MONTICELLO – Sullivan Catskills Visitors Association (SCVA) President and CEO Michael Martelon delivered an update on short-term rentals to the legislature on Thursday, September 3, saying that “summer was great.”

His presentation focused on three metrics of performance: paid occupancy, the share of available nights actually booked and paid for; ADR (Average Daily Rate), the average price a booked night commands; and RevPAR (Revenue per Available Rental), occupancy and rate combined into a single figure.

A document submitted by Martelon to the legislature entitled “Short-Term Rental Lodging Report,” which follows the first three room-tax filing quarters, concludes that when all three metrics rise, the market is stronger.

“In every month of every quarter,” the document states, “all three [metrics] rose… Across all three filing quarters, every core performance metric improved year-over-year, without exception.”

Legislature Clerk AnnMarie Martin and District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward complimented Martelon on the new, streamlined format of his presentation. This is notable because the legislators have complained in the past that Martelon’s graph-heavy reports were confusing and lacked actionable information.

“I have a question,” said District 7 Legislator Joseph Perrello. “We gave you extra money for advertising or whatever that program was.”

Martelon reminded Perrello that the most recent influx of funding from the legislature was intended to develop the mobile visitors’ center program. Martelon reassured Perrello that the $1.5 million recently approved is separate from the SCVA’s operating budget and would only be used for the sole purpose of staffing and “fabricating” mobile centers, which will be designed to travel throughout the county delivering information and free wireless internet to visitors.

District 6 Legislator Luis Alvarez made a brief comment thanking Martelon for explaining the occupancy data to him in a private meeting: “I was impressed with the numbers.”

“We’re grateful,” responded Martelon, “summer was great. We hit 40.2% occupancy for July.” That number reflects a 4.7% increase in paid occupancy, up from 35.5% in 2025, according to the Short-Term Rental Lodging Report.

“How would you say the revenue looks this year compared to last year?” asked District 1 Legislator Matt McPhillips.

“That we will be up double digits,” responded Martelon. He said that his tenure as SCVA President has allowed him to sharpen his analysis of the tax data and this will help him deliver more valuable information to the legislature.

Martelon added that his team is now more connected with county staff, which makes information sharing and collaboration more effective. “I’m finally getting to a place where I think I can tell you what the future looks like and be pretty confident about that,” he said.

District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward praised the clarity of Martelon’s report: “ [It was] way more digestible, so thank you.”