The Summit County government can now ask vacation rental services like Airbnb and VRBO to remove listings for properties that don’t have a short-term rental license.

The Summit Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 24 to approve Ordinance 22. Summit County short-term rental program coordinator Brandi Timm said the ordinance does not amend or revise the county’s short-term rental regulations but is “just another tool to help staff enforcing on properties that are advertising without a license.”

A law passed by the state legislature last year, House Bill 23-1287, allowed for counties to obligate vacation rental services to require a rental license number in any listing on their websites. The state law also allows the vacation rental services to remove a listing from their website if the county notifies them that a short-term rental license has been suspended, revoked or has been issued a notice of violation for not having a license. Ordinance 22 adopts these regulatory provisions.

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Timm said the new ordinance is intended to “expand on the existing enforcement process” and “is not intended to be used unless all other forms of enforcement have been exhausted.”

When someone is advertising without a license, county staff’s only contact information is the owner’s mailing address. A letter of noncompliance is mailed to the owner with the county’s contact info and information about how to get into compliance, Timm said. But if the mailing address is not correct, there is no way to contact the property owner to correct the violation, she said.

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The new ordinance

With the new ordinance, county staff can now contact Airbnb or VRBO to take the listing down, which sends a notification to the owner to help open a channel of communication with the county, Timm said. The main use of the ordinance would be to enforce against those who are renting without a short-term rental license, she said. The county government reportedly has never revoked a short-term rental license since the regulations began.

When the county first started its short-term rental regulations in 2023, there were about 250 properties advertising without a license, but that number is now down to about five properties, Timm said.

“These are people that we’ve been working with — or trying to work with — for many, many months, and we just can’t communicate with them,” Timm said. “So this would be a tool we would use for that.”

Short-term rental managers raise concerns

Summit County staff met last month with the Summit Alliance for Vacation Rental Managers, a group representing short-term rental managers locally, which raised concerns including that listings could be removed by accident, Timm said.

During public comments at the commissioner meeting, county residents raised similar concerns that Airbnb or VRBO could remove listings on accident, resulting in revenue losses for those who short-term rent their properties.

Richard Mason, who owns property in the Peak 7 Neighborhood in unincorporated Summit County, said it can be a “big problem” for those short-term renting their property if their listing is taken down accidentally or a platform otherwise blocks their communication with would-be guests.

Sharon Ogle, who owns property in the Highlands Ranch subdivision, said she follows a short-term rental owner on social media who has four properties that had all of their listings accidentally removed from the listing platforms.

“So I guess I would ensure that the companies have a proven method of being able to reinstate these listings easily,” Ogle said.

Some short-term rental owners had more general concerns about the county’s short-term rental regulations. One owner of property in unincorporated Summit County, Todd Ruelle, noted that the lawsuit his group recently filed in Summit County court claims the county’s short-term rental regulations are illegal.

Richard Mason, who also owns property in unincorporated Summit County, said, “My big question is … when does this stop?” referring to the county’s short-term rental regulations.

Commissioner Eric Mamula responded to some of the public comments by noting that he is also a business owner who has to deal with changing regulations and licensing requirements. Mamula said he was surprised to see short-term rental owners opposed to this ordinance because it aims to crack down on people who are short-term renting their property without a license, skirting the regulations everyone else has to abide by.

“I’m a little bit surprised at some of the comments, because really, if I was an owner, like I am in another business, when somebody doesn’t comply, I would like them to be held accountable,” Mamula said.

Commissioner Nina Waters also noted her surprise that she was so “vehemently called, texted, emailed and contacted from members of the (short-term rental) industry,” with concerns about this ordinance.

“This type of ordinance is to hold any (short-term rentals) that aren’t adhering to our standards of being proper hosts in our community,” Waters said. “We’re holding them accountable to that standard.”

Commissioner Tamara Pogue, who noted that she was the only commissioner on the board at the time that the county initially passed short-term rental regulations, also noted that the ordinance aims to crack down on those short-term renting without a license.

“We had so much testimony. We had all kinds of meetings, and what I heard overwhelmingly from the short-term rental industry was that they wanted us to do a better job with enforcement,” Pogue said. “That the folks who are being productive members of this industry, and who are working very hard … to preserve their economic vitality, were frustrated by the fact that there were (short-term rental) owners who were not getting licensed.”