It is often observed that when a new business is added to a community it competes with businesses that offer similar services and takes away some of their business, potentially leading to their closure. While this is obvious in the retail world where big-box retailers drive out local stores, the same phenomenon has happened in communities where the rise of Airbnb/STR rentals has come at the price of lost revenues and decreased occupancy rates for hotels/motels.

It is a critical flaw of Mr. Mathur’s analysis that he treats the economic contribution of STRs as though their only effect is to add to the existing Wilmington economy when research, such as that from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), has shown that STRs mostly redistribute business activity from preexisting motels/hotels to the STRs. The EPI notes: “Studies claiming that Airbnb is supporting a lot of economic activity often vastly overstate the effect because they fail to account for the fact that much of this spending would have been done anyway by travelers staying in hotels or other alternative accommodations absent the Airbnb option.”

An example of how the redistribution of business from conventional accommodations to STRs can be harmful is its potential effect on restaurants. Mr. Mathur makes the claim that STR renters have a positive economic impact because they provide additional diners at local restaurants. However, visitors staying at a motel/hotel are much more likely to dine out because they don’t have a choice, as compared to a visitor staying at an STR that advertises a “gourmet kitchen.” In fact, many STR websites brag about saving renters money because they can prepare their own meals, rather than having to eat out at a restaurant as they would need to do if they were staying at a hotel or motel. Mr. Mathur’s own website states that his renters will “enjoy preparing fantastic meals for the entire crew!” Also, there are no large grocery stores in Wilmington, so it is likely that STR renters are either bringing groceries from home or purchasing them in places like Lake Placid. He also states that STR renters buy gas and souvenirs, as if the tourists staying at motels/hotels or B&Bs don’t do the same thing.

Mr. Mathur describes jobs that STRs create, such as for cleaning and maintenance, and suggests that, if not for STRs, “massive unemployment” would exist in Wilmington. However, the local motels also employ cleaning staff. If they have fewer occupants due to competition with STRs, then the demand for cleaning is reduced, and there is potential job loss that counterbalances any gain in employment through the STRs. With regard to maintenance, the homes that are being used as STRs would need mowing, plowing, and maintenance whether they are occupied by the owner or used as an STR. For both cleaning and maintenance, Mr. Mathur’s analysis likely overstates the economic benefit of STRs.

The availability of STRs does not substantially increase the number of tourists. Independent surveys of tourists have shown that only 2-4% of them would fail to visit a destination if STRs were not available. This small loss of STR business must be weighed against the more serious negative economic effects of competition with existing businesses (as described above) and increasing the prices and decreasing the availability of long-term rentals and homes for local residents, a problem that is occurring worldwide due to STRs.

Mr. Mathur only considers the economic effects of STRs. Wilmington is more than an economic entity. It is a community. Communities are places where people know one another and help one another. That community is lost when STRs intrude and begin to take over. An elderly resident is not going to go to the STR next door that has been rented to 10 guys who are having a bachelor party and ask if they can pick up a quart of milk for her at the grocery store.

Moreover, large STRs that rent to 10 or more people have increasingly become nuisances as party houses, so much so that Airbnb and VRBO collaborated to develop a plan to deal with the issue (the Community Integrity Program). Despite that effort, in June of this year the problem was still significant enough that Airbnb developed a permanent ban on disruptive parties. It is too late for us on our stretch of Hardy Road, because we are now surrounded by three potential party houses, but it is not too late to save others in the Wilmington community from a similar fate. The disruptive effect of STRs on residential areas is unique to STRs and not typical of motels/hotels, which are usually located outside of residential areas (as has been true in Wilmington).

Finally, although Mr. Mathur attempted to provide an objective, quantitative economic analysis of the STR situation in Wilmington, his harsh comments regarding Tim Follos, a member of Wilmington’s town board who has advocated for a more careful approach to STR policies, and his use of alarming phrases like “massive unemployment” without supporting data, detracted from any sense that his analysis was objective. We urge Wilmington residents who are looking for information on the effects of STRs (both positive and negative) to seek out independent, non-partisan sources, rather than obtaining their information from those in the STR industry.

(Linda Shuster and Bill Wonderlin live in the town of Wilmington.)