A bedroom that sleeps 11? Living next door to a Hilton Head party rental is no party

The rise of short-term rentals as lucrative income streams has individual homeowners and multi-property businesses on Hilton Head looking for more ways to maximize their investments. Some residents say they’re concerned one strategy, higher capacities, could go beyond being a noisy nuisance and become a safety hazard.

Palmetto Dunes resident Scott McKenna purchased his home on High Water in 2015. For roughly the last five years, he’s lived next to a short-term rental property on High Water.

The home’s max listed capacity has fluctuated over time, McKenna said, from around 20 to the currently advertised limit of 30 guests. One bedroom in the listing houses nine bunk beds and a sofa bed to sleep two.

“That 11-person bedroom upstairs, there is no escape other than a window, but there’s no ladder, so I don’t know what you’d do (in case of a fire),” McKenna said.

McKenna said his concern stems from a September 2022 fire, also in Palmetto Dunes. Six vacationers rented the home for their trip and a fire started, leaving one dead and another with “serious injuries.”

“We’ve already had one fatality in here, and you’d think that would prompt them to say, ‘Let’s let’s look at this and make sure that we don’t have a real tragedy someday with multiple fatalities.’ One is bad enough,” McKenna said.

The other issue that’s made McKenna reconsider staying on Hilton Head, and a problem many homeowners face living near rental properties, is the noise.

McKenna said around six or seven homes in his immediate vicinity are rentals, some of which rent to capacities of 24 or 27, but the 30-person rental is the closest, and the most commonly problematic. While it isn’t always rented to capacity and renters aren’t always disruptive, it regularly draws large groups of over 20 and, according to the listing, rents to anyone 18 or older.

Encountering that level of noise is especially difficult to accept on Hilton Head, McKenna said, a locale that was sold to him as nature-focused and peaceful.

“There’s a direct correlation between the number of people in the house to the to the noise level, and the rowdiness that seems to happen. It’s not every week, but it does happen frequently enough that it just gets exhausting having to call security, which we don’t like doing,” McKenna said.

When security is called, McKenna said, they respond in a reasonable time and solve the issue, at least temporarily. Jean Sherman, McKenna’s neighbor who lives directly next to the rental home, said she’s sometimes given up on calling security more than once.

“As soon as the (security) car is to the end of the street, it’s started right back up again,” Sherman said.

Sherman’s back porch is separated from the rental’s pool by about 10 yards, and she said it’s not uncommon for parties there to continue into the early morning.

She’s tried to talk with some of the renting parties, Sherman said. While some were “pleasant, nice people,” she said she’s been outright ignored by others while trying to get their attention.

“And what are you going to do, you can’t force yourself on them,” Sherman said.

Two of the most common short-term rental listing services, Airbnb and VRBO, don’t set capacity limits for renters. VRBO suggests renters “mandate appropriate occupancy limits” and comply with local regulation. Airbnb gives hosts similar latitude to determine a guest cap.

Hilton Head Island’s new short-term rental regulations that took effect Jan. 1 don’t limit capacity in renters’ homes, but Palmetto Dunes management may take steps to do so.

PD management to consider new steps

In 2021, Palmetto Dunes implemented its own regulations of short-term rentals, including a registry of renting properties in the community. A new rental committee was recently formed to take a second pass at refining those existing rules.

“I think we’ll make a recommendation around occupancy limits, which is a bit controversial, as you would expect,” said Mark Carroll, the chair of the committee. “Palmetto Dunes is a pretty mature community, we’ve got a lot of older homes. We feel like what’s probably going to happen down the road is, these older homes are going to be purchased, knocked down, and larger homes put in their place. We feel like if we don’t get ahead of the occupancy thing now, it’s just going to be harder and harder down the road to do so.”

Municipal and private community accords limiting rental occupancy are becoming more common as resort towns and other popular destinations grapple with balancing quality of life and housing availability for permanent residents against their primary economic engine, tourism.

Towns from Vermont to Virginia have either passed or are debating limiting rental capacities, while larger cities like New York are considering even stricter action to outright ban renting short-term.

In South Carolina, some state lawmakers sought to swing the pendulum the opposite direction — legislators considered a bill last session that would have severely limited local officials’ ability to regulate short-term rentals, but no action was taken and it never left subcommittee.

Carroll said he doubts Palmetto Dunes would go as far as to ban owners from renting their properties, but acknowledged regulation could be tightened to accommodate full-time residents’ quality of life.

“I can’t imagine a day where there wouldn’t be short term rentals available in Palmetto Dunes. I think we’re just trying to keep it within a reasonable level, so to speak,” Carroll said. “Not limit the number, just limit maybe the size of the parties in a rental.”

McKenna likewise acknowledged the economic benefit rentals have for Hilton Head and Palmetto Dunes, but hopes a reasonable capacity limit could come in the future. One nearby rental home caps its parties at eight guests, McKenna said. While that tight of a limit may be too extreme to impose on all property owners, he said he’s never had an issue with guests at that home.

“I understand people are here to have fun, they’re on vacation, but some people just lose sight of the fact that there are people that do live here full time,” McKenna said. “There should be a minimum level of respect that’s just not there now.”

Caroll and the committee will make their recommendations to Palmetto Dunes management in August, he said, but final action and adoption of any recommendations is in the hands of the community’s board.

Town pressing rental enforcement

While the High Water property is listed in the Palmetto Dunes short-term rental registry, town officials confirmed there is an investigation open on the home renting without the business license and short-term rental permit required under the town’s new ordinance.

Hilton Head Director of Public Safety Bob Bromage said the town is actively enforcing the new ordinance and is alerting any property owners not yet in compliance with the new requirements.

Town officials are taking action “up to and including” citations for property owners who remain out of compliance with the ordinance, Bromage said.