"Has attempted"

Is that what they've been doing?

This year, Louisiana state legislators could consider bills that could bring tighter regulation and enforcement to the state’s short-term rental industry.

New Orleans housing advocates say the proposed bills are a step in the right direction in controlling an industry they claim negatively impacts housing stock and affordability for residents by taking homes and apartments off the long-term market and renting them to tourists.

For nearly a decade, the city of New Orleans has attempted to regulate the short-term rental industry through a myriad of local ordinances. The regulations, which have largely focused on short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, apply to properties that are listed on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. Airbnb and short-term rental operators have struck back, repeatedly challenging the city’s permitting rules in court, and New Orleans City Council President JP Morrell has subsequently threatened to ban short-term rentals altogether.

As someone who has watched closely each of these "attempts," I guess it's marginally fair to call them attempts "to regulate." But that's not the same as saying they have been in any way good faith attempts at limiting or even mitigating the harm STR rent seeking has done to life in the city. Rather, the city has simply continued to tweak at Mitch Landrieu's original framework for legitimizing (and drawing revenue from) the practice of converting houses to hotels that has gutted New Orleans's most culturally significant neighborhoods during the period of hyper-exploitation some have cynically termed a "recovery" from Hurricane Katrina. 

 

Predictably, this strategy tended to leave people unsatisfied. So much so that, occasionally, City Council has been moved to take on the appearance of trying to do something about it. They never get it right, though. Now state lawmakers are trying their hand at it.  The above article references bills by Barbara Carpenter, Royce Duplessis and Stephanie Hilferty. Carpenter's bill is intended to grant municipalities clearer authority to impose regulations. Royce's bill would allow neighbors to sue operators of unlicensed STRs in their area. Hilferty's bill raises the maximum tax rate that the city can collect.

 

Royce's is the most aggressive here. According to this article, there are as many as 3100 unlicensed STRs currently operating in New Orleans. But JP Morrell keeps promising city council will affect an outright ban on STRs in Orleans Parish someday.  Should we hold our breath? Or do we have bigger worries on the horizon?  According to that same article, for example. 

At the same time, there are signs that demand for rooms — whether in short term rentals or traditional hotels — has been softening. As of last week, there had been about 13.6% fewer short term rental bookings during Jazz Fest than there were by the same time last year, according to AirDNA. 

Tourism groups are expecting a drop-off in hotel stays as well. New Orleans and Co. is expecting hotel occupancy to be between 72% and 89% each night during Jazz Fest this year, based on a survey of hotels that collectively have about 26,000 rooms in and around downtown and the French Quarter. Last year, the occupancy rates were between about 84% and 95%. Hotel bookings were up during Mardi Gras, when occupancy reached 95%. But at the same time, short term rental units were booked for about 8.5% fewer nights, according to AirDNA.

Usually when we talk about Airbnb, the immediate problem is nobody actually lives here anymore.  Now, come to find out, nobody actually tourisms here anymore either.