Bangor has received more than 60 license applications for short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, but there are still nearly two dozen unregistered properties in the city.
Since opening the online portal for people to license their short-term rentals on May 3, the city gathered 64 license applications as of May 30, one day before the application deadline. An estimated 23 rentals remain unaccounted for, totalling 87 Airbnbs in Bangor, said Anja Collette, Bangor’s planning officer.
City staff will send out two warning notices to suspected Airbnb operators who haven’t applied for a license, Collette said. The first notice will go out in the first week of June, and staff will mail the second warning in the first week of July.
If rental operators still haven’t applied for a license after July, Collette said the code enforcement department will “begin violation proceedings,” but did not explain what they are.
City staff created rules for short-term rentals last year to “minimize any adverse impacts on neighbors” and preserve Bangor’s permanent housing stock, which has been a challenge other Maine communities have faced, Collette said. Many of Maine’s coastal tourist destinations have seen short-term rentals cut into their housing stocks and raise rents and purchase costs, which have grown increasingly unaffordable in recent years.
Lance Blackstone, who operates one short-term rental in downtown Bangor, said he’s “completely supportive” of the city’s licensing rules because it holds operators accountable for hosting a safe and sanitary environment.
“For us, it isn’t a burden because we think we’re doing things right, and a license is proof of that,” Blackstone said. “The city did a pretty good job considering the diversity of possible cases that people are doing this under.”
Blackstone also agreed with the city’s decision to limit the number of short-term rentals that can operate, as they “price people out of properties for long-term rentals, and that’s a problem everywhere.”
He initially worried the rules would make it difficult or impossible to rent his unit as an Airbnb. This is because renting his unit as a short-term rental was the only way he could recoup the money he spent renovating the space and pay his mortgage.
“When you renovate a building that was built in 1866 in downtown Bangor, it’s going to be extremely expensive,” he said.
Bangor city councilors approved rules that Airbnbs in the city had to follow in October 2023. The law requires rental operators to acquire a license and have code enforcement officers inspect the units regularly to ensure they meet city health and safety standards.
Before the rules were established, short-term rentals were illegal in Bangor.
City staff previously estimated Bangor had more than 100 Airbnbs, but Deckard Technologies, a California-based company that monitors short-term rentals, generated a lower estimate after contracting with the city. The company tracks short-term rentals by searching websites people use to book the units, such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
Bangor’s Airbnb rules cap the number of rental units that can operate at 153, which is 1 percent of the city’s housing stock.
A full list of Bangor’s rules for short-term rentals is available in the city’s online charter.
