Smart City Policy Group hosts inaugural regulations summit
US: Smart City Policy Group (SCPG) has hosted its inaugural Smart City Policy Summit short-term rental regulations conference in Austin, Texas.
The summit featured attendees from across the short-term rental industry spectrum, including city regulators, travel industry professionals and vacation rental managers.
SCPG CEO Matt Curtis said: “Communities are desperate for help on this issue. Compliance and enforcement of short-term rental regulations continue to elude governments, neighbours are fed up and travel leaders and operators are faced with confusing rules.
“We are bringing all sides together to fully understand this constantly changing industry,” he added.
Over the past decade, more than a thousand cities in the United States have implemented regulations aimed at short-term rentals. Many of these concerns, while varying city-to-city, revolve around tax remittance, housing and zoning impacts and noise and parties.
Mayor Jane Hughson of San Marcos, Texas, said: “Local government officials work every day to create good policy for our communities. We heard a clear concern that short-term rentals were an issue in some neighbourhoods due to excessive noise.
“We also heard from those who needed the income. We built our rules to address both concerns and more,” she added.
Sessions at the summit covered a range of topics, such as tax compliance, nuisance controls, quality of life and safety solutions.
Speakers included Jon Hockenyos, president of TXP Economic Development Consulting; Carl Smart, assistant county manager of Alachua County, Florida; Allen Atamer, president of Harmari Technology Tools; and Steven Shur, president of the Travel Technology Association.
Meanwhile, Proper Insurance co-founder Darren Pettyjohn said: “Most short-term rental operators want to follow the rules and policy makers want to create rules that work. This effort brings all sides together to find solutions.”
With years of knowledge and experience in the short-term rental space, SCPG said it believed its summit would deliver an ‘unrivalled depth and breadth of expertise’ for its attendees.
For more information, visit the group’s website here.
