I agree, but this goes to not being able to make everyone happy. The small businesses benefit immensely from Short Term Rentals. More people in town means more people renting skis, going to restaurants, going on snow mobile tours, buying gas at the convivence store etc. Hotels generally tend to keep people more isolated to the businesses in or immediately near a hotel. Short term also saves towns tons of money because there are no kids going to school like long term rentals (and schools are by far the biggest impact on property taxes) Towns also hire seasonal part time police with no benefits, instead of full time officers, the second biggest impact on the municipal budget. The mountain is usually the biggest employer in the nearby town, so more people equals more jobs. Economically, it is a substantially superior model. The downside is the local resident, who wants a less crowded experience at their mountain. Everyone bitches about Stowe being too crowded, but isn't the real issue a one lane road leading to a dead end? I kind of equate this to a stadium. No matter what you do (besides expanding for about 8 days a year) you are going to have traffic before and after a football game. It's like a powder day at Stowe, or the 7am-10am period on Saturdays in mid winter or two weekends in October. Do you really build another road (even if you could) to accommodate that? I love the idea of a town gondola; I just don't know if the expense could be justified. Stowe is not Breck or Vail or the western giants. Maybe. The other bitching is just vail sucks guy, who wants the mountain to himself and is ok with a $1799 season pass because he skis everyday, can afford it, and it's "their mountain".
Full disclosure: I rent out my condo a couple weeks a year, so I am one of those Short Term rental people everyone hates. We use it a ton so if we couldn't rent it for those two or three weeks a year, it's no big deal. But I know a lot of people who would have to sell, as theirs's are strictly rentals and I wonder what that flood of supply would do to everyone's property values.