Creating more sleeping capacity is not a solution. The park visitation had doubled in 10 years. More places to stay encourages more visitation. When will the visitor experience be so compromised that it isn't enjoyable? I think we are there. When we have guests they are shocked and when people who have been coming for years are also shocked at the lack of amenities (restaurants stretched beyong capacity or closed). When most of the overnight stays were either hotels or week (or two week) rentals, not that many years ago, the visitation seemed enough to support local businesses and people had places to live. With the advent of AirBNB and others, those short term stays became more and more dominant. Now they have consumed the entire real estate market. Bar Harbor has taken steps to slow that but other towns have not. A recent listing for a 3 bedroom home in Mt Desert for over $900,000 is just one example. No one is fooled into thinking that is priced for anything except someone who will monetize it as a short term rental. This is a classic case if you build it, they will come. And they came and came and came until that was all that is left. But I also want to say for every buyer of a $900K tiny house, there is a seller.
Creating more sleeping capacity is not a solution. The park visitation had doubled in 10 years. More places to stay encourages more visitation. When will the visitor experience be so compromised that it isn't enjoyable? I think we are there. When we have guests they are shocked and when people who have been coming for years are also shocked at the lack of amenities (restaurants stretched beyong capacity or closed). When most of the overnight stays were either hotels or week (or two week) rentals, not that many years ago, the visitation seemed enough to support local businesses and people had places to live. With the advent of AirBNB and others, those short term stays became more and more dominant. Now they have consumed the entire real estate market. Bar Harbor has taken steps to slow that but other towns have not. A recent listing for a 3 bedroom home in Mt Desert for over $900,000 is just one example. No one is fooled into thinking that is priced for anything except someone who will monetize it as a short term rental. This is a classic case if you build it, they will come. And they came and came and came until that was all that is left. But I also want to say for every buyer of a $900K tiny house, there is a seller.