Vallejo to Mull Air BnB Regulation

“Air BNB your friendly neighborhood landlord” by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

I bought my house here five years ago– I’m exactly what Council Member Hakeem Brown has dubbed part of the “cafe culture” of middle class white people who have moved here from out of town and are, by that regard, somehow not real Vallejoans or worse, harming working class residents by introducing gentrification, arugula, and token Black Lives Matter signs.

Vallejo is mired in a catch-22– we all, no matter our income, want to see it thrive. We want to see an interesting, bustling Downtown where small businesses can make a living and contribute to the local culture. I’m a firm believer that a rising tide lifts all boats. While a Basque bistro serving artisanal cider doesn’t do much to directly impact a single mother of three working two jobs, its tax revenue just might. But as Vallejo draws more higher-income residents, housing and rental prices rise as well. Instead of lifting all boats, yachts start to dock.

Enter Air BnB, that “sharing economy” juggernaut that people either love or hate. Is Air BnB affecting rental pricing in Vallejo and making it harder for low-income residents to find an affordable place to live? And is Vallejo missing the (hopefully raised) boat by not regulating it?

Next Tuesday, Mayor Robert McConnell has requested that a discussion about creating an ordinance (or ordinances) around Air BnB be put on a future agenda. I asked him to elaborate.

“Over the years, many have complained of short term rentals, including air B&Bs concerning noise, parking, litter, late parties, and lack of income to the city,” he responded in an email. “If council agrees with the request those items and any other concerns of council could be addressed by adoption of an ordinance, or not.”

When I first came here, there were about six total Air BnB listings in Vallejo. Two of these listings were from women I knew who rented rooms in their private homes. Much of their business came from travel nurses who had landed at Kaiser Vallejo. Such renters were great to have, because they worked long hours, so were not often in their hosts’ hair, and they stayed for several months. These women could rent their rooms out without disrupting their private life too much or making someone sign a year lease. Then there was Air BnB’s gigantic reach– possible renters could easily find them online, read their good reviews, and get everything set up quickly and efficiently.

Cut to 2021, and I count well over 200 Air BnB listings here in Vallejo, the vast majority of which are entire houses, studios, apartments, or condos. If you can believe it, one house here goes for $403 dollars a night. Nearly all the listings bill Vjo as “Close to Wine Country!” or “Minutes from Napa!” Air BnBs in Vallejo are indeed a great choice for frugal oenophiles. You can rent a cute, clean, and “Super Hosted” Air BnB three bedroom house here for an average of $100 per night here.

I read a ton of articles and studies about Air BnB’s impact, positive and negative, on communities, and they all say one thing: Each city is different. Now it’s up to the council to decide how uniquely Vallejo we are.

There are three kinds of approaches that cities have taken: out-right banning it (Anaheim), regulating it (most all others), and what one researcher has dubbed “laissez faire,” which is our current model. In cities that have regulated, it varies from place to place. Some cities, like San Francisco, have limited “entire” unit rentals as a way to protect housing availability by only allowing such places to be rented 90 days of the year. Other cities have passed “hotel taxes,” which puts Air BnB rentals in the same fiscal category as a Motel 6. New York has a “one host, one home” rule in an attempt to stop big-money real estate moguls from snapping up properties right and left for lucrative, short-term Air BnB cash. According to US News & World Report, savvy renters simply create proxy identities, addresses, and even corporations to appear singular.

But does Air BnB create higher rents in town? One study says definitely. The authors found an average increase in rent of $9 per month after Air BnB took hold; they also found that the housing sharing service reduced the number of available long-term rentals. Conversely, Air BnB drives up property values, underlying one criticism of the service that it is used by upper middle class white people, for upper middle class white people, and makes cities, well, more upper middle class and white. We’ve all seen those stories about how some people of color have been treated when renting through Air BnB– some neighbors of short-term rentals have called the police on Black people who were just checking themselves into their vacation rental.

The council can go in so many directions. Since the Mayor mentioned hearing about noise, parking, and litter complaints, those types of things could indeed be covered by an ordinance– though Vallejo is already understaffed when it comes to any sort of enforcement. If Vallejo decides to tax short-term rentals, the average amount appears to be around 10 percent. Personally, I find a big difference between renting a room out in your house short-term versus owning an entire property that could otherwise be used as a long-term rental, and I think they need to be taxed differently, if the Council decides to move in that direction. Again, folks can lie (yes, sad to tell you that) and say that they live there, but they’d have to lie on their listing, which would cut into their revenue, because someone like me only goes to Air BnB places that give me an entire place to myself.

What do you think? The council will hear the mayor’s request to put it on the agenda next Tuesday, October 12.

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