Vrma letter to la city council 5 16-16

1. May 16, 2016
To: Los Angeles City Council
From: Mike Copps, Executive Director, Vacation Rental Managers Association
RE: Concerns with Short-Term Rental Proposal
Dear Honorable City Council Members:
We applaud Los Angeles for considering a proposal to legalize short-term renting. However, we
have concerns that your proposal unfairly impacts secondary home owners in your community.
The Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) is a 30-year old international trade
association representing professional property managers of vacation rentals. Our members are
professionals who manage the day to day operations of vacation rentals. This oversight helps
protect the neighboring community and the guest. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the
City of Los Angeles has over 100,000 seasonal homes. These homes are a productive part of
your community. Allowing their use as a vacation rental creates safer neighborhoods, a larger tax
base and greater property maintenance by maintaining tenancy.
Banning secondary homes from being rented short-term does not increase home affordability.
Surveys from other large metropolitan areas show that bans do not cause secondary owners from
selling their home or renting it long-term. These properties will mostly stay empty and not be
productive elements to your neighborhoods.
We would offer a possible solution to your concerns of secondary home rentals by requiring the
property be maintained by a professional manager. This would increase accountability and
enforcement of city ordinances and protect neighbors from undesirable elements. We propose a
second definition be created defining a vacation rental as separate than a short-term rental and
apply this definition to secondary homes.
Nationally we have seen communities ban vacation rentals or strictly regulate them and in the
end we see that this does not solve the issues that the community is trying to fix. We agree with
the United States Conference of Mayors when they approved a policy which states; “onerous
regulations of short-term rentals can drive the industry underground, thus evading local
regulations and local hotel taxes”, and, “fair regulation of short-term rentals ensures greater
compliance and greater receipt of local hotel taxes”.

2. The VRMA works productively with local governments across the country to address tax
collection and land use laws by educating property managers and owners on local regulations,
and government regulators on best practices.
Traditional short-term rentals, or vacation rentals, are a travel option around the world and the
positive impact of the activity affects communities everywhere. Recent economic impact studies
show communities with effective and easy-to-follow regulations achieve the greatest rate of
compliance, overall financial impact and job growth. Best practices show regulations that engage
the property manager, who is working as an agent of the property owner, have the highest rates
of participation.
Economic impact studies conducted in 2014 show and overall economic impact by the traditional
short-term rental activity in Myrtle Beach, SC at $200.7 million and 2,587 jobs, and overall
economic impact to St. Joseph, Michigan of $24 million and 300 jobs, and the Coachella Valley,
California communities of $272 million and 2,539 jobs.
Similar economic impact studies show benefits to other communities including; Galveston,
Texas $283.6 million and 3,100 impacted jobs-a-year, Monterey, California $131.8 million and
1,400 jobs-a-year, North Carolina $4.5 billion total impact, $1.4 billion in annual real estate sales
and$180 million in tax revenue, and Florida $31.1 billion, 322,032 jobs affected annually
(directly and indirectly supported by VR industry) and labor income from jobs: $12.6 billion
annually.
The VRMA stands ready to assist Los Angeles with any discussions that could affect the
professional property managers or the property owners of vacation rentals in your community.
Our goal is to help you to create effective regulations that achieve compliance while recognizing
the demand of the travelers.
Thank you,
Mike Copps
Executive Director
Vacation Rental Managers Association