Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Rental of rooms or Air BnBs?

[Eris Weaver (eris]

If you're talking about renting rooms, don't forget that many
jurisdictions have bed taxes other regulations regarding short term
rentals. Sonoma County, CA where I live is a big tourist destination and
there is tension between folks wanting to capitalize on it by doing
Airbnb-type stuff, and folks who are tired of their neighborhoods being
overrun by tourists. Some of our jurisdictions - my city for one -
forbid short-term rentals in residential homes (short term is defined as
less than one month). Most jurisdictions have bed taxes for any kind of
overnight accomodations - locally there's been talk of adding a bed tax
to CAMPGROUNDS - and possibly other kinds of permits...do you WANT to be
dealing with collecting & submitting taxes? 

The bigger question, I think, is this: how open do you want your borders
to be? Is your vision of a community where everyone knows everyone, your
kids are safe running around unsupervised, etc. compatible with having a
rotating cast of strangers/paying customers on the property? People
paying to rent a room - who are not friends/relations of residetns -
will treat your space like it is a hotel. Is that what you want? 

I would also recommend, if you are contemplating some sort of commercial
enterprise, doing a thorough business plan - it is waaay to easy to
overestimate income and underestimate actual costs of doing business.
And don't even get me started on the challenges of managing mixed use
buildings (commercial & residential).... 

Eris, who has spent the last four years as manager of our community's
retail business 

FrogSong, Cotati, CA