Sonoma County neighbors scold vacation renters over coronavirus getaways

Some residents along the Russian River and the Sonoma Coast want to send a message to anybody thinking of taking refuge in their communities - please stay home.

They are worried that continued renting of vacation homes to people from outside the area increases the potential for spreading the novel coronavirus into small towns with older populations, limited resources and few health facilities to speak of.

Ron Amiot, 72, is hunkering down in his Guerneville home with his wife, adult daughter and young grandson. But he said there are a number of vacation rentals on his dead-end block that have changed tenants since the county’s shelter-in-place order went into effect last week. And that, he said, is putting him and his family at risk.

“We’re all confused and concerned because shelter in place is supposed to mean just that,” he said. “If you don’t own a home here, don’t come up here.”

Some are taking that concern even further. They want people with second homes in the area to stay away for the duration if they’re not there already.

Concerns heated up last weekend, when crowds flocked to coastal beaches in a scene some likened to the Fourth of July.

Downtown Guerneville had so many people, Amiot said, it looked more like a summer day in August than early spring.

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes the Russian River and the Sonoma Coast, put out a Facebook appeal on Saturday asking people to not “put our community at risk” by continuing to operate vacation rentals.

“I’m still receiving daily complaints from the lower Russian River and the coast regarding vacation rentals in their neighborhoods with new people coming in every couple of days,” she said earlier this week. “I’m working with our public information officer and EOC (Emergency Operations Center) to get the message out that vacation rentals for tourism are not allowed under the existing health order.”

Sonoma County spokeswoman Jennifer Larocque said the only exceptions would be if they are providing shelter for the economically disadvantaged, or people who may need a separate place to shelter away from housemates or family members. They may also be rented to people like traveling nurses, working in what are deemed “essential businesses.”

North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman on Friday tweeted an admonishment to people to stay home: “Do not travel to a rural Airbnb right now, thinking it’s an OK way to quarantine your family. It’s a terrible and selfish idea!”

Online community pages were on fire with people fearful that visitors from urban areas may not even know they have the virus, and could unwittingly spread it. But they are also concerned about out-of-towners grabbing up supplies at the few local markets. And, the small Redwood Coast Medical Services clinic in Gualala, which serves a long stretch of the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts, is not equipped to deal with an outbreak of coronavirus, say residents of The Sea Ranch, a popular destination for weekenders and people seeking a quiet getaway.

“There is a huge concern. The population who lives here full time is largely 65 and up and we simply do not have the medical support to handle an influx of people who may or may not get sick or are coming from areas with a higher incidence of coronavirus,” said Karen Amiel, a member of The Sea Ranch Board of Directors and a task force looking into issues related to short-term rentals.

Virtually all of the local property management companies along the coast and the river have canceled reservations, offered refunds and stopped making new booking until travel restrictions are lifted.

Cathleen Crosby of Coasting Home in Gualala said she stopped everything early last week at her own initiative before Sonoma and Mendocino counties issued their home isolation orders.

“We’ve had a few calls and we have turned them away. We had a couple of people try to make reservations online,” Crosby said. “We’ve declined those. It’s quickly dawning on people that movement just isn’t allowed now. We’re declining reservations for the next few months. We’re taking a few bookings in May, June and July but we’re not taking any money. We’re just holding the date.”

Others were slower to respond. And one company in Guerneville took heat when a series of ads it had prepaid to Facebook began popping up on the social media site luring people up for a coastal getaway.

Stacy Jardine of Wine to Coast Vacation Rentals said she immediately had Facebook pull the ads.

“We canceled over 50 reservations starting right when the lockdown happened,” she said. “We’ve lost over $50,000 in revenue and had to let everybody go. The travel industry includes cleaning people, handymen, office staff. Everybody gets hit. The shelter in place hit everybody and everybody is just really emotional right now. Everybody is volatile because they’re scared.”

Kara Zitani, with Sea Ranch Escape, who has canceled and stopped bookings into mid-April, said calls continue to trickle in, one from an Oakland man who thought it would be safer to shelter in a small place like The Sea Ranch.

“Doesn’t that ruin the whole concept of sheltering-in-place? You’re moving from county to county. They’re stopping at the gas station. We need to have enough groceries for ourselves and this small community,” Zitani said.

While local companies are largely complying, residents of The Sea Ranch, where an estimated 450 of the community’s 1,850 homes are short-term rentals, suspect that some property owners are violating the mandate to shelter in place by continuing to rent their vacation homes through online services like VRBO and Airbnb.

“Those folks are much harder to get,” said Frank Bell, general manager and CEO of The Sea Ranch Association. “They may not live in California or understand the (order). That has been much more challenging for us.”

VRBO’s website includes extensive information for travelers dealing with bookings, cancellations and refunds due to the cornonavirus crisis and recommends that they check local travel restrictions at their destination before they book, but doesn’t address property owners publicly. Airbnb has similar policy messages to both hosts and renters regarding refunds and cancellations. Calls to both companies for clarification on what, if any communications they may have with hosts about compliance with sheltering-in-place orders were not returned.

Complaints have led to some crackdowns by Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Juan Valencia said people in two short-term rentals in The Sea Ranch on Tuesday were issued warnings and left. One was a single man from San Francisco who thought it would be safer to shelter in place away from the city and the second was a house of about six guests.

Amiel said the woman who complained was elderly, asthmatic and furious. She said she has tried to make a couple of local bookings with online sites as a test and found the properties were available.

She said The Sea Ranch would prefer that people who own second homes in the quiet community, also stay away to stem the spread of the virus. But Sonoma County Counsel Bruce Goldstein said restrictions don’t extend to people who want to move into a home they own, as long as they’re not going back and forth between homes.

The problem does seem to be easing, observers say, with most local rental companies calling a halt to bookings, parks and beaches closed and more people beginning to grasp the need to stay put to avoid spreading the virus that had killed 1,543 in the U.S. as of Friday.

Crosby said it’s hard all around in a community that depends on visitors, to pull up the drawbridge for their own protection.

“Everybody in our community is really looking forward to getting to a point here we can be hospitable again,” she said. “We’re hoping by all of us doing our part we can welcome everyone to come back.”

Staff Writer Meg McConahey can be reached at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.