• News
    • VRM Intel News
    • Latest News
    • Sponsor News
  • COVID-19
  • Marketing
  • Tech
  • OTAs
  • Customer Service
  • Regulations
  • Business
  • Housekeeping
  • Subscribe
  • More
    • Calendar of Events
    • VRM Intel Live!
    • Reports Login
    • VRM Intel Magazine
    • Advertise
    • Authors
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
VRM Intel
  • News
    • Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Pregame Prep Campaign
      Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Hosts Super Bowl Preparedness Campaign for Vacation Rental Operators
    • vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel
      Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing
    • Woman dropping off a ballot
      2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    • VRM Intel News
    • Latest News
    • Sponsor News
  • COVID-19
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • 2022 Vacation Rental acquisitions from AvantStay, VTrips, Vacasa, Meredith, and more
      Who Sold? Here’s What We Know: 2022 Vacation Rental Management Acquisitions
    • 2021/2022 Ski Destinations Showing Big Performance Gains in ADR and RevPAR for Vacation Homes and Condos
    • “It’s like a short-term rental regulation pandemic.” 2022 Spring Vacation Rental Regulatory Trends + Fall Outlook
    • HR 2022: Attracting Today’s New Workforce after the Resignation Tsunami and the Great Renegotiation
  • Marketing
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    • board meeting in presentation room
      Tourism Boards and DMOs Offer Seat at the Table for Vacation Rentals
    • Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
    • All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle
  • Tech
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
    • All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle
    • PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners
    • Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting
  • OTAs
    • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    • Blue Star Acquires Majority Stake in TravelNet Solutions
    • Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference, DARM 2022, Nashville
      Sessions Details for Upcoming Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management (DARM) Conference: Livestream/Video Tickets Available
    • Vacasa (VCSA) Stock Falls as Lock-up Period Expires
    • 4 Ways to Stand Out in a Crowded Market: Get Your Brand & Listings in Front of Potential Guests
  • Customer Service
    • Why Not A Hotel? A Guest and Homeowner’s Perspective: There’s No Place Like Home … Or Is There?
    • Leading Proptech Company Guesty Appoints David Aber as CFO
    • Meredith Hospitality Brands Inc. Expands to Mt Hood with Acquisition of Mt Hood Vacation Rentals
    • View of Waikiki from Diamond Head Park, Honolulu, Hawaii
      Honolulu City Council Bans Stays Under 90 Days Across Oahu
    • Are you a Visionary without an Integrator at Your Vacation Rental Management Company?
  • Regulations
    • vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel
      Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing
    • Woman dropping off a ballot
      2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures
    • voters at a polling center voting
      Dozens of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures Heading to Voters this November
    • board meeting in presentation room
      Tourism Boards and DMOs Offer Seat at the Table for Vacation Rentals
    • Arizona state flag outside the legislature buildings at the state capitol
      Arizona Legislature Passes Measure to Restore Some Power to Cities
  • Business
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
    • All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle
    • PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners
    • Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting
  • Housekeeping
    • Why Not A Hotel? A Guest and Homeowner’s Perspective: There’s No Place Like Home … Or Is There?
    • Analysis: “Reinventing” Vacation Rental Management by Alex Nigg
    • HR 2022: Attracting Today’s New Workforce after the Resignation Tsunami and the Great Renegotiation
    • Safety First: Evaluating and Addressing Safety Risks at Your Vacation Rentals
    • The Importance of the Guest Experience within Vacation Rental Operations: From the Back of the House to the Front
  • Subscribe
  • More
    • Calendar of Events
    • VRM Intel Live!
    • Reports Login
    • VRM Intel Magazine
    • Advertise
    • Authors
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • RSS

Regulations

Tourism Boards and DMOs Offer Seat at the Table for Vacation Rentals

Tourism Boards and DMOs Offer Seat at the Table for Vacation Rentals
mm
Paris Achen
September 13, 2022

While election season is upon many local communities across the country, polls are not the only place where vacation rental operators are changing policies and perceptions of our industry. A more recent movement gaining momentum is vacation rental community leaders acquiring seats on their local tourism boards.

While some tourism boards and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are private entities, many are public or semi-public entities tied to their local governments. Charged with promoting the destination and managing sustainable tourism in the community, public tourism boards are often funded by local tourism taxes, such as hotel or lodging taxes. 

For public boards, seats are allotted by local elected officials. Outside of vacation-rental dominant destinations, seats reserved for lodging representation have been awarded almost exclusively to traditional hoteliers and B&Bs, but board makeup has slowly started to adopt more vacation rental voices.

