Last week I met with City staff and managers of some of our 10 hotels in the City of Lake Forest. They viewed an excellent presentation by Jessica Gonzales (Economic Development) with a video promoting the hotels as part of our plans to promote more stays in the City, especially for people coming to participate in tournaments at the Sports Park. Last year at the Hotel Roundtable we coined the phrase “Shop and Dine and Stay” and this is being used in the new campaign.
Make no mistake – taxes from hotel stays are a major contributor to our income, not only for the taxes on hotel stays (Over $3 million pert year) but also for the people who then shop and dine in our City.
We discussed two concerns – the transient occupancy tax (TOT) and air B&B.
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The TOT is a tax on room occupancy. In many cities, after 30 days, the tax is eliminated, but in Lake Forest we continue to tax. Hotel managers who cater to long term stays say that this impairs their ability to attract long term clients, and are suggesting that we do what other cities do which will make Lake Forest businesses more competitive. Staff has agreed to look into this.
AirBnB is a growing phenomenon in which people rent out their homes to individuals, using various online booking services. This is a direct competition to hotels and not only reduces the hotel’s income, but also reduces the City’s income. There are also problems in the HOAs where people use this method. Owners complain that the short term guests break rules and damage property, since they have no long term investment in the property. It’s also against the City’s code.
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Staff claims that very few people in the City make use of this method. I did a random search on AirBnB and found about a half dozen active locations. On Vacation Rental By Owner I found 27 listings. All things considered this isn’t much in a City with 25,000 housing units.
Tomorrow we’ll continue discussing hotels in Lake Forest. Meantime, think about
- How many hotels are there in Lake Forest?
- How many hotels are pet friendly?
- Which major chains are here, and which aren’t?
- Where can you get a complimentary breakfast?
