KCRag Forum

On one hand, I am in favor of people being able to use their property as they want.

But it's not fair hotels are so heavily taxed/regulated and Air BnBs get to skirt all those. In addition, it pushes up rent for everybody. There's not really a good solution other than better licensing & taxing imho.

Agree about generally wanting people to be able to use their property as they would like. I would be in favor of a rule such as "everybody gets one." If someone is a small landlord and wants one of the five properties they own to be a short term rental or if someone takes advantage of new ADU rules and turns a detached garage into a studio to list on AirBnB. I want those people to be protected. It is the people who own 5, 10, 20, or even 50 units/properties that are all short term rentals. Crack down on that.

I have a problem with the Airbnb owners/operators that take a perfectly good multi-family building and turn it into an Airbnb hotel. I get that it likely brings in extra revenue, but there are consequences for doing this and it causes rent to rise across the board. I know back in St. Louis one apartment building owner was choosing not to renew leases with the intent to renovate the building and reopen it as an Airbnb hotel. This is in one of the hotter neighborhoods as well.

People can do whatever they want with their property, but some need to realize having a lot of Airbnb units causes more problems in the long run, especially in hot neighborhoods.

STRs that are not owner occupied are becoming a HUGE problem in urban neighborhoods. It's not just the party houses that are to blame. It's the insidiousness of how they can take over whole neighborhoods and destabilize the social bonds over time. The goal for a lot of urban neighborhoods has always been achieving stability through high rates of owner occupancy, in addition to longer-term tenants. Even if well managed, when a formerly occupied house converts to a STR, urban homeowners are losing neighbors they can rely on and trust and eyes on the street that can help prevent crime. The STR potential has also artificially escalated homes prices and caused affordability problems for both buyers and longer term renters. Relying on the city to police these has proven a real challenge: a game of whack-a-mole they cannot currently manage. It is particularly a problem in the areas adjacent to the streetcar expansion where speculative buying has had recent investors pricing out local citizens in an area of the city poised to become more desirable and accessible to transit.

alejandro46 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 11:18 am But it's not fair hotels are so heavily taxed/regulated and Air BnBs get to skirt all those.

STRs don't skirt ALL taxes or regulations in KCMO. It's a long list, actually.

https://www.kcmo.gov/home/showpublished ... 6036300000
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/231 ... n-missouri

We operate two AirBnBs (not in KCMO), but they are occupied by family when they're not available to rent. The hotels in both places suck, and sucked long before AirBnB existed.

Fountains wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 11:44 pm This has became a real issue in my neighborhood and it sounds like all throughout Kansas City. Councilman Bunch is working on an audit regarding this subject. We currently have a guy who owns several properties where parties have turned to fights, shootings, etc. Along with a raid from US Marshall's all in just a few years time. Currently there doesn't appear to be any ordiance or way for local government to enforce anything on this. Others have voiced concerns that this hurts with housing demand.

I'm curious to get the boards thoughts on this?

Literally the same things happening in every city.. regardless of whether or not the property is a rental or a traditional home. Crimes and idiocy occur. The best way to prevent those things from occurring in your neighborhood is to address the root cause (Trash people) and enforce the law.

I am hopeful KCMO will soon pass legislation that requires STRs to apply the 7.5% CT Hotel Tax on each occupied unit per night. It's an untapped revenue source that needs to be applied across the board.

Link2 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 11:06 am I am hopeful KCMO will soon pass legislation that requires STRs to apply the 7.5% CT Hotel Tax on each occupied unit per night. It's an untapped revenue source that needs to be applied across the board.

This is a reasonable new regulation. It requires no additional staffing and levels the playing field with traditional accommodations.

Capping units and adding more red tape won't do any good unless there's funding for the staff to enforce.

