City council to review short term lease ordinances amid Airbnb complaints

The city council will review short-term lease ordinances in the next two months amid concerns that property owners are not following city guidelines.

Al English, who lives near an Airbnb rental, says he once saw a tour bus drop off 22 people at the place. He’s been sending emails to the city council since January about the Airbnb owner overcrowding their property.

“It’s frustrating,” English said. “The code says that they can’t have more than five unrelated people in this house.”

Don Knight, who is a councilmember for district one, said the council is looking at establishing a two-person per bedroom rule.

“Turns out for our code enforcement that this was kind of impossible for them to enforce because these people are only there for three to four days or a week at a time,” Knight said.

Airbnb’s terms and guidelines for owners asks potential hosts to abide by the city’s ordinances.

Tanya Mitchell, the owner of the Airbnb in question, says she follows all the city’s ordinances and tries to keep guests and neighbors happy.

“The first thing we did is go around and give everybody our contact information so if there were any issues we could ask the guests to not do whatever that issue was,” Mitchell said. “I think Colorado Springs is still figuring out vacation rentals.”

If you believe an Airbnb in your neighborhood is violating city ordinances, you can report it to Colorado Springs code enforcement at 719-444-7891.