Airbnb, good or bad?
 

Just wondering what others think? We have a couple of neighbors on our road in Villages that rent their home on a nightly basis. We are really not on board with this as an appropriate home business that should be happening in our residential community. A revolving turnstyle of non-residents who show little respect for our neighborhood certainly does not enhance the Villages lifestyle.

This is an interesting post. I have wondered how Airbnb would be viewed in The Villages. But, how are revolving people being disrespectful?

You are not alone.....but they own the house and I guess can do what they want as long as it's legal. If you search online you will find there are many houses in TV that are on Airbnb. Everything from patio to premier.

Not all Airbnb guests are troublemakers or lawbreakers
 

I'm speaking strictly as a guest of Airbnb. i have used Airbnb twice to stay in The Villages during high season. My Airbnb's stays were in January of 2017 for 3 days and in February of this year for 5 days. During high season it is just about impossible to get a rental for less than 3 months. I would have loved to stayed longer during high season, but I still work full time (remember those days when you still worked full time?), and I have to work with the vacation time allotted to me by my employer.

While I was in The Villages during these visits, I broke no laws, did not damage any property and caused injury to no one.

I will be back in The Villages very soon for a visit. This time my visit will be longer. I fully intend to behave myself on this visit also.

Someday I hope to be a resident of The Villages. For the time being I will have to be content with being an occasional visitor.

Just looked @ Airbnb reviews--It appears lots of people are renting out spare rooms/space & most of the rentals include golf carts, IMHO--including a golf cart is insane-from a liability standpoint

Bad idea. Several years ago, when we lived in a villa, a guy down the street rented his villa for 3 nights. 2 Bedrooms, 7 people staying there. Kids were playing soccer on the golf course at night. Had to call Community watch. I thought this was a retirement community, not a resort. Just my opinion....


" I never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was wrong." Charles Schulz

Many deed restricted communities have a minimum length of stay rule written into their bylaws to prevent this...

This what drove us out of a condo in Palm Coast--the minimum rental was supposed to be 30 days- 4 families would get together & rent a unit for 30 days & they would each get a the unit for a week--kids running thru the hallways , leaving bait buckets out for everyone to smell and bringing huge floats into the pool-- was way to much--

When a residential community becomes a bargain basement resort--its not good

Like everything, there are good and there are bad experiences.

I thought it was against our covinents to run a business from your home. To me Air B&b is a business...not just a rental property. I wonder if anyone has brought this up with the powers that be. I sure Schaumburger is a very nice guest but nightly rentals are not a good idea for home values.

Right on--short term and or daily rentals--degrade a community or how about hourly rates for a quickie

What's a quickie?

AB&B has become major issue in San Diego area (I'm looking forward to getting to TV soon). Recent legislation passed to address the issue was very contentious, but necessary for many of the reasons mentioned in this thread. I don't view TV as a vacation hotspot for families...too far from Orlando attractions, but I would see it as something to address because I've seen the ugly side.

Agree, there are deed restrictions about running a business from your home. This is unfortunately an internal deed restriction issue so Community Standards department is powerless to enforce. It takes a resident challenging the developer to enforce the deed restriction (possibly in court) to correct this.

Personally, I’m totally against the entire rental idea anymore. Our CYV community has had a lot of renters over the years and most have been great people and many we still call friends. Unfortunately, we’ve had our share of “resorts guest” renters and a few were just jerks that have ruined my opinion of the whole rental idea. One long term renter currently in our neighborhood let’s thei dog run loose in the morning to do their business in neighboring yards. Time for her to go!

The abnb thing is a BAD deal for the residents a whole. I’m sure there’s good renters here through abnb but it’s not the community we agreed to. Too few have ruined a good thing for too many.

When we first came down here on our Villages Lifestyle visit they put us in their newest section at the time, Alden Bungalows near Brownwood. We were surrounded by construction. The nearby infrastructure was lacking, and I just could not see myself here, and couldn’t imagine what it would be in a few years. My dear hubby then rented someone’s home near Sumter for a week and voila, he had a convert. Before we left we bought our first villages home.

Now that we are on our second home, I couldn’t give up the first. It’s in a great location with a great view and is perfect for one car and golf cart, but not two. We ended up getting a bigger house, but I know someday we will need to downsize, and I want to downsize to there. So in the meantime I rent it out. I keep in mind that some folks are coming to check out the Villages, and want to make it a positive experience for them. I leave them information and little villages gifts. People have given us very positive feed back, we are encouraging people to consider here for their long term retirement.

I see short term rentals as another option to get folks to experience our friendly town.

Lets see, where should I start. Noise, noise, noise, and more noise, people driving very fast and not yielding to walkers or bikers, not enough parking in the driveway so the renters park in the road causing traffic congestion, often in front of our house and on top of our sprinkler heads, renters (many, but not all) generally being much less friendly, at best, compared to residents. In general, we have found that many short term renters just don't display the pride in ownership and neighborhood camaraderie that most residents display. And many short term renters seem to always be in a hurry, and dam to anyone that does not yield to them and possibly slows them down. And did I mention the noise?

I understand that to promote demand for homes from part-time residents and investors, as well as full time residents, the Villages did not put tight rental regulations in the deed restrictions. However, I don't think the developers ever anticipated that short term rentals like Airbnb would grow as it has. Hopefully something can be done to amend the deed restrictions so that short term rentals run out of a residential home, being used as a business, can be stopped.

Devil's advocate.