Kansas City is leaving $2 million 'on the table' every year by not taxing Airbnbs, study says

https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-11-30/ka ... study-says

Fed up with Airbnb parties, Kansas City residents want the city to crack down on illegal rentals

Data shows that less than 10% of short-term rentals in Kansas City are properly licensed. Residents are pressing city officials to take action.

https://www.kcur.org/housing-developmen ... government

FangKC wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:32 am Kansas City is leaving $2 million 'on the table' every year by not taxing Airbnbs, study says

https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-11-30/ka ... study-says

Under a Missouri statute that only applies to Kansas City, the city cannot collect Convention and Tourism taxes on short-term rentals, because it excludes the rentals from its definition of hotels and motels — potentially barring the city from millions in revenue.

What the hell is up with all of these state laws that only apply to KC?

Cratedigger wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 8:31 am

FangKC wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:32 am Kansas City is leaving $2 million 'on the table' every year by not taxing Airbnbs, study says

https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-11-30/ka ... study-says

Under a Missouri statute that only applies to Kansas City, the city cannot collect Convention and Tourism taxes on short-term rentals, because it excludes the rentals from its definition of hotels and motels — potentially barring the city from millions in revenue.

What the hell is up with all of these state laws that only apply to KC?

State reps from St. Louis don’t want us to succeed

It's a shame that city council did not see this coming. The writing was on the wall and now it may be too late. Every week, it seems, a new STR shows up in Columbus Park. I'm a fan of the owner-occupied STRs, but these other ones are neighborhood killers.

Organize the neighborhood and have residents constantly call or email your Council representatives on the issue. Show up at Council meetings and bring it up during public remarks.

Messaging doesn't have to be strident or total. Indicate support for owner-occupied STRs and heavy fines for unregistered rental units. Operators who don't register risk a permanent ban on STR use. Bad operators also risk losing designation after say three citations. State support for making them collect hotel tax for City.

I'm not opposed to them either, but I don't like the idea of out-of-community owners buying up houses/apartments and doing this. It takes permanent housing out of the market when we already have a housing crisis. The STR owner is operating a business so city taxes must be collected. Not doing this is unfair to hotel/motel/B&B operators.

The city's lack of enforcement on this so annoying. What is possibly an easier enforcement tool than addresses not complying with regulations literally listing themselves publicly on the internet?

TheBigChuckbowski wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:25 pm The city's lack of enforcement on this so annoying. What is possibly an easier enforcement tool than addresses not complying with regulations literally listing themselves publicly on the internet?

The only flaw in this argument is it presumes there are staff to do the enforcement.

Perhaps this needs to be crowd sourced initially and send the city and news outlets a list of offending parties?

This is being done, but lack of enforcement is the problem. If I was mayor, I would allow citizens to report and enforce violations with stiff fines – as long as it is well documented. I would also deputize all bicycle riders and allow them to ticket people who obstruct/park in bike lanes.

taxi wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:04 pm This is being done, but lack of enforcement is the problem. If I was mayor, I would allow citizens to report and enforce violations with stiff fines – as long as it is well documented. I would also deputize all bicycle riders and allow them to ticket people who obstruct/park in bike lanes.

Bike lane obstructers need their vehicles set on fire, but we all know that melted shit would be in the bike lane for the next year.

grovester wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 8:35 pm

taxi wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 7:04 pm This is being done, but lack of enforcement is the problem. If I was mayor, I would allow citizens to report and enforce violations with stiff fines – as long as it is well documented. I would also deputize all bicycle riders and allow them to ticket people who obstruct/park in bike lanes.

Bike lane obstructers need their vehicles set on fire, but we all know that melted shit would be in the bike lane for the next year.

No to derail an important topic, but there seems to be near zero maintenance or enforcement of bike lanes. Possibly the worst are the assholes who blow the leaves off their yard and into the bike lane.

OK, most STRs suck the life out of the neighborhood and should be taxed heavily, and some of those funds should go directly to the neighborhood.

smh wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:47 pm

TheBigChuckbowski wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 12:25 pm The city's lack of enforcement on this so annoying. What is possibly an easier enforcement tool than addresses not complying with regulations literally listing themselves publicly on the internet?

The only flaw in this argument is it presumes there are staff to do the enforcement.

The only flaw in this argument is it presumes that a person would need to do this. Pull data from airdna or whatever, cross reference with registered addresses, mail fine to address of owner. I would imagine that would take one developer less than a day to automate.