Earlier, the Planning Commission approved the measure. On Thursday, Ed Grose of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association hailed his passing as a victory for traditional hotels. His group sees short-term rentals as competitors to hotels that can operate with little oversight and have long called for stricter regulation.
“I’m pretty happy. It’s not like we’re making short-term rentals illegal, we’re making it fair,” he said. “They have to follow the same rules as us.”
Airbnb had lobbied against the bill, but company representatives had no comment on the bill’s passage. However, at a Council session on Thursday, several short-term rental hosts and others testified against the legislation.
Nick Schmid, a registered nurse who rents a unit on a short-term basis, testified against the bill, saying it would be more difficult for him to operate a duplex he owns and rents out on a short-term basis as a source of secondary income.
“The revenue we receive from customers allows us to pay our mortgage,” he said. “It allows tourists to come from out of town and spend money.”
Chris Carlone, who operates an “automated housekeeping business” called “Turnify,” said his business would be hit by a drop in short-term rental business.
“Problem hosts are the target of this bill, but it fails to recognize collateral damage behind the scenes,” he said. “When a guest stays at a local property, my housekeepers clean it.”
Carlone asked the Council to delay the bill and offered operators “self-monitoring” as an alternative solution to nuisance problems.
But some community members said the bill did not go far enough.
Lew Baum, of the registered community organization for the Democratic 46th Ward, wanted to see the units driven out of residential areas, linking their presence to rising real estate costs. He praised the bill, but said the legislation would remove a current city requirement that some operators obtain a special zoning use permit, a process that allowed RCOs to intervene.
“It contains some good ideas,” he said of the legislation. “But if left unmodified, it will remove that single point for community input.”
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