Rental Rules Shuffle

With Santa Fe officials considering a change to the local policy about using homes for hotel rooms as short-term rentals, a public meeting is planned for 1 pm, Thursday in the Lamy Room at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, the city announced Tuesday.

A study released by the city in early December showed that expanding the number of short-term rentals could serve as a real boon for city coffers, but there are there definitely people who oppose it.

The law regulating short-term rentals has been in effect for seven years now. By design, it was meant to bring back the quiet of some neighborhoods that had been turned into commercial zones with city visitors constantly coming and going. And the cap on the number of permits that could be issued was a hard-fought compromise.

But its enforcement has always been lacking—a real challenge in a day when insta-lodging can be procured over the Internet in minutes and where there are no paper trails, no neon signs, no phone numbers and in some cases no addresses. Permits to get on the right side of the law cost $350 a year, but with all the 350 available permits sold out, there's no chance for newbies to get in on the game.

To curtail neighbor complaints, short-term rentals, per ordinance, can only occur 17 times per license, and there must be a seven-day lapse between one tourist leaving and another rolling into town.

Santa Fe Reporter