Some short-term rental operators pivot to long-term rentals as coronavirus puts dent in tourism

Ed Gorman (MODUS Companies) is the owner of MZ2, an 11-unit luxury townhome development in downtown Scottsdale. The units were originally billed as for-sale condos, but Gorman ultimately contracted with a company to market the apartments as short-term rentals after seeing the high demand.

MZ2 was fully booked through March for spring training, but Gorman lost half of his income when MLB canceled spring training. He lost another 45% following the stay-at-home order.

But Gorman said half of those units have since been filled by people looking for long-term stays: from out-of-town executives to MLB and NFL players, all looking for a home base to work remotely.

"Right now, we have tenants staying 6-12 months, tenants staying for a week, tenants staying 2-3 months," Gorman said. "From a business perspective, that gives you a lot of stability." While monthly revenue can be higher in the peak months with short-term rentals, Gorman said property managers can eliminate a lot of the cleaning and management costs that come with frequent visitor turnover.

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