Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Clark County back to press short-term rental proposal

Justin Jones

Steve Marcus

Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones asks a question during a meeting April 19, 2022, at the Clark County Government Center. At their meeting Tuesday, June 21, 2022, Jones and his fellow commissioners are slated to take up a proposal that would require owners of short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, to be licensed and to pay a transient lodging tax. “This is a result of a lot of input from neighbors who have dealt with this for years now,” Jones said of the proposed ordinance.

John Wong’s mother began listing a spare room in her house for short-term renting after being laid off from her job on the Las Vegas Strip during the pandemic.

It became the best way for her to make money, and she “truly enjoys” hosting, Wong on June 7 told the Clark County Commission. She was able to completely supplement the income she used to make as a blackjack dealer, and now she hosts full time.

“While the rest of us are being responsible and never received a complaint, why blanket cover every host with this outrageous ordinance instead of pinpointing those that operate irresponsibly,” Wong said. “We have people losing jobs, losing wages, and paying more for everything in existence — we have an option to get by (through) participating in the sharing and gig economy by sharing our homes on Airbnb.”

Commissioners today are scheduled to consider a transient lodging tax proposal for short-term rentals where property owners would pay an annual fee to be licensed and agree to pay 12.5 to 13.5% on each rent.

They say there are an estimated 10,000 illegal short-term rental properties in Clark County listed on sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, which are a popular way for travelers to rent rooms, apartments or even entire houses for their stays.

These short-term rentals are illegal, the county says, because they are not owner-occupied homes, contain more than three bedrooms, are less than 660 feet from another short-term rental, and do not comply with licensing, noise and parking regulations. In Las Vegas, short-term rental owners must also have a business license.

“This (ordinance) is a result of a lot of input from neighbors who have dealt with this for years now,” said Justin Jones, the commission’s vice chairman. “Unfortunately, it’s the bad actors that have brought a lot of attention to this.”

If passed, the ordinance would introduce a series of countywide regulations that all short-term rental owners would have to follow alongside the general rules of the applications they list their properties through.

Owners of these units will have to meet a set of requirements to apply for a short-term rental license — not be a mobile or manufactured home, within 2,500 feet of a resort hotel, and must not violate the housing or health codes, to name a few — and pay an annual fee of either $750 or $1,500, depending upon the amount of rooms in the unit.

Although short-term rentals can potentially bring positive economic effects by encouraging tourism, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, Las Vegas already has a booming tourism economy due to attractions like the Strip and downtown Las Vegas properties.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority found that the city was “driven by visitor spending on rooms, dining, shopping, local transportation and other activities and amenities during their stays,” but short-term rentals draw away some of this business.

Short-term rentals also compete with properties in the resort corridor, all of which are taxed and bring revenue back to the county.

Commissioners agreed that the “increasing number of short-term rental units in Clark County has diverted a noticeable portion of transient lodging away from traditional transient lodging establishments and has negatively impacted the revenue derived from such rentals to local governments and other agencies and beneficiaries of transient lodging taxes.”

Transient lodging includes the various hotels, resorts and other buildings that can provide temporary housing for paying individuals. Because short-term rental owners don’t have to pay the existing transient lodging tax, the county is collecting less money despite an increase in tourists.

Effects on housing

Officials with Nevadans for the Common Good encouraged commissioners in the spring to study the effect short-term rental properties have on affordable housing in Clark County, where the average rent has increased by 19.2% since last June.

The logic is simple: Properties are being purchased by cash-buying investors, who turn them into a short-term rental unit for profit. That limits the supply of available properties to buy and also pushes up the price, which in turn impacts the ability of a local to buy. The short-term rental industry also consists of people subletting rooms in their houses or apartments to turn a profit.

Barbara Paulsen, the organization’s leader, stressed that short-term rentals made the existing housing in Las Vegas unaffordable for the residents who work in the industries that many of the visitors staying in the short-term properties enjoy.

“We see the need for short-term housing, they just need to be regulated so as to not place an undue burden on our residents,” Paulsen said.

In a Facebook post after the June 7 meeting, Nevadans for the Common Good said “the primary function of residential development in the county is to provide permanent, affordable housing for the residents of the county. We stand in support of the short-term rental ordinance as written.”

Rental rates for apartments jumped almost 1% in just the past month and Las Vegas’ average is $120 above the U.S. average of $1,320 per month, according to Apartment List.

Susy Vasquez, executive director for the Nevada State Apartment Association, thinks that restricting Airbnbs may lead to an increased demand for apartments that will stretch complexes thin.

Short-term rentals “support a significant number of people who travel for work, snowbirds, etc. since they provide furniture and household goods,” Vasquez said in an email to the Sun. “(Renters) will more than likely migrate back to apartments, which will squeeze (apartment complexes) even more.”

Overly aggressive?

The Greater Las Vegas STR Association, a group of local short-term rental owners, started gathering donations to support a lawsuit against the county and are halfway to their goal. One of their founders, Jackie Flores, has been adamant that commissioners are trying to push for “overly-aggressive regulations.”

Another Las Vegas resident and short-term rental owner, Mali Gabay Lazara, believes that “you can have a short-term rental without any issues and happy neighbors with the proper procedures that work.”

She uses noise-monitoring machines and maintains consistent communication with her tenants, which she has cited as a reason for her success in discouraging rowdy tenants in her unit. Instead of approving these new restrictions, Gabay Lazara urged commissioners to work with short-term rental owners, and even offered to create a set of guidelines for owners that she imposes on her own property.

Joseph Stevens, who has only been a short-term rental owner for a small period of time, echoed Gabay Lazara’s sentiments. He “has never had one complaint from anybody, from any neighbor,” because he follows a set of criteria and interviews his guests before they can book his unit.

One question that causes him to turn down a possible renter is whether they will have guests, especially if they bring more than two people per bedroom.

He believes that many of the management issues with short-term rentals could be solved by making owners take a class on how to properly oversee their rental property.

“There is a way to make it work without causing any problems, and I don’t think the city or state or anyone has the right to tell you who can come inside your home,” Stevens said.

Calls to Airbnb for a comment weren’t returned.