Rebekah Burns

If you’re among the growing number of Powell area residents who are considering renting out your property on a nightly basis — or you already do — staff with the Powell Economic Partnership/Powell Chamber of Commerce/Powell Visitor Center are available to help.

Short-term rentals through websites like Airbnb have surged in popularity in recent years, both as a way for property owners to earn some extra money and for travelers to experience something different. Airbnb currently lists a few dozen apartments, rooms, homes, cabins and other accommodations that are available in the Powell, Ralston, Garland and Heart Mountain areas.

When people get started with short-term rentals, some turn to PEP/the chamber for guidance, said Visitor Center Coordinator Rebekah Burns.

“We definitely assist businesses, so those vacation home rental owners absolutely call our office, and they say, ‘Hey, I have this accessory building. I’m thinking about starting an Airnbnb, what do you think?’” Burns explained to Park County commissioners earlier this month.

PEP and the chamber frequently offer tips on best business practices. For instance, they educate short-term rental owners on the need to collect and remit the state’s 4 percent sales tax and Park County’s 4 percent lodging tax, which is used to promote the Cody Yellowstone area.

“There is some education around who the lodging board is and what they do,” Burns said, referring to the Park County Travel Council.

Another topic of discussion is what home insurance a person needs to cover short-term rentals. Burns said a policy that an absentee property owner might need for renting out their entire house looks very different from the coverage someone would need to rent out just one room inside their own home.

“And it also looks a little different if you’re potentially renting out an accessory building,” she said. “So of course we want to make sure that our businesses and our residents are fully covered and that they understand that, but it is a bit of a navigation, especially to someone who’s new to the tourism industry.”

For folks who are new to tourism, Burns said PEP and the chamber can also offer insights about who visits Wyoming, where they’re coming from and their behaviors.

“I think there’s some assumptions on the part of a person who grew up and has lived in Wyoming their entire life that isn’t necessarily an assumption for somebody who’s coming here — an international visitor or someone who’s coming from a very heavily populated state,” Burns said. “We just want to be that outreach and kind of bridge those gaps.”

One of the specific examples she mentioned was the kinds of activities that hosts might suggest to a guest.

“When someone asks them [a short-term rental host], what’s there to do in Park County? … A lot of times, it’s human behavior for them to say, ‘Oh, we’re going to recommend something that we do ourselves,’ as opposed to really putting that activity through the lens of the visitor,” Burns said.

Working on that so-called “frontline communication” has been one of the areas where PEP and the chamber have been looking to boost education.

Burns made the remarks to Park County commissioners as they continued to consider what regulations they might want to impose on short-term rentals. She said PEP/the chamber are there to be a partner to the county.

“It is a complicated issue when you’re dealing with obviously the public and landowners and then trying to increase the visitor economy,” she said.