Letter: Facts show South Lake Tahoe VHRs not the bad guys

I successfully have been tracking the City of South Lake Tahoe’s Vacation Rental Enforcement for well over a year and it’s a wonder why vacation rentals continue to get a bad name? Yes, there are some issues but ultimately VHR’s are a relatively minor nuisance in the scheme of things.

For the entire year of 2019, there were only 229 neighbor complaints for things such as noise, too many cars, trash, and over-occupancy. Of those 229 complaints, there were only 52 violations. This equals to 1 violation a week on average and only 22 were noise disturbances. The City of SLT increased annual permit fees for VHR homeowners to pay for 5 enforcement officers, to handle less than one call a day? It is my understanding that the City no longer has 5 enforcement officers but their average response time to complaints is less than 16 minutes. That’s pretty darn quick! I wonder what the City is doing with the increased permit fees since they no longer need as much staff?

Yes, there are citations being given but that’s due to VHR professionals pressed City Council members for over a decade to start citing guests for their bad behavior. Vacation Home Rental owners and managers have no intention of wanting to be a bad neighbor to our resident locals.

The scary part is that Measure T is looming and as we get closer and closer to 2021 the City is going to have to make some big changes. The City of SLT is about to lose 4 million dollars per year in VHR transient occupancy taxes which help pay for roads, snow removal, police, and fire. That’s close to 7% of their entire budget. Are those who are against VHR’s willing to take that kind of revenue away from the City for a mere 22 noise violations in a one year time period?

Please don’t say that the neighbors shouldn’t have to act as de facto managers of VHR’s. It is always a neighbor’s responsibility to notify police of crime and nuisances, regardless if it is caused by a VHR or not. To say that’s the reason there are so few complaints is just ridiculous. If you were being disturbed, wouldn’t you want it to stop?

It seems to me that VHR’s have a place in this community and banning them completely, especially without seeing the results of new enforcement, is not the answer. Rent by owners and professional property managers have been good educators to the guests and that is why the complaints and violations are so low. It’s just not a substantial problem and, don’t forget, people have been staying in VHR’s in Lake Tahoe for 100 years.

Joshua Priou
General Manager
Lake Tahoe Accommodations