Tonight the Palm Springs City Council will debate whether or not to have new ordinances imposed on vacation rentals. As Palm Springs has grown more vibrant in the last few years, there has been a subsequent greater demand for weekend rentals.
Now in the dinosaur era before 1991, if you wanted to rent your house for a time, you went to a rental agency and they would help you. They would place classified ads in travel magazines and big city papers. They also would screen prospective renters. It seemed to work out pretty well. I am sure there were problems with some rowdy tenants but not on scale there is today.
But now in this era of Airbnb, Craig's list and Pay Pal, many homeowners cut out the middleman and use the internet on their own to connect with renters. I once was 25 and renting a house for 2 grand, then inviting 10 people to help split the cost would have seemed very reasonable at that time in my life. And like many 25 year olds, I was not the most mature person. Neither were my friends.
In today's local paper 2 viewpoints on vacation rentals appear. Both make good points but again I am not sure if the genie is out if the bottle on this one. Technology has changed the whole ballgame forever.
In order for any program to be effective, code enforcement people must work on weekends to immediately ticket violators. Also the internet must be constantly monitored. I was astounded to see how many PS Rentals are online. Surely if Measure J money can be used for a bus route, it can also be used to help try and alleviate some of the issues raised by vacation rentals.
Steve Kelly can be heard weekdays on 1450 KPTR Palm Springs
You are right on the mark, Steve. Thanks for your article.
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