“Historically, the only lodging representation has been from hotels,” said Dana Lubner, head of leadership development at Rent Responsibly and founding board member of the Mile High Hosts for Community Advocacy in Denver, Colorado. “The fact that more seats are going to the STR community not only acknowledges the economic value that home sharing (or STRs) brings to the destination but provides an opportunity for the STR community to have a voice in tourism policies and spending.”

Reasons to join a tourism board

Tourism boards and DMOs may or may not be vocal in vacation rental regulatory discussions, but even if they do not take a public stance on legislation, their reports and programming can influence regulatory outcomes. With the rapid pace of new regulations across the country, it is a crucial time for property managers to be part of the discussion on how communities will promote and manage tourism in their markets.

“Suppose a local tourism board is only populated with [hotel operators], local politicians, and administrative leaders,” said Larry Mallard, CEO of Alpine Lodging, a vacation rental property management business in Telluride, Colorado. “In that case, vacation rentals can get lost in the discussion and not be managed in a way that benefits everyone.”

Mallard serves on two tourism-related boards in addition to a hospital board. He was chairman of the Telluride Tourism Board and the Colorado Flights Alliance for several years and continues to serve on both boards.

“My partners and I serve on local boards for a couple of reasons,” Mallard said. “First, our company has always felt it was important to give back and be visible leaders in the community.”

“In Telluride, we’re one of the largest employers in the area and want to ensure we are as involved in the direction of the community as possible,” he said. “Tourism is the largest driver of the economy in a destination resort town like Telluride. Lodging and vacation rentals are some of the most important pieces within that space. Our concerns and goals must be part of the discussion as they often align with the business community.”

Ryan Tigner, owner and manager at iTrip Vacations, a nationwide vacation rental property management company, joined Oregon’s Travel Portland Board of Directors in May 2022.

“I wanted to join so I could educate and bring a different perspective of short-term rentals to the board and community,” Tigner said.

About 80% of Travel Portland’s board members are hotel operators.

“Often it is the hotels that are lobbying against short-term rentals,” Tigner said. “If I can educate them and change their perception on STRs and they learn that most short-term rentals are not competing with hotels – they are a completely different experience – maybe it would help our industry be more welcomed.”

Changing perceptions of short-term and vacation rentals

Shannon Hiller-Webb, the first host to sit on Oregon’s Travel Portland Board of Directors, said “having STR representatives on the Travel Portland board has legitimized us in the tourism travel space.”

“It took a couple years being on the board [to correct] the old patterns and behaviors of vilifying the STR rental industry, being reductive of our legitimacy, or just negligent that we were a significant audience for consideration,” Hiller-Webb said, “but as I departed the board I had recognized a shift in acceptance, support, and dare I say, advocacy, which took time, relationship building, and education.”

Sharon Harley, CEO of Jeeves Florida Rentals, has been on central Florida’s Experience Kissimmee Board of Directors for six years and is currently chair-elect.

Over time, Harley said she has been able to demonstrate that vacation rentals offer accommodation and services that compete with the best hotels and have a stake in tourism promotion and spending.

“At challenging times such as when vacation rentals were banned during Covid, I was able to use [tourism] resources to bring awareness of the true professionalism vacation homes offer,” Harley said.

“Too many people … don’t understand the compliance we have to follow and the licensing that is required,” she said. She tries to enhance awareness of how many STR homes pay extra taxes in the exchange for the privilege of operating, how they contribute to the local tax base and economy, and how they create and sustain jobs.

How vacation rental seats have made a difference in tourism

It’s important to remember that when serving on a tourism board, you represent all vacation rentals in your community and not just yourself. 

“My advice would be to never go into any decision with a personal agenda,” Mallard said. “Instead, be there to represent the vacation rental space as a whole and don’t make decisions that benefit only you or a select few.”

Thanks to their representation on their local tourism board, hosts in Portland had some say in choosing which neighborhoods would be featured in promotional materials. The new focus on STRs also resulted in a partnership between Airbnb and Travel Portland to promote the city through an email campaign.

“The fact there was a representative from the STR industry on the board and given the impact we had shown the Travel Portland board on how resilient STRs were during Covid in providing tax funding to Travel Portland helped usher in the Travel Portland investment in the Airbnb campaign,” Hiller-Webb said.

In Telluride, where vacation rentals have long played a recognized role in the tourism economy, STR representation helps the tourism board stay in tune with high, moderate, and low peak seasons and better target marketing on the right demographic and over the right dates, Mallard said.

The Visit Telluride website has an entire page dedicated to aggregating and promoting vacation rentals in the community.

