Regarding the shooting in North Sea [“Police Investigate North Sea Shooting That Injures Three; Police Suspect Gang Activity,” 27east.com, March 2]: Your reporter states that the house where the shooting took place was a VRBO short-term rental, and that the Southampton Town code enforcement has addressed the issue due to COVID-19.
FYI, today (March 5), I just searched one platform, Airbnb, for a three-night stay in March in Southampton — and was offered 81 listings on this site alone.
The Southampton “code enforcement” of short-term rentals is a joke. Always has been. Current enforcement is toothless. When a “host” can make $1,000 a night or more (plus cleaning fee!), what is a slap on the wrist and a tiny fine (but probably not until the fourth or fifth offense)?
If you search these listings, you can see that many of these “hosts” have been operating their businesses since before 2014 without a legal certificate of occupancy that allows them to run a business in a residential zone.
As a legal B&B owner, I’m tired of bringing this issue up and am worried that sooner or later someone is going to get killed in an illegal short-term rental. I’d like to think that if the “host,” or homeowner, were on the premises when the rental occurred, this would not have happened.
Chris Allen
Southampton
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