As the emerging sharing economy reaches the shores of the Boothbay region, both longtime and upstart vacation rental companies in the area are starting to feel the effect. With more and more Americans turning to the convenience of last second, on-demand options for their hard-earned time off, the playing field has changed and some in the industry are asking; is there room for everybody?

For Audrey Leeds-Miller, the answer is complicated. Leeds-Miller is the founder of Cottage Connection, a Boothbay-based vacation rental company established in 1993, back when the process of renting a vacation property involved the Yellow Pages, classified ads, note cards pinned to bulletin boards and the occasional personal visit from a prospective renter.

“It was mostly word of mouth and leads from the chamber of commerce,” said Leeds-Miller. “People would show up to the house in the dead of winter asking if I could show them a property.”

As the business grew exponentially throughout the 1990s and 2000's, the Cottage Connection evolved into a one-stop shop for both property owners and renters.

“We were establishing personal relationships with homeowners among multiple generations of a family,” she said. “We offered professional services and peace of mind. The house was going to be clean and move-in ready.”

While the chamber of commerce was a source of referrals, it also served as the only true competition for the Cottage Connection — anyone with $90 could list their home on a chamber-sponsored kiosk — until the advent of online vacation rental companies such as VRBO, Home Away and the Vermont-based CyberRentals. For the first time, property owners had the ability to market their homes to millions of people using basic photography skills and exercising a few simple mouse clicks.

Like many industries in the Internet age that have been radically altered or swallowed whole, the landscape changed overnight. Leeds-Miller had to adjust accordingly.

“I'd always thought of us as a marketing company at heart,” she said. “But we had deep local knowledge and a basic online strategy. We had spent years developing relationships with our clients and knew in this area, having trust was paramount.”

Despite utilizing many online platforms, Leeds-Miller describes the current state of the industry as chaotic and lacking oversight as new companies emerge hoping for a slice of the $3 billion vacation rental pie.

“It's really the wild, wild west these days,” she said. “Ultimately the consumer suffers because problems can happen like double bookings and even fraud. There definitely is tension. I think the new companies look at us like we're just a middle man bleeding a homeowner dry and we in turn think they are ruining the market.”

One of the startups making waves in the Boothbay region is TurnKey, an online arm of Trip Advisor, a popular website of user-generated reviews of destinations, restaurants and hotels. Boothbay Harbor resident Jason Schlosser is the TurnKey regional manager for Maine and describes his company as full service, professional and most importantly, local. It essentially offers the same services as a company like the Cottage Connection albeit with an aggressive, national marketing reach bankrolled by Silicon Valley seed money.

“Even though TurnKey may be a national company, the idea is to bring a local sensibility to each region,” said Schlosser.

Having previously worked for Vacassa, a similar national vacation rental company with a strong presence in Maine, Schlosser encountered blow back from the smaller, Maine-based property management companies he now competes with.

“I think they were really threatened by us coming to town and I get where they are coming from. They've spent their entire lives building their business and suddenly competition moves in,” he said

As a longtime customer service specialist in the hospitality industry, Schlosser feels his personal philosophy dovetails nicely with the principles of companies like FlipKey. He said he is not a salesman but more of an educator and will not hesitate to recommend a competitor if his company cannot provide what a client needs.

“I'm more of a bridge builder and feel everyone profits from a good representation of the area,” Schlosser said. “I try to be a good source of information for guests, many of whom have not been here.”

Traditional property management and rental companies also face a stiff challenge in Airbnb, the online phenomenon where people list, find, and rent lodging. Perhaps the most literal example of the sharing economy (people have been known to rent out their occupied bedrooms or living room couches), Airbnb currently has well over 100 rentals available in the Boothbay region alone.

A prolonged lobbying effort by the group Vacation Rental Professionals of Maine, an organization founded by Leeds-Miller, led to the defeat of LD 436, a bill that would have required those who rent a second home or a cottage for less than seven days at a time be licensed as if the property was a hotel, motel, or a bed and breakfast. Known informally as the Airbnb bill, Leeds-Miller joined forces with one direct competitor (Airbnb) to  defeat another competitor; an  example of how confusing the industry is in its current state. Indeed, sometimes vacation rental companies don’t know whose bed to share or who should have the couch. Leeds-Miller points out the bill would have unfairly lumped her vacation home properties in with the wildly diverse listings on Airbnb.

“What we do is a completely different animal from Airbnb,” she said. “Though it was targeted at Airbnb, the bill would have destroyed us, a 100-year-old industry.” 

Both Schlosser and Leeds-Miller agree on the importance for guests and property owners to choose wisely. While cost is a consideration for both the homeowner looking to make a few bucks and the vacationer drawn to the area’s many charms, the devil may be in the details. In this sense both companies try and offer peace of mind; a property truthfully represented by the listing, a safe stay, and someone a phone call away in case your dream vacation starts turning into a nightmare.

“If you show up to your beachfront rental and can only see a hint of the ocean from the third-floor bathroom, we can help,” said Leeds-Miller. “It's where our value comes in.”