Mayor calls for New Philadelphia to regulate short-term rental properties
NEW PHILADELPHIA ‒ Mayor Joel Day is urging council to consider enacting legislation to regulate short-term rental properties such as Airbnb and Vrbo in the city.
He told council that local Realtors have told him that there has been increased interest in purchasing houses in residential areas to operate as short-term rentals.
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"The city doesn't necessarily want to discourage this type of business development, but it does need to be regulated like our hotels and motels," he said. "Presently short-term rentals are not required to meet the code requirements, have inspections or collect and remit lodging tax as hotels and motels must do."
How many short-term rental listings are in Tuscarawas County?
City officials have been working on this issue for years but the effort was put on hold in 2022 when the Ohio General Assembly considered House Bill 563, which would have made it difficult for local governments to ban or restrict short-term rentals. Day provided testimony at the time against the measure.
HB 563 never moved out of committee.
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According to the Tuscarawas County Convention & Visitors Bureau, there are currently 194 Airbnb and Vrbo listings in the county with 1,155 beds, including nine listings in the city of New Philadelphia. The average room rental is $208 per night. So far this year, occupancy has been at 19% and total revenue has been $1.8 million in Tuscarawas County.
In 2022, average room rental was $186 per night, with a 48.3% occupancy rate. Total revenue last year was $3.2 million for Tuscarawas County.
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Rose Tipka, who owns three vacation rental properties in Tuscarawas County, believes that the regulation of the industry should be left up to the professionals. She doesn't own any properties in New Philadelphia.
"I think when you have professional hosts, they adhere to community standards that provide excellent accommodations and care for their guests, and we should always encourage the professional hosts to be the ones doing it," she said.
"Unfortunately, there's a lot of messaging out there that being an Airbnb host is super easy and really profitable. As somebody who does it, it is a lot of work and it does take a lot of education. I think the key there is having these professional hosts do what they do best."
Rental properties are top issue for one council member
During discussion on legislation, Councilwoman Cheryl Ramos told the mayor that her top priority is regulation of rental properties in the city, not regulation of short-term rentals.
"It's not safe to have multiple families and multiple people living in single-family homes, people living in basements without egress windows," she said. "I see a lot. There's children involved, too. I continue to get complaints from my constituents and neighbors about the trash, the number of cars parked ‒ like a mini car lot in front of a single-family home."
Residents have also complained about junk vehicles, trailers, campers and boats in yards.
Day responded that there is no reason why council can't deal with short-term rentals and rental properties at the same time.
Draft legislation on both issues, as well as creation of a vacant property registry, was assigned to council's Economic Development Committee.
Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Joel Day wants New Philadelphia to regulate Airbnbs
