Short-term rentals bring thousands of strangers into our Town every year

One of the most concerning aspects of having a STR nearby is the presence of strangers in your neighborhood.

A whole-house STR that is attractive and well-managed to maximize occupancy and minimize downtime can have dozens of bookings and hundreds of guests each year.

STR guests frequently invite people to visit them and sometimes they throw parties and invite many people to attend.

Using data obtained from AirDNA for the October 2023-September 2024 time frame, Preserve Melbourne Beach, Inc. has calculated that STRs operating in the Town of Melbourne Beach bring over 6,000 strangers per year into our Town. This is a conservative estimate, the real number is likely larger.

The Town has no information about STR guests. When the Melbourne Beach Police Department (MBPD) responds to a citizen complaint about STR guests, they are dealing with strangers.

Not only does MBPD have no information about STR guests, neither do residents. They can only make inferences based on what STR guests look like, how they act, and the vehicles they drive. Direct interaction between STR guests and nearby residents is usually avoided unless issues arise. STR guests could be a couple, a family with children, a group of rowdy college kids on spring break, or some other set of people. The only thing that is certain is they are strangers and a potential threat. This is especially true for residents with young children.

Section 25 Paragraph D of the Town’s Chapter 74 Vacation Rentals ordinance reads, “The vacation rental owner or responsible party shall inquire prior to check-in if any guest of at the vacation rental is a sexual offender/predator as defined in § 775.21, § 943.0435, § 944.607, or § 985.4815. If any guest of a Vacation Rental is a sexual offender/predator as defined in § 775.21, § 943.0435, § 944.607, or § 985.4815, the operator shall immediately notify the Melbourne Beach Police Department.”

To date, no STR owner/host has ever reported a sexual offender/predator guest to the MBPD. This is because most STR owners/hosts rely on intermediaries such as Airbnb and VRBO to perform background checks on the person making the STR reservation. However, if you look at what Airbnb and VRBO does in the way of background checks, they only attempt to check the background of the person making the reservation, using just their name and birth date. Imagine how many John Smiths there are who were born on July 4th 2000. Airbnb and VRBO background checks are limited and unreliable. Though there are services that provide in-depth background checks for a fee, STR owners/hosts rarely use them since they add time and expense to the booking process which can result in lost reservations. It’s obvious that STR owners/hosts are not complying with § 74-25(D).

Given that the number of registered sex offenders is large and growing, it is highly likely that STRs in Town have had guests who are sex offenders/predators.