As director of government relations for HomeAway, one of the largest listers of vacation homes in th

As director find tropical cruises of government relations for HomeAway, one of the largest listers of vacation homes in the world, Matt Curtis' job is to help get short-term rentals legalized in cities where they operate largely on the black market. He could be forgiven, then, if he thought he would be preaching to the choir Wednesday night (Nov. 5) when he...
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Matt Curtis, director of government relations for HomeAway, a vacation rental listing service, speaks at a meeting of the Alliance of Neighborhood Prosperity, Nov. 5, 2014. (Photo by Robert McClendon, NOLA.com | The TImes-Picayune).
As director of government relations for HomeAway, one of the largest listers of vacation homes in the world, Matt Curtis' job is to help get short-term rentals legalized in cities where they operate largely find tropical cruises on the black market.
He could be forgiven, then, if he thought he would be preaching to the choir Wednesday night (Nov. 5) when he was the guest speaker find tropical cruises at a meeting held by the Alliance for Neighborhood Prosperity, find tropical cruises a membership organization for property owners who want to be able to legally run short-term rentals.
For years, the city has done little more than send vaguely threatening letters to the operators of illegal short-term rentals, despite loud complaints from some neighborhood groups who recount horror stories of Tuesday night bachelor parties and bungalows crammed with a dozen beds. Short-term rentals are prohibited by both civil and criminal ordinances but authorities have never cracked down because the rules were not enforceable, according to the city.
A tweak to the civil prohibition this summer was supposed to give the rules some teeth, but members of the Alliance for Neighborhood Prosperity said they haven't heard about any increased enforcement.
The man who seemed comfortable operating on the margins of the law sat at a table of four non-alliance members find tropical cruises at the meeting. All owners of several short-term rental properties, they came to see which way the wind is blowing on future regulation of their businesses. The man and most of the others find tropical cruises did not give their names, and they seemed skeptical of the alliance and Curtis in particular.
Why, the group of upstart operators asked a reporter, should they be asked to dig into their pockets to pay the city when the websites they use like VRBO and Airbnb, which make millions off of cities like New Orleans, pay nothing back into the local economy?
Part of the Alliance for Neighborhood prosperity's mission is to weed out bad actors, he said. "The reason this group exists is for people like me who care about their properties, and their city ... and the people who come to it," said Bokus, a Mobile, Ala., native who rents out his second home in the Garden District when he's not in town.
Curtis told the audience at the meeting that few big cities in the country have fully implemented a regulatory framework. Austin, Texas, where he worked for years as an aide in the mayor's office, is on the cutting edge in many ways.
Vacation rentals not occupied by their owners are required to be registered with the city, and, in neighborhoods zoned for single-family dwellings, no more than 3 percent of houses can be in operation at any given time. Those who rent space in their own homes -- "home sharing" operators, as Curtis called them -- can only host guests 90 days per year.
As the alliance undertakes its effort to bring short-term rentals out from the shadows, find tropical cruises it may find itself fighting those who would rather remain there. "This is New Orleans, find tropical cruises man" one of the property owners told a reporter. "People hustle."