Is there a difference for the consumer between a few days through airbnb and the Villages Lifestyle visit for a few days? About the same piece ($99 a night) and includes a golf cart...

As a Landlord, I don't personally use Airbnb...Sent from my SM-N920R4 using Tapatalk

My children us Airbnb and love it. They get wonderful homes for very reasonable rates and many landlords allow them to bring Tank & Shiloh with them, two humongous German Shepards. For me, I don't like the idea at all. Just doesn't appeal to me. I like Hampton Inn & Suites and most Hilton Hotels.

We have rental units around us and have had no problems at all, but I have an idea how to deter the Airbnb from spreading if it ever became a problem for me. The renters rate the rental and probably wouldn't give high marks if they didn't enjoy their stay. Just kidding, I wouldn't do anything underhanded. Probably. Do you think anyone ever gives a review on their own rental? Maybe people give a bad review when they never stayed in a house. Maybe its none of my business unless it affects me.

A memory.

:1rotfl:

Fleas and Bed Bugs anyone!!!! Yuke

We have family coming for Thanksgiving this year and needed housing in our general area. I booked 2 very nice 2 bed, 2 bath cottage villas on Air BnB for 4 nights each. Very reasonable price in the location we wanted and much cheaper than staying in an area hotel, who seem to raise tier rates during any holiday period. We are dealing directly with the homeowners and not a management company which is reassuring.

:agree:

Here are some other thoughts to consider. We chose to become airbnb hosts after having some wonderful experiences in Europe and the States.
We are proud to be ambassadors for The Villages. The vast majortiy of our guests are people interested in moving to The Villages. Several of them wanted to stay with current residents of The Villages so they could ask questions and get personal opinions of living in The Villages. Several of them have bought homes here within months of their visit with us, including one couple who now lives near us. Other guests have stayed with us while visiting older relatives or in for family reunions. Some are current homeowners whose property is rented by others on a long term basis. We are almost always home when we have guests. We recommend they rent carts from The Villages or other reputable cart rental businesses. We also have hosted traveling nurses and other professionals who have the need to be in The Villages for short times. We also occasionally allow small dogs to visit with their owners which many hotels do not. Our home is thoroughly cleaned between visits at a level that I believe, as a former Hyatt Regency manager, quality hotels would envy.
In the eighty plus guests we have had over the years our rating has consistently been five star, the highest rating possible. We have never had a negative review. Some of our guests book us year after year. We have earned and maintained a "Super Host Rating" from AirBnb. We pay our transit rental taxes monthly. And yes we have turned down guest requests from people we felt uncomfortable with but we feel our lives have been enriched by the kind, considerate and diverse guests with have had the honor to meet.

For me, the issue isn't about how you feel or how your guests feel, it'a about how you neighbors and community feels. We all know that you rent to make money and help cover your costs, not be an Ambassador for The Villages. There are houses that have been rented with multiple families, with spring breakers that have great parties until the wee hours, and young kids abound since Disney is only an hour away. If there wasn't something in it for the house owner there wouldn't be AirBnB.

You say you are a host and an ambassador.
However you compare yourself to a Hotel business and say you pay your rental taxes.
I would say this is a BUSINESS.
My deed restrictions say a BUSINESS can not be operated out of a home.

In today's world, I find it astounding that anyone would let total strangers share their home. That seems extremely dangerous. I'm sure each person feels nothing bad could happen to them. I won't even address the fact that they are running a business from their home and bragging about their great reviews. I don't like the short-term rentals, but safety and security are a different concern. As for being ambassadors for The Villages, what a bunch of hogwash. It's all about the money.

Although I agree about letting strangers share my home, I fail to see how AirBnB is any different than renting a home here in The Villages, wether its a short or long term rental. I know several people who own homes who never intend to live here. How is that not a "business"?

There is a difference between a business and an investment. If you own a home and rent it out fulltime, the IRS will allow you to claim it as investment rental property, which gives you certain tax benefits, such as long term capital gain rates. They treat this as an investment, not a business. So, if the IRS would treat a BNB operation as a business, then it may be possible for The Villages to prohibit owners from operating BNBs here, but still allow investment property.

From the posts I've read here, most complaints about an Airbnb type setup are the resulting short term renters, not so much if there is a violation for running a business out of your home. Business or not, I see no difference in an Airbnb or one of the many rental companies here, the results of which result in short term renters.

:agree: 100%

Air B&B UN regulated and UN licensed by any health dept

Neither are any of the rental houses.

Don't think spring breakers rent in a retirement community. :bigbow:

I thought the same thing but have a friend that had first hand experience with them in a Premium home with a swimming pool and there were 8 in the 4 bedroom house. Brought back memories for them.....as she said, ah, to be young again. Then reverted to senior citizen and complained about the parties...lol.

Short-term rentals of any kind is never a good thing for property values in a residential community/neighborhood. How many folks/friends/neighbors do you know that specifically moved into a neighborhood (The Villages or other) because there were a lot of short-term rentals and they were "happy" to live in that type of community???

I thought the same thing but have a friend that had first hand experience with them in a Premium home with a swimming pool and there were 8 in the 4 bedroom house. Brought back memories for them.....as she said, ah, to be young again. Then reverted to senior citizen status and complained about the parties...lol.

Its ok, people here complain about everything.

Air B&Bs are like Uber, kind of.

IMHO, anybody that rents property on anything less than a 1 year lease should have to purchase a rooming house license, install fire sprinklers, and be subject to inspections by the county. Also, every room where someone sleeps should have 2 exits. The county could adopt such an ordinance, and I believe they should.