That is the implied message of a headline article in The State newspaper October 5, 2022, “Columbia drafts policy to cap Airbnbs, short term rentals.” To be honest, such backward thinking by so called “Columbia Leaders” shouldn’t be surprising to anybody at this point. Columbia has been in a relative economic coma for the last 20 years or so, and to see “leadership” fight every advance in the free world, while disappointing, is certainly no longer surprising. The interesting point is that there really isn’t a sound argument detailing why the city needs to regulate, cap, or even monitor short term rentals any more than they do long term rentals. But, let’s examine the situation from an independent viewpoint.
Columbia is and always has been a rental community. Over 50 percent of the houses in Columbia are NOT owner occupied. But somehow, long term rentals have been regarded as more valuable to the community than someone who needs to rent a place for 30 days or less because of a work situation or parents who just want to visit their kids at USC for a football game.Why? Well, Susan Cohen, president and CEO of the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association says, “We have seen across the country that well-meaning unregulated short-term rental situations have quickly gotten out of hand.” Out of hand? In what way are short term rentals out of hand? To me, they seem to have a real appeal to a segment of society that doesn’t want to rent a hotel room. She goes on to say, “There is a need for stricter rules.” But why? Are there really problems associated with short term rentals? Is crime worse because of short term rentals?
Kit Smith seems to agree there is a problem. “We want neighbors; we want residents. We want people you can borrow a cup of flour from or bring you a casserole when someone dies.” Well, Shazzam, Aunt Bea, welcome to Mayberry. But she continues, “The more transience you have coming through your neighborhood, the more you disrupt the neighborhood.” Other unnamed residents agree and “worry about an increase in late-night noises and crime and the eventual deterioration of neighborhoods.” Pretty scary stuff, but too bad there isn’t any proof this is actually true. Short term rentals actually have some sort of monitoring system in place although independently regulated by companies such as Airbnb. Owners are rated by the guests, and guests are rated by the owner. So a rating system will provide some input into the property, and if things do “get out of hand,” the rental would be removed from the market. That seems reasonable enough. To be fair, there are no real regulations or enforcement of long term rentals in Columbia.
It appears to me Councilman Howard Duvall is adding fuel to this fake emergency fire and trying to solve a problem that just doesn’t exist proposing a new city ordinance that would require all short term rentals to register and “legitimize their non-owner occupied properties.” If there is a link to Airbnbs and crime and late night noise, wouldn’t there be some proof of this by now? So, are these worries really worth worrying about? I don’t think so, but I do know if you want to have a short term rental, your house cannot be a dump. Because if it is a dump, nobody will rent it. So, the Airbnb next door is much more likely to have been renovated than the long term rental next door with four college kids living in it. In fact, who is more likely to have a party on Friday night? The college students renting the house next door or two 60-year-old parents from Atlanta visiting their kids? All these arguments are strictly based upon keeping Columbia in the dark ages. While every other community has grown in the last decade, Columbia continues to struggle and lag behind. Part of this is the loud voices of the CAVE—“Citizens Against Virtually Everything”— people in Columbia, otherwise known as the Columbia Elitists who want to control everything and stop any form of progress.
And what about the argument to cap the number of short term rentals in Columbia? If short term rentals are destroying our neighborhoods, how could it be acceptable to have a limited number of them, and who is to say what the right number of them should be for the city or a neighborhood? Going backwards in Columbia is not and should not be considered a solution to a problem that does not exist. Airbnbs are not dangerous and aren’t going to ruin Columbia. There are, in fact, good for the community and good for the economy. They help people work and visit Columbia, and those visitors spend money and improve the economic conditions in our city. Columbia has so much opportunity to grow and to be the place we can be proud of again. But, that isn’t going to happen if we are afraid of change and are scared to do anything different. Quit trying to regulate everything and trust our people to do the right things in their communities. And one more thing, the Airbnb is also more likely to have that cup of flour or sugar than the four college kids living next door. So let’s welcome short term rentals to the neighborhood and say YES to making Columbia a better place to live and work.
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