Tigner, who joined the Travel Portland board in May, said “it has been great to bring some insight to the group at Travel Portland about what short-term rentals are, the way we operate, our target market, and measures we use to be good actors in the community,” Tigner said. “Obviously, everyone has heard of the extremely rare instances on the news when something goes wrong at a short-term rental, but they don’t hear about the other million stays where families had a wonderful vacation.”

How to join your local tourism board

Adding an STR seat to your local tourism board may require a concerted effort by your STR community.

In Portland, Oregon, hosts had almost no say in regulations and taxation that the city was imposing on them. In mid-2018, members of Host2Host, a trade association for STR hosts, organized to speak out on new STR fees proposed by the Portland City Council. During their advocacy push, they made a case for adding an STR host to the Travel Portland board. They were able to demonstrate their industry’s economic contribution – especially STRs’ role in fueling Portland’s love affair with eating and buying local, as Portland hosts commonly direct guests to their favorite local establishments.

The STR industry now has two of the 28 seats on that tourism board.

Other strategies include getting involved with your local tourism board, attending events, getting to know board members, and showing your interest in serving. Serve on other boards and organizations that could help you make connections on the tourism board or recommend you for a position.

“Once people know who you are and what you stand for, you get recommended to certain positions through somebody who knows somebody,” Tigner said “That is how it happened for me.” 

 

Photo courtesy Campaign Creators

Related Itemsairbnbalpine lodgingColoradocolorado flights allianceDana Lubnerdenverdestination marketing organizationsdmosexperience kissimmeeFeaturedfloridaHost2Hostitrip vacationsjeeves florida rentalslarry mallardmile high hosts for community advocacyoregonportlandRent Responsiblyryan tignershannon hiller-webbsharon harleytelluridetelluride tourism boardtourism boardstravel portland
Click to add a comment

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Regulations
September 13, 2022
mm
Paris Achen

Paris Achen is the staff writer for Rent Responsibly, covering everything from feature stories to case studies, guides, and more. Before joining Rent Responsibly, Paris worked as a journalist at several newspapers in the U.S. and Turkey. Her background reporting on housing issues for the Portland Tribune in Oregon inspired her to want to write more about the short-term rental industry. She is especially interested in how STRs have served as an economic vehicle for homeowners, like her, who would have struggled to own a home without the option of renting out part of it. Paris enjoys listening to people’s stories and writing content that leaves her readers feeling more connected to their fellow humans.

Related Itemsairbnbalpine lodgingColoradocolorado flights allianceDana Lubnerdenverdestination marketing organizationsdmosexperience kissimmeeFeaturedfloridaHost2Hostitrip vacationsjeeves florida rentalslarry mallardmile high hosts for community advocacyoregonportlandRent Responsiblyryan tignershannon hiller-webbsharon harleytelluridetelluride tourism boardtourism boardstravel portland

More in Regulations

vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel

Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing

Alexa NotaDecember 6, 2022
Read More
Woman dropping off a ballot

2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures

Paris AchenNovember 11, 2022
Read More
voters at a polling center voting

Dozens of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures Heading to Voters this November

Paris AchenOctober 18, 2022
Read More
Arizona state flag outside the legislature buildings at the state capitol

Arizona Legislature Passes Measure to Restore Some Power to Cities

Paris AchenAugust 1, 2022
Read More

Aspen and Pitkin County, CO Limit Vacation Rentals to 120 Days a Year

Paris AchenJuly 1, 2022
Read More
Houses in Koko Head, Oahu, Hawaii

Property Managers And Owners Sue Honolulu County Over Bill 41

Alexa NotaJune 17, 2022
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Sponsor News

  • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    BusinessOctober 18, 2022
  • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersSeptember 16, 2022
  • PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners
    BusinessAugust 5, 2022
  • Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting
    BusinessAugust 4, 2022
VRM Intel
Calendar of Events
Videos & Whitepapers
VRMintel Magazine
Subscribe
Advertise
About Us
Authors
Contact Us

Recent News

  • Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Pregame Prep Campaign
    Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Hosts Super Bowl Preparedness Campaign for Vacation Rental Operators
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersJanuary 18, 2023
  • vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel
    Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersDecember 6, 2022
  • Woman dropping off a ballot
    2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersNovember 11, 2022
  • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    BusinessOctober 18, 2022

View Current Issue

VRMintel Copyright © 2016-17 | Click HERE to Subscribe | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Copyright | Jobs | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals

xxx videos

  • mamadas
  • redwap
  • free porn
  • porno gratis