Conway selectmen to move against short-term rentals

It's hard no matter which way you look at it.

I have been cleaning airbnb rentals for many years now and when I go on vacation, I rent through airbnb myself. I enjoy the privacy of a home, having a living room to relax in and watch TV or play a family game, a kitchen to cook a home cooked meal in instead of eating out in a busy restaurant where you have to yell to talk to the person sitting next to you. I love airbnb rentals and I'll stay in one over a hotel, motel or Inn any day.

However, I was just evicted so the landlord could turn my place into an airbnb rental and am currently homeless. I can't find any place to rent around the Conway area, and I'm not alone. I see people driving around who have emptied there storage units into the vehicles and are living in there storage units. Is that why I also cannot find a storage unit to put my stuff? I just lost everything and it's crazy to think that it's due to airbnb rentals, but is it?

I've lived in this town my whole life and have never seen as many issues as there are with people finding a place to live around here. I understand it from both sides, and I have to say that even though it's my job to clean airbnb rentals, it is an issue for anyone who is not a home owner.

I understand if it's your property then you should be able to do what you want with it, but look at how many homeless people there are at the camp grounds right now or living in the woods. I've never seen anything like it and if something isn't done, there are going to be alot of homeless people out there.

I have been an active participant in our community through direct interactions with the elderly, youth, and the working class. With accepting and understanding for all, I have seen our community through a more detailed and thorough perspective. I myself have stayed in vacation rentals in Hawaii, Alaska, Amsterdam, England, as well as in the conway area. The only home I own is in North Conway. It is on a dead end and has a low income development which boards mentally ill, drug abusers, loud and disrespectful people who trash and violate. This town was once a peaceful town, yes. Things have unfortunately changed and it has little to do with vacation rentals. The once quaint town is now home to subsidized housing and has created a small and overlooked ghetto. Heroin, crack, cocaine, prescription drugs.. Locals who are aware and informed need a break from the schizophrenic neighbors who are paid to live in our community. While racking my yard I have endured ambulances racing pass my dead end property to the development in response to overdoses. Just last month I was in my backyard and heard a girl on her bicycle pridefully tell her friend that she tossed a piece of trash onto a neighboring lawn. If we want to have people be permanent tax paying residents we need to first discuss where to put the mentally ill and unstable in order to bring back our peace. It's not a comforting situation knowing desperate people live just a trout away from my abode. Be thankful if you only need endure a happy bunch taking a break from their busy lives. It's temporary. My concern and I suggest you take note are on those our tax dollars fund to live in our town and rain havic on our community.

All the people that are supporting short term rentals are only responding to the comments about the occasional bad apple renter who makes a lot of noise and is disturbing the neighborhood.

The bigger picture is the loss of affordable housing for locals, the driving up of property values and property taxes, and the loss of having neighbors that actually live and occupy the house near you. If you don’t see any value to that how could you not? If most of your Airbnb’s are owned by outsiders then they are reaping the benefits of your nice town, and they don’t care that your neighborhood has changed because they don’t live here.

What a shame. They literally violated homeowners' civil liberties—those who voted no have no idea what they just did. As lobbyists for the dying hotel industry, they handed power back to them. I have news for you, folks, no everyone wants to stay in a hotel room with no kitchen anymore. I'd liken this regulation to someone telling you that you can't use electricity because it burdens the town and causes bulky power lines in the street. Would you like that regulation? Of course not. So why are you tell people what they can't use their home for? These silly arguments they make are completely false and unfounded. So there are revelers in on AIRBNB, but that doesn't mean there aren't any in hotels, neither. Ridiculous.

Well... you really can’t help old people from being old. Let’s hope that they retire and move to Florida sooner than later and move on. These knuckleheads have no idea what they’re talking about and most likely working as lobbyists for the dying hotel industry.

If somebody wants to stay in a hotel with no kitchen, then they have the right to do so, but if somebody wants to stay in a home with the kitchen, that’s where they to a short term rental.

You idiots who voted no have no idea what you just did. You completely handed over an industry that was dying while encroached on people civil liberty. New Hampshire’s live free or die is turning into a die and don’t live state. Kudos to you all for regular waiting freedom. What a joke!

Are short term rentals always a commercial venture, or just a way to help pay for the pretty high property taxes in the town?

I'm thinking that there are many many other "commercial ventures" operating in residential areas of the town as home businesses, and the enforcement of this "law" shouldn't stop at short term rentals, a term that cannot even be defined.

I am proud to say, that I have operated a short term rental in North Conway for more than six years. Through this endeavor, I have befriended and fortunately employed cleaners, maintenance contractors, lawn care and snow removal companies, all of which could now potentially be without that income. In addition, I have published a booklet which gave flowering reviews and recommendations to local restaurants and encouraged my guests to visit these establishments to help the local economy. Families have made memories in my home (many have returned for years) all the while maintaining a peaceful stay while vacationing in the valley and supporting the community with their spending.

I have paid all of my property and rental taxes willingly and responsibly. Through it all, I had one issue at my home...a renter once burned some bacon that triggered a non-rescindable visit from the fire department.

For those that have seemingly fought so hard against STRs, I would truly ask why? Would you have ever considered to request the town simply address disturbances at the small number of the repeat offenders? Would this have been a more productive approach to address your concerns while not jeopardizing the local economy and potentially eliminating jobs of others that live and work in your community? Would addressing the “bad apples” and simply supporting regulation have been enough to maintain a reasonable co-existence of STRs?

I would tend to think so...