Property managers say not all hit by COVID-19 guidelines
The economic impact of tourism in the Ellijays and Gilmer County in 2017 was $49 million, according to a Georgia Tech study commissioned in 2019 by the Gilmer Chamber. Lodging, including cabin rentals, accounted for more than $11.5 million of that amount, or well more than one-fifth.
Although totals have not been tabulated for 2018-19, the figures were expected to increase. However, with the Coronavirus making landfall in the mountain communities of north Georgia, 2020 will not be another banner year, especially with cabin rentals currently shut down for several weeks.
Property managers of cabins for rent in the county say the current clampdown on their industry due to COVID-19 threatens not only the livelihood of their many employees, but the vitality of the county itself.
Brad Spencer, co-owner with his wife, Stephanie, of Blue Sky Cabin Rentals, said their renters have a “huge impact” on the local economy.
“Our guests are the ones supporting the restaurants, vineyards, apple houses, rafting companies, gun ranges, shops around the square and many, many more local companies,” he said in letters to both the Gilmer Commission Board and Chamber of Commerce.
“The majority of their business is from the tourists.”
Stephanie Spencer, who is also director of operations, pulled figures and said Blue Sky last year paid “right at” $195,000 in hotel/motel lodging taxes, with $7 million in credit card receipts for rentals in 2019.
Brad Spencer said in the letter Blue Sky contributed just over $26,000 this year in lodging tax in January and February alone.
Stephanie Spencer and Nicole Jones, Blue Sky’s liaison with property owners and guests, took part in a recent phone interview with the Times-Courier. Spencer said Gilmer County government clamped down on cabin rentals before Gov. Brian Kemp’s first directive on “shelter in place.”
“In Gilmer County, before the governor made his speech about (shelter in place) going into effect (two Fridays ago), the ordinance pretty much stated that anybody that was currently in one of our properties could finish out their stay,” she began.
“Anybody in a cabin could stay, but they cannot extend their days. So immediately, we started moving reservations, we started doing gift cards — whatever we needed to do to make sure these people didn’t come into the county, as we were told not to allow new (reservations).”
Spencer said Blue Sky, and their property owners, pay a great deal in lodging taxes in the county. However, there are some property renters in the county — like Airbnb, VRBO (vacation rental by owner) and other third parties who are not paying any taxes.
“We pay the hotel (tax), we pay the lodging — which is 12 percent,” she pointed out.
“At the same time, a lot of people are doing ‘Airbnb’ (vacation rentals) and third-party sites themselves, (and) they’re not even registered with the county. We are. We are registered with Gilmer, Fannin and Union, and we pay our taxes and everybody knows that’s a rental (situation).
“But what I’m finding is — and people are calling me and telling me — all these Airbnbs and third-party sites are not abiding by the rules, which is causing us more issues. They’re continuing to rent, but they’re not paying into those taxes. They’re not even licensed.”
Spencer said she has had to lay off 50 employees with no new renters able to stay in any of their 150 managed properties, and has kept only four employees.
“We’re probably one of the biggest companies here in Ellijay for employment,” she said.
Paige Green, president of the Gilmer Chamber, said Blue Sky is in the top 10-15 percent of number of people employed by a county business.
Jones was asked about their employees who were let go, and subcontractors they use who are now out of work.
“We employ a lot of families in Gilmer County — husbands and wives and family members,” she said. “We’re their sole provider. They depend on this company alone to put food on their table. Some spouses are construction and lawn-care workers, plumbers and electricians who are subbed out by property owners and the cabin rental company.
“That’s important to us in addition to the people who come to stay here. We understand the concern of bringing people in (and spreading the virus), but our office is located next door to a hotel here in Ellijay and they’re still operating. Their cleaners and maintenance techs are still working, so we’re having a real hard time explaining (to our employees) that people who want to come and visit our town don’t understand that they can’t come and stay in a cabin rental, but can come stay in a hotel.”
Jones said without cabin rentals, “It’s like a big chunk of the puzzle is missing.”
“Local shops downtown depend on us,” she said. “The cabin rentals are what bring people to this town to get to those stores. It’s like having a hamburger bun with no meat in the middle. The people we bring in every day are what keeps those businesses thriving … and allows them to operate year-round.”
Spencer said her cabin rentals are “the definition of social distancing.”
“You’re secluded, you’re in the middle of nowhere,” she noted of cabin locations.
“But if you look at the hotel parking lots in this town, they’re all crowded. We’re having a hard time understanding how our community shut us down, but allowed (hotels) to continue bringing people into town.
“A hotel/motel has the same vent system running throughout; our cabins are more of a shelter in place. Most hotels are in the cities. The county shut us down. It’s not real clear what they expect of us.”
Spencer was asked about cabin owners who may be depending on rentals to help pay the mortgage on those properties.
“A bunch of them depend on us for their mortgage payment and (getting) the rent in time,” she replied. “They buy these second homes, and that feeds our economy. They put revenue into our town and hire our vendors — our local people — to work. They bring a lot into town for us.
“We want the community to understand as a whole what we bring in and how important this is to our economy and our town.”
Brad Spencer said in his letter the shutdown threatens more than cabin rental companies and owners.
