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Airbnb and its competitors are an issue local government is still wrestling, even as homestay business thrives in the Roanoke Valley.
River Laker is perfectly content with Roanoke City’s reaction to his Airbnb business in Old Southwest, but Corbin Prydwen got so mad he left town, settling on an island off the coast of North Carolina.
Corbin Prydwen and Laker are a couple of high-profile residents who’ve been in the news often in the past, sometimes for the good, sometimes the not-so-good. Prydwen undertook the resurrection of the West End’s near-slum a few years ago and brought it back to a level of respectability, almost single-handedly. Laker is a sometimes comic figure, but always has been a strong supporter of the Star City.
Each of the men has owned or owns an Airbnb in a Roanoke residential neighborhood. Their experiences have been wildly different. Says Prydwen, “I believe I was one of the original pioneers of trying out Airbnb. River Laker originally started it and then I followed his lead. Through the years of doing Airbnb, I have always been combative with the city when it comes to compliance.
“As the city was forcing me to go to court or become legal, I decided it was easier just to close them down. Making them legal would require a special exemption permit, a small business license, and then getting taxed on every spoon, fork, plate, bowl, sheet, comforter and pillow, essentially.”
“Up until last year everything was fine with my Airbnb,” says Prydwen. “It wasn’t until [mid-2017] that Roanoke started [enforcing] the zoning ordinance and the homestay permit.”
Laker’s experience has been quite a bit different. “I was kinda happy” when the ordinances were passed, he says, “but then people started ignoring them. The city wasn’t sincerely enforcing them.” There are steps that need to be taken to become a homestay location, meaning a wait of two or three months and fees of about $350. Laker guesses that “about 95 percent of the Airbnbs [in Roanoke] haven’t bothered to do that, and they’re doing just fine.”
Chris Chittum, Roanoke’s planning director, says Laker’s estimated percentage is wildly wrong and that there are “more like 50 (Airbnbs) than 250 in the city,” which is Laker’s estimate. He says many have complied with the new ordinance and Roanoke officials are encouraging others to do so without being oppressive. The city’s policy, he insists, has “been pretty forgiving” and is “evolving. The impact is important because it is a new use. … Oversight is important.” He says the city is looking for those not in compliance and “we find them, give notice and are not heavy-handed about it. Still, if they continue out of compliance, we will seek legal action.”
The general assembly passed legislation in 2017 giving localities authority to require them to register, “but we have not yet decided to go in that direction,” says Chittum. “Substantively, we have not changed much since our initial model, which is to require a special exception for the homestay use in residential districts.
“We’re [adjusting to] a new short-term rental use in the mixed use district. This version is where an entire dwelling unit is rented for less than 30 days.”
The problematic homestay businesses are in residential neighborhoods, generally in the city, though surrounding localities also have some. Those in commercial areas—like downtown Roanoke—don’t need the special exception permit. By late 2017, Chittum says, there had been 16 applications for homestay permits, nine approved, three denied and three withdrawn. One was awaiting a decision. There are other homestay locations throughout the Valley, but the city’s remain the highest profile and the most contentious.
Prydwen moved to North Carolina in October, saying, “I gave City of Roanoke 12 years of hard work and dedication through revitalization efforts throughout the Old Southwest and West End. I believe through the amount of blighted properties and the amount of money that my investor and myself have spent, one would think I deserve just a little bit more respect. But not in the eyes of our city leaders.”
Yoga instructor Debbie Stevens opened her home at the foot of Mill Mountain to Airbnb during the middle of 2017 and was delighted with the result she saw before moving to California at the end of the year. She never completed licensing. “One of the reasons I [didn’t complete] it was the expense,” she says. “But I was happy. Absolutely. It helped me keep the house clean, on top of the laundry, and I met interesting people.” She canvassed her neighbors before inviting guests in and has had no complaints.
Laker occasionally rents his entire house, staying with friends. “Most people come, sleep and go. Some like to socialize,” he says.
Most Airbnbs don’t provide breakfast, though the Roanoke ordinance comes under B&Bs. Roanoke City Councilman Bill Bestpitch, who favored the city’s ordinance, is a former B&B operator.
Realtor Tony Seifred at Smith Mountain Lake (Moneta) has been renting rooms on lakefront for a year and has a license with Bedford County. He pays transient taxes and “The experience is mostly good with some crazy outliers,” he says.
Dina and Reggie Bennett of Mountain Shepherd Survival School in Craig County found that it “was quite easy once I knew the rules,” says Dina. “I understood that we had to pay sales tax but was unaware of the transient occupancy tax which is an additional five percent of net sales. The Craig County Commissioner contacted me about it and invited me to her office to explain how the process worked. I’m happy to pay the extra tax to support the county.”
Mountain Shepherd has a large lodge and cabin—56 beds, up to four in a room—that it opens for Airbnb customers, who don’t mind sleeping in bunk beds far from the urban world. Says Dina, “They are looking for a rustic mountain setting and we provide that. We’ve had guests from all over the world.”
Many of the Airbnbs are spare, even Spartan, and owners insist their customers aren’t looking for luxury; it’s about price, sometimes as little as $30 a night. Therefore, they insist, they aren’t competing for visitors looking for high-end accommodations.
Brian Duvall, a former executive with the Salem-Roanoke County and Franklin County Chambers of Commerce (now with the Walla-Walla, Wash., Chamber) had an Airbnb in Boones Mill for a year, and found the hotel industry unconcerned. “They seem to understand that people who want the Airbnb experience are not interested in staying in a hotel for very specific reasons,” he says. “That it’s a fairly small percentage of the tourist population.”
Duvall says his Airbnb was in Franklin County and “we never had to have a license and we never had problems with hotels complaining or neighbors complaining, but then we’re out in the country so we were unlikely to bother anybody.”
For now, the dust seems to have settled on the controversy, the rules are in place and are being enforced, and the Roanoke Valley has caught up again with an urban trend. Stay tuned, though. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
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