The Real History Of Short-Term Rentals On Nantucket

To the editor: I am discomfited by statements that Nantucketers “have been renting their homes to vacationers for a century or more.” What Nantucketers have been doing since the 1880s at least is renting “rooms within an owner-occupied dwelling unit,’ not in absentia. For example, Nathan Chapman bought a house on Step Lane with the intention of making his home there. After he informally put up some Coffin reunion visitors in 1881, he realized that his place could be a money-making enterprise, and his home opened as the Veranda House. Nathan Chapman himself was in residence, as were subsequent proprietors up until shortly before the disastrous conflagration that took place when there was no longer an overnight manager on site.

Another example: When my grandmother was suddenly widowed in 1922 with three children still living at home, she turned their home into a guest house with the children banished to temporary sleeping quarters so their rooms could accommodate visitors. My grandmother added onto the old house so she could take in more summer visitors who returned year after year.

In 1954, Frank Gilbreth published Inside Nantucket about his and his wife’s adventures over many years operating the Anchor Inn on Centre Street. They lived with their guests, also often regulars, summer after summer.

Even if the owners/operators of guest houses were not themselves year-round residents, they lived along with their guests throughout the time of operation. This was true until a few years ago for the guest house that abuts my property. The innkeepers resided on site from spring through fall.

And yes, there have also been unwinterized cottages rented, usually for the whole summer or by the month, by local realtors who were available 24/7 in case of issues.

Recent changes have led to the much-lamented neighbor-on-neighbor lawsuits. When guests are admitted by key code and there is no one even on-island to contact when things go awry, abutters call in lawyers to accomplish what they might otherwise have been able to resolve with a phone call or a visit. Such happened when the guest house in my neighborhood changed hands.

The market has changed. A couple of Nantucket guides recently came to hand, demonstrating that the number of guest houses in the 1970s was greater than at present. Remaining ones have upscaled with premium prices but minimal on-site presence. Visitors who can afford the current prices hardly want to share quarters with strangers in other rooms. They want houses to themselves, and they want them by the week or even just the weekend for ever-increasing destination weddings, festivals, reunions, and multigeneration family gatherings. For their visits, they want pools, game rooms, and more. In tightly-built neighborhoods, friction is inevitable, and in the absence of local property managers, who is there to call but our overworked police or the Health Department?

Houses in residential neighborhoods that are offered for groups during the high season and are otherwise mostly vacant are a problem for neighbors. That is why the proposals to control them while at the same time permitting them island-wide have been unsuccessful at Town Meeting year after year.

I share the impression that Nantucket has reached or exceeded its carrying capacity at least seasonally. Part of the solution might be a moratorium on advertising our island. That would likely put some locals out of a job, but it might also reduce demand for the sort of current rental business that is proving so discomforting to so many Nantucketers.

Frances Karttunen