“My serious concern is the shutdown of two weeks goes into many weeks, or several months, with zero business,” he wrote. “If this happens, there will be many small- and medium-size businesses that will not be able to come back. The entire look of our downtown and outer areas will be changed, and not for the good.”
What Gov. Kemp’s order says
After issuing an initial Executive Order March 14 spelling out “shelter in place” guidelines for the state, Gov. Brian Kemp issued a second order April 8 that dealt exclusively with “Suspension of Short-Term Rentals” that were not originally addressed.
“I have determined that in order to protect the lives of Georgians, it is imperative to temporarily prevent Georgia from becoming a vacation destination for out-of-state individuals,” the order says in part.
It then spells out a time period for the order from April 9-30.
The order defines rentals as “residential property for residential or vacation purposes … that is facilitated by a third party or a broker, where the lease or license term does not exceed 30 days … this definition shall not include hotels.”
Kemp noted the order “shall not be construed in any way to prevent owners from personally occupying their own properties.”
While the order explains that violators may be guilty of a misdemeanor, he goes on to say, “That at no time shall law enforcement or any other state or local official dispossess or evict occupants of vacation rental to enforce this order.”
They are suffering tremendously
“Our community, like so many others, depends heavily on tourism dollars. Our cabin rentals are one of the largest parts of that tourism economy, and right now they are suffering tremendously. We often forget how many people are directly employed by the vacation rental industry, including reservationists, cabin cleaners, maintenance, etc.
“Cabin rentals often indirectly employ or benefit so many other businesses, such as landscapers, hot tub/pool maintenance and others. This is in addition to our restaurants, attractions and retailers who benefit from the travelers to our area.
“We know these are unprecedented times, and the balance between public safety and economic instability is tough. We continue to look for ways to help, whether it is helping businesses navigate the waters of the CARES Act, search for alternative income sources or to promote future travel. We will continue to support those who have invested in our community.”
Source: Paige Green, President, Gilmer Chamber
Paris: ‘Makes more sense to let cabins rent’
Chairman Charlie Paris of the Gilmer Commission Board explained the county’s reasoning for initially banning any new cabin rentals — before Gov. Brian Kemp did.
“The first shelter-in-place (directive) was from the county, and we prohibited cabin rentals,” he said last week. “We excluded them from being able to rent.”
He was asked why, and if the board used a model from nearby counties or the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), of which they are a member.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a model from other counties, but we did have conversations with several different counties about how are y’all handling this, what are y’all looking to do, that sort of thing,” he said. “And it gave us some ideas about what we thought would be a good way to handle it.
“We also wanted to make sure we were consistent with what the other counties were doing, (and) not have a big difference up here.”
Paris noted the initial governor’s order that came down two weeks ago didn’t mention cabin rentals. However, an April 8 “Suspension of Short-Term Rentals” executive order from Kemp’s office “superseded ours.”
“There were a lot of question marks (initially), and we didn’t know how to proceed,” the chairman said. “But when he extended his order, he did address the question of cabin rentals. Normally the cities and the counties can’t be less restrictive than the state, but we can be more restrictive, which means if he says people can rent and we could come back and say, no, you can’t, normally.
“But in his initial order, toward the end of it there, (the governor) is very specific that no county or city can be less restrictive or any more restrictive than this order. He’s limited us exactly to his order now.”
Paris was asked about hotels and motels remaining open for business.
“His order does pertain to (them) … but he has specifically excluded them from not being able to rent,” he said.
Ellijay Mayor Al Hoyle said the city council, in their decision to allow hotels and motels to remain open, followed a model from the Georgia Municipal Association, of which they are a member.
However, the governor’s most recent order changed all that, he noted.
“Whatever the city passed and the county passed is out the window,” he said. “The governor took charge.”
Does Paris see why those in the cabin rental business are upset?
“Oh, yeah, I don’t blame them!” he said. “I’d feel the same way if I was in that business. If you’re going to do one and not the other, it makes more sense to let the cabins rent and the hotels not — in this particular (virus) situation.”
Were cabin rentals going to be part of the discussion at last week’s business meeting following Brad Spencer’s letter to the board?
“If nothing had come down from the governor, we would have addressed that and maintained the no-rental (status),” he said.
Paris was asked if Airbnb and other third-party rentals — who are allegedly eluding paying taxes — would be a future topic at board meetings.
“Probably so,” he replied. “Because what we ran into this time was that the cabin-rental companies cooperated fully, but the private people that were using the Airbnb and VRBO (vacation rental by owner) were continuing to rent (those properties out). We reached out to both of those organizations. The VRBO folks just told us flat-out no, they’re not going to do anything to prevent any rentals.
“The Airbnb folks said they would certainly be willing to help us out — for a fee,” Paris said with a chuckle. “Those are both situations — and we weren’t going to pay them a fee — that we are going to have to try to address, probably with the lawyers. But it didn’t get that far, because before it did the governor’s order came down, which put the state in charge of enforcement.”
Paris added, “So now we know what to expect, and we need to put something in place that will give us some leverage if we ever have to do that again with these Airbnb and VRBO folks.”
Will they study what other counties and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia are doing?
“Yeah. Again, that’s one of those things you want to be consistent across the counties with; otherwise, you put yourself in a risky situation putting restrictions in place that nobody else is (doing),” he stated.