[I]nnkeepers, bed-and-breakfast owners and summer camp operators say a Health Department plan to start holding their establishments to the same health standards as hotels and motels is an inappropriate “one-size-fits-all” approach.
The proposed new regulations for all lodging establishments are undergoing their second public comment period, which will end Monday. The department held a hearing this week to gather input.
Ruth Sproull, the owner of Little Gnesta B&B in Newport, said it would be a “logistical nightmare for a small operation” like hers to install locks on each bedroom door and give the guests individual keys — one of the updates she would have to make if the rules are adopted as written.
Since she runs the bed-and-breakfast alone, she doesn’t have anyone to stay up all night and give guests replacement keys if they lose theirs, as a hotel would, Sproull said.
The proposed rules also call for a three-compartment sink in the kitchen or three separate sinks next to each other, which Sproull said is impossible in a home-based business like hers.
Representatives from children’s camps and camp organizations also spoke at Monday’s hearing.
The proposed rules will “irrevocably change the camping industry,” said Chris Overtree, executive director of the Aloha Foundation, which has a 1,300-acre summer camp site in Fairlee.
Part of the reason Vermont summer camps are so popular is the rustic backdrop, Overtree said. If they have to comply with hotel health regulations, they will need to light every walkway and parking lot, and the children will be able to walk only in the lighted part at night, he said. That would reduce star visibility, he said. The regulations also prohibit open-roof sleeping quarters, so campers would no longer be able to fall asleep under the stars.
Overtree said the summer camp industry has no objection to regulation, noting that summer camps are held to their own national standards to maintain their accreditation. It’s just hard to keep a camp running when it has to comply with the same lodging standards as a hotel, he said.
“We just want to be regulated the way summer camps should be,” Overtree said.
Industry standards that camps meet are usually in line with state standards, he said. And as far as he knows, he said, no state regulates summer camps with the same standards as hotels.
The proposed new rules exempt children’s camps from certain rules regarding linens, frequency of housekeeping, locks and other practices where the state says it would be “inapt” to apply the same standards as for hotels.
The list of current health regulations for lodging establishments is not quite a page long — more than 36 pages shorter than the one being proposed. That is because the current rules went into effect in 1975 and were never updated, said Elisabeth Wirsing, food and lodging program chief at the Health Department. The proposed regulations have been updated to include the current nationally accepted sanitation practices, Wirsing said.
The Health Department looked at sanitation regulations from other states and considered comments from the public, she said.
But Sproull said the proposed rules contradict the state’s own Green Hotels program, a partnership of the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Vermont Small Business Assistance Center.
According to the new rules, establishments are supposed to replace each guest’s towels every day unless the guest opts out. However, the standards of the Green Hotel program call for lodging operators to have a towel reuse program.
Some who spoke at the hearing suggested the regulations don’t apply to enough establishments.
Tim Piper, president of the Vermont Inn and Bed & Breakfast Association, said he doesn’t have a problem health inspectors regulating lodging establishments, but he does have an issue with the exemption for those with only one or two bedrooms that aren’t considered official lodgings.
That is common among the many listings on AirBnB.com, a website for people to offer rooms or properties for rent to travelers.
After receiving many comments about such establishments not falling under the lodging rules, the Health Department expanded them to include not only establishments with three or more units but also all where food is served, regardless of the number of bedrooms, according to the summary of the revisions.
“Given the thousands of available rooms for rent through internet-only lodging reservation sites, the department lacks the resources to inspect all such establishments,” according to the summary.
During the hearing Monday, Piper suggested the state’s “lack of resources” could open it to a lawsuit for failure to protect the public’s safety at an uninspected establishment.
Martin Kulczyk, owner of the Robert Frost Mountain Cabins in Ripton, said at the hearing that the risk to the public is higher among the two-bedroom and one-bedroom rentals on AirBnB.com because their operators have no experience with health regulations and most have never been inspected.
Piper said owners of official lodging establishments have felt their business affected by AirBnB.com establishments. Hundreds of rentals are available on AirBnB.com in Burlington and more than 1,000 in the whole state, he said.
“We want to promote safety for all our guests,” Piper said. “But we also want a level playing field.”
The Health Department said it will review all the public comments and change the proposed rules as necessary.
The proposal will then be submitted to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, which has the final say. Members will read through it and make sure the rules follow legislative intent, said Sen. Virginia Lyons, D-Chittenden, a member of the panel.
Committee members spend time looking over the public’s opinions and their significance, Lyons said. “We want to make sure those comments have been taken into consideration,” she said.