Denver cracks down on unlicensed short-term rental hosts — through the platforms
Airbnb and others face daily fines of $1,000 when a home that’s listed by a host who does not have a license from the city is rented.
By Donna Bryson
Denver City Council voted on Monday to fine online platforms if they help unauthorized people rent out their homes to vacationers and other short-term occupants.
Starting next year, the platforms face daily fines of $1,000 every day a home is rented through a listing on a site such as Airbnb or VRBO by a host who does not have a city license. While the law that council approved on Monday does not spell out how platforms should best comply, city officials say a simple step would be to require hosts to enter their city license number before they could upload a listing.
Councilman Kevin Flynn said he has been pushing for such a change since Denver started licensing short-term rental hosts in 2016. Without getting platforms to cooperate, Flynn said, it was inevitable that people would rent their homes without licenses, competing unfairly with hosts who follow the rules. Flynn added in an interview before City Council’s vote that complaints about noisy parties, trash, parking and other problems sometimes associated with short-term rentals have been more common when the hosts are unlicensed. Hosts without licenses face fines of up to $999 per violation under earlier provisions of Denver’s short-term rental laws.
