would regularly be 40 to 50 properties advertised for 2 or 3 day rentals within City limits. As noted last month, there was 1 property that is offered for short-term rental and believed to be within City limits on Airbnb. Very little information is included on it, which has made it challenging to track down. Staff will continue to work towards identifying the property, but also began checking some additional websites to find new ads. Staff regularly checked homeaway.com, VRBO.com, Airbnb.com, enchantedvacationrentals.com, and ojaivalleyescapes.com, and will continue to look for additional websites. Of the five websites that are regularly checked, only Airbnb.com had a property within City limits listed for fewer than 30 days. After contacting some owners over the last few months, ads on the other sites have been updated to only allow for 30 day or longer rental. Airbnb.com has the property mentioned above, which staff is investigating. Staff will remain diligent investigating and addressing new listings as soon as possible, and will include other websites to ensure that short-term rentals are not able to be advertised, and report back in future updates. In addition, staff has received one complaint about a property being used as a short-term rental. Staff will make contact with the owner and ensure they are aware of, and are adhering to the short-term rental prohibition.