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Hello All,
Last month we received a visit from the city inspector who claimed that one of our neighbors called complaining that we had people “living” in our back studio. She came to the house when my husband and I were at work and yelled at our nanny that we had two kitchens and she needed to inspect our house. Our nanny said no, and that we would be in touch (we do not have two kitchens).
We have been hosting on AirBnB for a little over a year and not one of our guest has ever made noise or taken up our neighbors parking (we allow them to park in front of our garage). Our guests have been great and since we live in the main house and share a yard with our studio, we definitely would have heard if anyone made excessive noise or did anything to intrude on our neighbors.
We can not understand why our neighbors would have done this.
Has anyone else in Denver had this issue??
My husband left several messages with the inspector and she finally decided to call him back a week later and told him she knew we were listed on AirBnB.
Has anyone else had this problem and if so what happened?
Hi there!
The same thing happened to me! And I’m afraid to call back for an appointment. I’m hoping that they won’t come back. Actually I’m not sure what to do. Have you set up an appointment with the inspector?
It’s very sad that they are doing this. My guest are all very quiet and I really brief them in on being conscientious of noise.
Can you keep us posted?
I’ll def give an update on my case as well.
I have a vacation rental in Bend, Oregon. The city is cracking down due to huge anti-short term rentals like airbnb type properties. I have been licensed by the city for several years. I also had an inspector, and had some work done to my garage to make sure I had enough parking (two cars worth length wise). Last week I got a nasty letter saying there was a citizens complaint against me for parking violations with guests parking on the street. We knew this was bogus because we had a single traveling nurse for 5 months, and then myself was there for a week. What I found out is that the anti=short term rental group, is going around and looking for violators. They find your rental on airbnb, craigs list, vrbo etc, and then look for it and make anonymous complaints. If you have had no noise or problems, this could be the same thing going on there. Not really an answer, but just talk to the city, and make sure you are meeting all their requirements. Look online to see what they are for Denver. Good luck.
Mich, I’m going to call the inspector today and will keep you posted on what happens. I actually spoke to Jolon Clark (running for City Council) who told me that it is not illegal to have advertise your home on AirBnB or another site, however it is against the law to have short term rentals but they can’t enforce this because they have to prove you had a short term rental agreement and AirBnB won’t release that information to the city.
If you haven’t voted, make sure you do! Mr. Clark said he wanted to legalize short-term rentals with minimal regulations.
I would call the inspector and have her/him come by when you don’t have guests.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for writing back.
I did vote! I’m all about getting it all
regulated and wouldn’t mind paying for
permits. But this door to door inspector
stuff is very depressing.
Good luck! And thanks again.
Mich,
I just wanted to give you an update. The inspector did come over and look at our place. Essentially she told me that we could only have friends and family in our space and that I had to take down our listing on AirBnB. That was it. I just attended a meeting with some AirBnB hosts last night and from what I understand there has not been a single time that a host has been ticketed or fined here in Denver. While it is illegal to rent short-term, there are no technical laws in place to enforce it.
Hi Michelle!
Thank you for your update. My inspector didn’t come back yet. I didn’t call to schedule an appointment though. I think that they do give out fines in NY. I hope that this will not discourage you. I am ready to deal with the city if I have to. If it is so illegal, why do they allow the Airbnb platform. If I do hear from the inspector again, I will send you an update as well.
I just had a guest who turned up next door and said the neighbours were icy. Well they are normally like that. Our directions are really clear and we have had people arrive at midnight with no problems. I have added further details to our location as the wrought iron gate, the only one in the lane way, was not enough.
I think my neighbors kind of guessing what I am doing. Or they think that it’s all our friends visiting:). One even asked how come we have all these guests. I live here for 15 years and my neighbors are awesome, really, you can’t have better neighbors that that.
One thing I don’t get, Airbnb is an American company. They exist legally. And at the same time city doesn’t let short term rentals??
Well remember they are only the “booking agent” in theory right? Linking up guests and hosts. That’s why they’ve been able to slink around regulations in different cities or keep themselves off the hook by putting onto the Host.
Silly question, but I’ve picked up some vacation rental cleaning accounts in Denver, do you know if there is an area to advertise our cleaning services in and around Denver and the ski resorts?
