As the worsening coronavirus crisis puts a clamp on the region's tourism industry, owners and operators of short-term rental properties in New Orleans say they face an uncertain future.

Devrim Hayes, who owns an Airbnb rental property in Treme and manages two dozen others there and in the Marigny, Mid-City and the Warehouse District, said the rentals have been swallowed by a wave of cancellations.

"It had been rolling," Hayes said. "All my properties had been booked for weekends, even weekdays, at top prices."

But the bookings quickly evaporated as the cases of people diagnosed with COVID-19 increased. "Starting the second week in March all the way up to mid-June — the prime money-making months — all reservations that had been confirmed all are canceled," he said.

The entire lodging sector in New Orleans is in the same predicament since New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Gov. John Bel Edwards began taking drastic measures to contain the virus. Bars have been closed, restaurant dining rooms have been shuttered and Louisiana residents have been ordered to stay home unless out and about for essential services.

The city saw an explosion in short-stay rentals in recent years. There were an estimated 8,500 units operating at the end of last year before Cantrell and the City Council passed restrictions.

Opponents have argued that short-stay rentals, especially those owned by larger operators, disrupt traditional neighborhoods and contribute to the city's affordable housing problems. However, city officials have had to weigh those concerns against the rights of property owners, as well as the significant tax take from the sector, and have continued to allow it to expand in parts of the city.

Brad Plothow, co-head of research at Womply, a business software company that tracks transactions in the lodging sector, said the slump in New Orleans is like nothing seen before.

"Lodging was doing fairly well up until about March 10, 11," after which it started to decline by double-digit percentages compared with a year earlier.

"Then on March 16, when things like canceling the NBA season started to happen, it fell by 148%," a year-on-year decline in the value of transactions that reflects the fact that hotels, Airbnb operators and others not only saw business completely evaporate but they also had reverse transactions by returning deposits.

Hayes said he has been desperately searching for alternatives, including renting to some of the medical personnel who've come to the city.

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"I would love to put them up for free if I had all the money in the world," he said. "But I’m losing my income for four months, and some of the owners (of properties he manages) had just invested and have mortgages, furniture expenses and all that stuff. I feel for them."

For owners like Cindy Sehon Zandi, who owns a short-stay rental house in the Bywater area, converting an Airbnb property into a longer-term rental is not an easy choice to make.

"Do you just wait it out and hope for the remainder of the calendar year it will open up? Or do you settle for much less income and know at least you have something coming in?" she said, noting that the house might rent for around $2,000 a month — a quarter of what it would make via Airbnb during peak months.

"Right now, we're just waiting it out and see how it goes," she said.

There has been some social media chatter suggesting the short-stay rental owners will suddenly flood the market with longer-term rental offers, which might bring down rents and help address the affordable housing crisis. But this isn't borne out by data, according to Matt Kreamer, a spokesman for Zillow Group, a real estate data tracking company.

Kreamer said the economics don't make sense for owners, especially if the crisis is expected to last for months rather than years. He noted also that markets that have seen tighter short-stay rental regulations hadn't seen a significant bump in longer-term rentals, suggesting that owners are very reluctant to change their business model so drastically.

"We looked at San Francisco and Los Angeles after they put in short-term rental regulations to see if there was any effect in the long-term rental market — either in inventory or prices — and there wasn’t. It just wasn’t enough to move the needle," Kreamer said. "I don’t see how it would alleviate the housing crisis in any meaningful way."

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Meanwhile, as New Orleans owners face a precipitous decline in business for an uncertain period time, some lodging outfits aren't returning deposits.

Stay Heirloom, owned by Boston-based Dan and Frank Glaser, most of whose four dozen short-stay rentals are in New Orleans, is sticking with a strict "no deposit return" policy, though they have given renters the option to move their booking dates.

That hasn't pleased customers like Will Dishman, a Houston-based engineer who had planned to stay at an Heirloom property in New Orleans March 22-24 for part of his bachelor party. He said his plans were now up in the air, and he didn't want an option to re-book, but Heirloom refused even to offer to pay back 50% of their $1,600-plus deposit, as recommended by its booking app, VRBO.

Heirloom's lawyer, Roger Lehrberg, said the Airbnb operator is a small family business and couldn't afford to give back deposits.

"If they start giving back even 50% refunds, they'll go through all their cash, and 45 people will be out of jobs," Lehrberg said.

Sehon Zandi, who also rents longer-term units to 10 tenants, several of whom are hospitality sector workers, said that Airbnb operators and landlords are not always the villain.

"It's the most frustrating thing for us, the idea that we're all on a scale of people like Donald Trump and can carry on without anything coming in," she said.

"Clearly, that is not always the case. For a lot of people, that is their small business and they rely on that income."

But not all owners of short-term rentals find themselves in such dire straits.

In the spirit of generosity that has gripped many during the crisis, Julienne Van Vliet put out word social media that her Airbnb house on Bienville Street in Mid-City would be available to any doctors and nurses visiting the city to help out. Van Vliet would forgo the usual $4,000-per-month rent ($6,000 during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival).

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All the tenants would have to do is cover utilities.

By the end of last week, she had "two wonderful nurses from California and Mississippi" staying there, with two more due to arrive soon. And there was space for another person if required.

"It's a loss financially, but I'm not suffering from it," said Van Vliet, who came to New Orleans at the end of the 1990s for her job in the shipping industry and doesn't have to rely on the rental income. She recently sold three other short-stay rental properties and is investing that money to build affordable housing in the city's 7th Ward.

"I have enough, now it's time to give back," she said.