Beach town goes to war with locals renting out their homes to tourists

• Nantucket natives are battling over whether short-term rentals stay or go
• Some say vacation rentals leave homes unoccupied and drive up living costs
• Others say Airbnb’s are vital to the small island’s tourism-reliant economy

Nantucket residents are set to duke it out Tuesday over whether short-term rentals should be legalized on their little island off the coast of Massachusetts.

Following a bitter court battle between two neighbors on the island, Land Court Judge Michael Vhay ruled in March that using a home primarily as a short-term rental wasn’t permitted in areas zoned for residential use.

This opened up a legal gray area – but tomorrow, residents will go to Nantucket High School’s auditorium to vote on Article 59, which would legalize short-term rentals.

The main group against homeowners putting their picturesque homes on Airbnb is called Ack Now, an organization dedicated to preserving the quaint, sea town vibes of Nantucket.

Harbor cottages in Nantucket, Massachusetts pictured on June 12, 2017

Kathy Baird, cofounder Nantucket Together

Ack Now founder Peter McCausland

‘As (short-term rentals) take over more and more houses in neighborhoods, they really gut the community,’ Ack Now founder Peter McCausland told the Boston Globe. ‘It’s constant turnover. It’s like living next to a whole bunch of boutique hotels.’

Put Nantucket Neighborhoods First is also against Article 59, claiming it will ‘primarily benefit off-island investors and commercial interests.’

In the organization’s frequently asked questions, it says short-term rentals drive up home prices, making housing completely unattainable for the vast majority of people at a time when the island’s population has grown by 40 percent over the last decade.

Nantucket real estate has always been pricey – the average home goes for $2.6 million – which is perhaps why the small, exclusive island has long attracted celebrities and the elite.

Kourtney Kardashian, Ben Stiller, James Franco, Drew Barrymore and even President Joe Biden are among the rich and famous who’ve been spotted on Nantucket throughout the years.

One Nantucket rental on Airbnb is a nine bedroom, seven-and-half bathroom estate that has a pool, tennis court, guest cottage and its own private beach. All those amenities don’t come cheap – with renters forking out $10,000 a night.

For those with shallower pockets, Airbnb rentals in Nantucket can go anywhere from a $159 a night single bedroom to a one bedroom, one bathroom cottage for $311 a night.

A nine bedroom, seven-and-a-half bathroom Nantucket rental that goes for $10,000 a night on Airbnb

A view of longtime Democrat politician John Kerry’s house in Nantucket

This five-bedroom property with a quaint pool area in the backyard will set you back $1,600 a night on Airbnb

A slightly more affordable Nantucket vacation spot is pictured, going for $1,736 a night

Eithne Yelle, who runs a wedding catering business, fears that if short-term rentals are banned, her business will be doomed

The people on the other side of the debate believe short-term rentals are vital to Nantucket’s economy and that the proposal to ban most of them from existing would harm the many business owners that rely on tourist dollars.

Kathy Baird, cofounder of Nantucket Together, supports the effort to preserve vacation rentals and said they are often the only way tourists can afford to come since hotels cost so much.

Given that as of 2022, Nantucket only had 800 rooms for tourists across its hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts, local homeowners have been hosting vacationers for decades practically out of necessity.

Nantucket’s municipal housing director Tucker Holland said that short-term rentals usually provide as much as 85 percent of the lodging needs on any given night, according to Boston.com.

Eithne Yelle, owner of Nantucket Catering Company, fears that her business of running weddings in short-term rentals will be damaged.

‘We hope to be able to hand down our (business) legacy to our children,’ she told the Globe. ‘If it’s the wrong vote, it will be changed forever.’

She added that couples are already wary of booking weddings in 2025 pending the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.

A view of the home exterior at the Mentor Brunch at the 2018 Nantucket Film Festival – Day 4 on June 23, 2018 in Nantucket

Sail boats are moored in Nantucket Harbor

President Joe Biden visits local shops with family in Nantucket on November 25, 2023. Biden was celebrating his 81st birthday

Biden is again spotted in Nantucket holding what appears to be a shake in his hand

Jenny Apthorp Paradis, a realtor who said her family has owned and operated inns on the island, said that renting out to tourists isn’t just an economic necessity because of the lack of hotels, it’s a tradition.

‘Long time families like my own have owned summer houses here for decades renting their houses for part of the summer to pay the bills to hold onto their properties,’ she wrote on Facebook.

‘We must adopt article 59 to simply codify our tradition of being a summer resort for over a century, and then make the changes we want through simple majority articles at town meeting,’ Paradis continued. ‘Other summer resorts have been able to figure it out without shutting down everything!’

For some, it’s even simpler.

Penny Dey, a Nantucket local who’s also a realtor, believes that the right to rent is the cornerstone of property rights in the US. She also hit back at the notion that restricting short-term rentals would preserve the community as it once was, an idea put forward by Ack Now and others.

‘Limiting or restricting short-term rentals will not create affordable, year-round housing or bring back the “good old days,”’ said in a note to residents posted on Facebook.

Charlene Nogueira, who owns of Nantucket Cleaning Services, said if rentals were heavily restricted it would not only harm her business but impede her right to use her home for income in the future.

‘It’s my right to do whatever I want with my house,’ Nogueira said to the Globe.

The measure that townspeople will vote on at Tuesday’s annual meeting needs a two-thirds majority to pass, according to local reports.

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