Coronavirus (Image provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Last week Franklin and Essex County lawmakers asked short-term vacation rental owners, including those who list their properties on online platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo, to not accept bookings as the coronavirus continues to spread. But days after the counties’ directive, hundreds of listings for rental units remain active and town supervisors report seeing cars with out-of-state license plates around town. There’s not much the counties can do to stop it.

Essex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Shaun Gillilland, R-Willsboro, says his county is still seeing increasing numbers of visitors as the weather gets warmer. Franklin County Legislature Chairman Donald Dabiew, D-Bombay, said the number of rentals in his county greatly decreased after the county’s request. Gillilland echoed that, but he said the number is now climbing. He wants it brought down to zero.

Gillilland said his fellow town supervisors on the county board are telling him some locations are still renting and they are seeing vacationers around town. As of Wednesday, AirDNA, a website that aggregates data from Airbnb and Vrbo, showed 636 active rentals in Lake Placid alone. That’s compared to 743 listings reported in the last quarter of 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak. Lake Placid is typically the busiest tourist destination in Essex County and has the most heavily saturated short-term rental market.

This data may not be fully up to date. Gillilland said many renters have labeled all days for the next few months as “booked” instead of removing their listings altogether.

Some local short-term rental owners listing properties on Airbnb and Vrbo appear to be trying to specifically market their properties as getaways from densely populated areas hit hard by the coronavirus. Other companies, like the Lake Placid-based Merrill L. Thomas real estate agency, voluntarily decided to stop renting out properties. It was the first local agency to stop accepting rental bookings earlier this month.

Last week, both Franklin and Essex counties’ board chairs issued statements asking renters to remove their listings.

“Kudos to all the owners who have voluntarily stepped up,” Gillilland said.

Gillilland said the county had initially proposed an emergency order to stop rental transactions from taking place, but the state turned it down.

“It would have been ideal,” Gillilland said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that he’s not planning to issue a travel ban and that counties are allowed to issue any directives they’d like. But Cuomo has spoken out against blocking New Yorkers downstate from traveling upstate.

The Essex County news release says dwellings that are rented by multiple families are viewed by the county as violating the governor’s executive order, which canceled all non-essential gatherings of groups of people of any size for any reason.

In a media conference call Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, said public health should take priority over non-essential travel. She said Airbnb has been part of the solution downstate and that either the company or the counties should be able to limit rentals in “case-by-case situation(s).”

“If we are making public health as the number-one priority, then we have to be serious about it,” Stefanik said. “People shouldn’t be traveling. People need to take the advice of public health professionals seriously.”

Last week Stefanik said she supported “clamping down” on non-essential travel.

“Unfortunately, I think in some cases people are not abiding by the public health recommendations,” Stefanik said. “I think that we should be cracking down on people who are traveling that shouldn’t be … and I think Airbnbs should be part of that solution.”

Madison Anderson, a spokeswoman for Stefanik, said the congresswoman supports the counties’ efforts to restrict rentals.

Gillilland said he does not believe the vacation rental companies have done enough.

Airbnb has issued guidelines for cleaning rental units to prevent the spread.

Asked if the company encourages people here to pull their listings off the market, Airbnb spokeswoman Liz DeBold Fusco did not answer.

The company is working with communities to provide free or subsidized housing to medical first responders and have rolled out two programs with a total of $260 million in relief for hosts who are out of a revenue source.

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Why restrict rentals?

Gillilland said on top of an effort to “flatten the curve,” limiting rentals to people visiting from out of the area is important for rural areas with limited health care.

“We are going to severely strain our health resources up here trying to support these people,” Gillilland said. “I guess it’s going to take quite a few deaths up here in the North Country before people get serious about it.”

“We have rural hospitals that are already in a challenging position,” Stefanik said Tuesday. “If the numbers continue to go up or surge, our hospitals are not in the same position as some of the hospitals downstate, in terms of bed counts.”

Gillilland said this is a contentious issue and that he has heard from both local and New York City people who are unhappy with his county’s decisions and declarations.

“Out first allegiance is to the protection and the health of residents of Essex County,” Gillilland said. “We’re not trying to be unwelcome, but we have to protect the people up here.”

“It’s about saving lives,” Stefanik said. “When people who call and they get upset about some of these recommendations, think about your grandparents. Think about the elderly people in your life. … It’s to protect them.”

Stefanik said she has one of the oldest congressional districts in the country, demographics-wise.