Palm Springs: One man’s playground, another’s home
Exploring the Coachella Valley from a local’s perspective and the critiques surrounding short-term vacation rentals and gentrification
“Have you met the new neighbors?” my mom asked me a few months ago. This question isn’t new for any local homeowner in my community. Over the course of nine years living in my small, desert neighborhood, I’ve seen close to five different sets of next-door neighbors– and that’s just counting the home north of mine. The local teacher who used to live to the south recently sold as well. As the 2010s progressed, I noticed more fake grass, Teslas, and notably more open house signs.
This is no ordinary hometown– I live in Palm Springs, CA. Many around the globe know Palm Springs for our international film festivals, movie star getaways, golf resorts, that new Hulu movie starring Andy Samberg, the Kardashian’s new Sunnylands resort, and grandest of all– Coachella. It’s a paradise destination for people around the world. From Los Angeles to Toronto to New Zealand, I’ve met a slew of vacationers and “snowbirds” flocking here in search of leisure and fun. “People enjoy the lifestyle here. Palm Springs just has that perfect combination of quiet relaxation and having plenty of things to do and see,” says Aileen Morales, a former barista at Ernest Coffee, a hotspot for tourists in Downtown Palm Springs.
But while Palm Springs may be a fun playground for the (usually wealthy) tourists who visit, there is an entirely different side to my community that only the locals see. The broader Coachella Valley is home to many hard working, blue-and-white-collar residents who live here year-round. While most tourists stay a few weeks to months and then leave, locals are left to answer the pressing questions on everyones’ minds– what is Palm Springs without tourists? Which people have developed their livelihoods in the Coachella Valley community? How do we protect locals in a place that primarily functions to serve tourists?
Our economy has become extremely dependent on tourism. COVID-19 has intensified this dependency and exposed the fragility of Palm Springs’s economy. The lockdowns in March of 2020 were during our busiest season of the year and the city suffered horrible losses in revenue. As businesses reopened, the tourists came rolling in again. Don’t get me wrong– with tourism comes amenities, perks, and a larger budget for the city. But treating Palm Springs as solely a tourist town also has its downsides like increased traffic and –ding, ding, ding– gentrification.
Short-term rentals (STRs) are a hot topic of debate among property owners, local municipalities, and residents. “You can’t find an affordable place to rent here anymore. We’re not just competing with other locals on the market but vacationers coming in for the weekend to party,” Adrian Romero, local home renter and owner of Hermano Flower Shop in the Coachella Valley, says.
From personal experience, I know numerous people who have been pushed out to neighboring cities such as Cathedral City and Indio after their landlords decided STRs would be more profitable. It has driven up prices for renters making some areas of the city unaffordable to people who have lived in Palm Springs their entire lives.
Airbnb has risen to popularity in recent years. Even in places like New York City and Los Angeles which have far larger budgets and influence, local governments are having difficulty regulating the short-term vacation rental market. In Palm Springs, there is a similar narrative. Airbnb is taking over a significant portion of the rental market. In fact, the City of Palm Springs has its own Vacation Rental Ordinance (Ord. 1918), which it began in 2017 to allow homeowners who meet the criteria apply for a short-term vacation rental permit. The City has made continued efforts to maintain an amicable relationship with Airbnb and the STR market, which it knows is not going away any time soon.
Along with the disadvantages for local renters mentioned earlier, there are many perks for homeowners in Palm Springs who can capitalize on the STR market. “If you’re lucky and play your cards right, you can make close to $1000 in one long weekend. You can double, triple, and so on the amount you’d typically make on one month’s rent. I have friends who have bought [property], flipped, and then made their money back and more through Airbnb,” one local homeowner told me. Palm Springs has a heightened demand for extra-local tourism, making it the perfect place for an Airbnb, or short-term, rental market.
Former local and college student Chance Hope recalls, “In high school, I would get home from [sports] practice and my parents had everything packed up. My mom would say, ‘We’re renting the house out this weekend. Grab your stuff.’ There were no questions asked. Even though it was annoying to be on the go like that my parents make a lot of income through Airbnb so I guess living in a resort town worked out.”
In fact, a recent case-study of Palm Springs’s STR market shows the benefits of a tourist economy and quite literally opening our doors to visitors. “Direct visitor spending creates economic value in specific visitor-related sectors such as lodging, recreation, and transportation. This supports a relative proportion of jobs, wages, taxes, and GDP within each sector,” (Tourism Economics, 2018.)
As we witness the growing impacts of a tourist economy, we head into an uncertain future for full-time residents. There are mixed attitudes about the short-term rental market and Airbnbs but one fact is clear– Palm Springs is experiencing an increased rate of gentrification at no coincidence to the growing popularity of STRs. Short-term rentals may be bringing further economic development opportunities, but are these opportunities that everyone can enjoy, or only the elite?