All Forum Posts by: Bill Cereske

Derek We give our  guests access to the garage as it contains 2 of five parking spaces on the property.  Parking is a huge issue in South Lake Tahoe.  I do not limit access to the furnace and water heater, and have never had anyone fiddle with them.

In our case, we don't lock up much.  In the garage, there are 2 locked cabinets, one for my workshop tools and the other for housekeeping's linens.  Off the kitchen, we have a coat closet locked up, which holds the booze and personal cooking items. Any foods need to be kept in locked shut containers, or mice WILL get to it. Upstairs, I cut an access door to the attic above the kitchen, which we use as a clothes closet.  We prefer to leave as much open and accessible as possible, giving them a homey feel.

For furniture, following the closure of the last local store, I find RC Willey in Reno to be the go-to source.  You never even have to go to the store.  You can shop on line and have a personal shopper do all the leg work for you.  Mine is Angela.  They have a truck go up a couple of times a week.  For appliances, Home Depot has the same thing happening for deliveries.

I use a lot of solar powered motion detector lights both at my STR and home. They act as a deterrent and you can put them just about anywhere.

Know that the city of South Lake Tahoe will not allow new VHR permits except in the "tourist core" area, which is pretty small.  Unless something changes, existing permits outside of that zone are going to expire in 2012 and will not be renewed.

Starting in June, bookings for my place are going nuts, with reservations going into mid October.  As a friend said, "Nobody is going to Europe this summer".

Dustin, I said,
"short term rentals are going to go away in the majority of town",

I still stand by that.  If people want a nice lakefront retreat, they're not going to glom at the chance to overpay in some packed tourist core, nor someplace out in the county.  California people are going to discover more welcoming lakes.  Fly in people will fly to other places. You'll get to sell a lot of properties that USED to be VHRs.  The bargain hunters are already getting ready to strike, and you've seen that.  Enough people have been burned by $1,000 fines, It's made National news, and those burned tell everybody they know to stay the hell away.  SLT is already damaged goods as far as a vacation destination, and Prop. T will make it a lot worse.  SLT will become a town of retirees, second homes, a few tourists and a few workers working at a few businesses. Maybe, after a couple of years of enjoying "tranquility", they'll  rescind the ban.  Or, maybe a new convention center will pack the hotels with convention goers.  Those conventions leaving San Francisco have to go somewhere.  Hopefully, the street bums won't follow.

This is actually a fairly important topic for my guests and I.  When I had only a charcoal grill, guests would arrive without charcoal, and it inconvenienced them.  Worse, we had some guests who didn't know what they were doing and dumped dead ashes on the bluff leading to the lake (pollution issues).  Even worse was when a guest dumped LIVE ashes on the bluff, almost starting a forest fire!

My solution is a nice 5 burner Nexgrill (with side burner) right on the deck, ready to go.  Around the corner, and nicely covered, is the Weber grill for your charcoal grilling pleasure!  Only the people who want to charcoal grill will go to the trouble, and dumping incidents stopped immediately.

Hi Dustin,  If you look at the nationwide effect this COVID 19 thing is doing to the STR industry, you see some people are already bailing out of some properties, because of 2 months of lost revenue - so far.  That will get worse as time goes on.  Assuming this thing is under control soon, we should see a good summer at the Lake.

While we like to think of Tahoe as the one spot in the world, that isn't necessarily the case with VHR guests.  IMHO, they are not going to want to crowd into Casino hotels or highway Motels - they're looking for a family home vacation experience.  I have guests book a year in advance for MY home because they like it so much.  If they can't find what they want, they'll find it someplace else in the country.  Lots of nice lakefront homes in Nevada, California, Utah, Colorado or Idaho.  They're just not going to come to South Lake anymore - hell, they've already been clobbered with $1,000 fines for unloading luggage in the wrong place, or being in the hot tub at 10:01 PM.  You've seen the reports, people get a visit from the cops for talking to each other in the back yard.  You've seen the city of SLT vacation rental page:  Their logo is a cop with a citation book!  Welcome to South Lake Tahoe!  South Lake Tahoe home rentals are already damaged goods.  Taking them away completely will be a disaster for the community.  As for me, I'll be installing new cameras to watch the place between the 2 or  3 times we visit the place every year.  I'll be able to see what businesses failed since the last time I was there.

South Lake Tahoe is a wonderful place, if you like the small town feel and lifestyle, it can be great living.  Starting in 2021, short term rentals are going to go away in the majority of town, due to this thing called "Proposition T".  IMHO, this is going to cause a large reduction in the number of visitors, with negative effects on the city's economy.  COVID-19 is just "act 1" in a long play.