MOUNT GRETNA, Pennsylvania: Kutztown University Professor Victor Massad loves to grade papers while enjoying the soothing woods and streams surrounding his Valentine-themed cottage in the Mt. Gretna Camp Meeting Association.
But Massad also has a primary home in Hamburg, and he doesn’t see a need for his cottage to sit idle while he is away. And so for years, he’s rented it out occasionally.
Airbnb was a game-changer. By using the online lodging broker, he could get guests every week if he wanted, some of whom discovered Mt. Gretna while searching Airbnb for a place to stay near Hershey or Lancaster.
“I think it’s kind of put Mount Gretna on the map,” he said.
There are 20 properties listed on Airbnb in the Mt. Gretna area, and other tourist towns such as Hershey and Gettysburg have also seen spikes in short-term rentals in the last couple of years.
It’s an opportunity both for landlords and tourism promoters such as Jennifer Kuzo of Visit Lebanon Valley, who is “thrilled beyond belief” at the ability of Airbnb to bring more tourism dollars into rural areas by attracting vacationers who eschew traditional hotels in favor of a more authentic local lodging experience.
But some people living in small-town Pennsylvania aren’t thrilled to see their neighbor’s homes turn into hotels. In towns such as Mt. Gretna. This is creating tension between residents who see economic opportunity and others worried about safety and loss of community character.
‘Outsider in my own neighborhood’
Online short-term rental brokers – of which Airbnb is the most popular – use a website and apps to arrange lodging between travelers and homeowners willing to rent out their home for a short period of time.
While short-term rentals might be good for homeowners and vacationers, Penn State Professor of Hospitality Management John O’Neill doesn’t think they are good for communities. He has conducted research that he says shows Airbnb users often don’t pay required hotel taxes and don’t have safety and security standards that are as strong as the traditional lodging industry.
It can also limit the affordability of housing in an area by driving up prices as Airbnb investors compete with traditional homebuyers, according to O’Neill.
Officials in towns such as Gettysburg and Hershey say some residents, while used to tourism, are worried that the short-term rental craze will alter neighborhood character.
When Derry Township, which includes Hershey, considered loosening its vacation rental restrictions last August, several residents came to a hearing to express their concerns about transient neighbors and a lack of street parking. Resident Dean Koppenhaver said he “is bothered by the fact that he feels like an outsider in his own neighbourhood”, according to township minutes.
Airbnb ‘has changed the game’
A visit to the 236-property Mt. Gretna Camp Meeting Association – established in 1892 by the forerunner of the United Methodist church – is a blast from the past with a splash of modern irony.
“I think we’re just trying to figure out how a community that was developed in the 19th century survives into the 21st century with some of the character and uniqueness that makes it special,” says Ted Martin, President of the Mt. Gretna Camp Meeting Association.
The small homes with unique designs and colors sit directly off of streets barely wide enough for a single vehicle to navigate. One wooden sign advertises a home called “The Transcendentalist on 6th St.”, while a signpost on a utility pole points the way to “Margaritaville” and a “Tiki Bar”.
This haven of nature lovers and intellectuals has always included some cottages that are rentals, according to Martin, which functions somewhat like a homeowner’s association. Still, a recent rise in short-term rentals has some residents concerned, he said.
There are also more practical concerns, including limited parking in the community, he said.
The Camp Meeting’s leadership has developed a series of recommendations, including a mandatory rental fee and safety inspection and a cap on the total number of rentals. The idea is to strike a balance between accommodating short-term rentals and addressing the concerns of the area’s approximately 100 year-round residents, Martin said.
Restricting Airbnb would be a ‘disaster for the community’
But some Airbnb users have pushed back.
Hypothetical concerns aside, Massad said he hasn’t heard of any actual complaints about people renting cottages in Mt. Gretna. What regulating Airbnb will do, Massad worries, is drive down real estate prices for old-fashioned cottages that are difficult to sell to people looking to live there all the time.
“I think it’s a disaster for the community,” he said. “If you can’t rent it and you can’t sell it, what are you going to do?”
Pat Wilmsen, who owns a cottage in the Mt. Gretna Camp Meeting that she sometimes rents, thinks the concern that Mt. Gretna will become overrun with absentee landlords is unfounded.
“I do feel that if the people who rent do not have a vested interest in the community, it could get out of control,” Wilmsen said. “But all the people I’ve met, they want to be in the Camp Meeting, Gretna, too.”
Despite the objections, the Camp Meeting leadership voted in January to have its solicitor draft a binding rule to regulate rentals, Martin said.
That binding rule has not been finalized.
Small towns explore whether to limit Airbnb
Other small tourist towns are also contemplating the need to do something in response to the rapid rise of Airbnb checkering their communities.
Gettysburg noticed an uptick in Airbnb during 2013’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the amount of listed properties has since soared to 86 in the borough alone, Borough Planning and Historic Preservation Director Becky Young LaBarre said.
Leaders in Gettysburg and Derry Township recognize that tourism comes with the territory. But Gettysburg is developing an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals because its leadership still feels an obligation to make sure they are safe accommodations for guests and for the neighbors, LeBarre said.
“It’s very transient,” she said. “We don’t know how they’re vetted.”
Derry Township town halted its proposal to loosen restrictions on vacation rentals after receiving public feedback last summer, township Manager Christopher Christman said.
Now, it’s taking a more “comprehensive look” at this issue before proposing changes to its ordinance, Christman said.
As towns scramble to figure out whether to regulate Airbnb, tensions are rising, even in typically tranquil places such as the Mt. Gretna Camp Meeting.
“Passion is a strong thing, and there’s passion on both sides,” Wilmsen said. AP
