Pegi Malnik’s scenic property just east of Bend appears to be the perfect setting for a bed and breakfast. Her 2.5 acres boast a small pond, a gazebo covered in hop vines, a fire pit for roasting marshmallows and a pasture filled with wildflowers and honeybee boxes.
The guests who’ve stayed at her “B and B Reimagined” for between $70 and $86 a night, love it, too, saying on the room rental website Airbnb.com that her property is “top notch” and she is the “perfect hostess.”But just over her fences, the neighbors of the Misty Meadows subdivision don’t see a picturesque oasis. Instead, they view her unlicensed room rental operation as a Deschutes County code violation that’s marring the neighborhood and creating a safety hazard.
Their concerns have sparked county officials to look more closely at undocumented room rental operations in private homes all over Bend and the surrounding area.
Helped along by popular websites such as Airbnb, where vacationers can find cheap overnight rates in private homes, now anyone with an Internet connection can hang out a virtual shingle and go into business housing and feeding guests.
Over the last few months, the number of rooms for rent on Airbnb alone has lept from a handful to nearly 70, said several people who have been monitoring the site.
The city of Bend and Deschutes County each have rules to govern overnight accommodations. For instance, the county defines a bed and breakfast as an operation with three rooms or more that serves breakfast. The owners of these operations must obtain a food service license and a tourism facility license. They must obtain some kind of land use permit. They must pay transient room taxes.
But the application of city and county rules becomes murkier for people offering just one or two rooms a night. And recently both agencies have discovered that a large number of people offering these kinds of ad-hoc bed and breakfasts are not charging required transient room taxes, they aren’t obtaining necessary landuse permits and, because they do not technically fit the definition of bed and breakfast, there are no current requirements for food and lodging licenses.
This is a problem for people like the neighbors of Pegi Malnik.
“We are outraged that she is apparently being allowed by the County to operate in the interim without a conditional use permit, any fire and health and safety inspections and or licenses,” her neighbors told the county planning department in a July 17 joint letter. “An unregulated accommodation industry is being introduced into unsuspecting neighborhoods by operations such as Pegi’s and the Airbnb listing service.”
Public safety on the line
This is nothing less than a public safety concern, said Steve Keifer with the Oregon Health Authority, which is responsible for regulating bed and breakfasts in Oregon.
“There are probably people who wouldn’t wash the sheets if we didn’t make them,” said Keifer.
Places renting rooms and serving food may also contend with any number of other public health issues including rodents, bedbugs, fire safety, food borne illnesses and proper sanitation, said Eric Mone, an environmental health specialist with Deschutes County.
The trouble with unlicensed and unregulated room rental operations in private homes is that homeowners may have zero experience dealing with these public health matters and, if they are only offering one or two rooms, no one is overseeing their work.
“If you are staying at someone’s house and you don’t know them, you would like to believe that the rooms are clean and that the food is not going to make your family sick,” said Mone. “If you wanted to ask, is a licensed bed and breakfast safer for the public than an unlicensed B and B, I would say yes, because we are providing assurances and education.”
But because both Deschutes County and the city of Bend define a single family dwelling as one where up to three people who are unrelated to the property owner may stay each night, these quasi-hotel operations are exempt from oversight.
In fact, there are only three bed and breakfasts licensed in Deschutes County, said Mone—the Lara House, the Mill Inn in Bend and the Blue Spruce in Sisters.
The rest of the 70 rooms available as overnight accommodations on the Airbnb site, skirt the rules requiring licensing and permitting by having only a few guests at a time, or by only offering one to two rooms for rent at a time.
Because all this is happening under the roof of a private home, it’s nearly impossible for officials to monitor whether these people who appear to be just skirting the rules ever actually cross the line of three guests per night, triggering the need for a land use permit and possibly the technical bed and breakfast rules that would require licenses.
Code enforcement officials at both the city and the county said that, in a time of tight budgets, devoting resources to investigating is out of the question.
“I’ve long thought that there are many bed and breakfasts out there. But we have better things to do than run around and try to find all of them when we are trying so hard to get into all the other facilities that are licensed,” said Mone of the many other larger restaurants and tourism operations in the county.
Striking the right balance
Pegi Malnik’s neighbors aren’t the first to raise concerns about sites such as Airbnb, VRBO or HomeAway. Across the country, people are reporting to media their annoyance at strangers coming and going and loud unknown guests. City officials are concerned about zoning violations, how to enforce room tax collection, and distruptions to housing and rental markets by the surge in popularity of renting overnight rooms through these kinds of sites.
But Malnik says she has done everything she can to appease her neighbors—she’s beautified her property, pulled knapweed by hand, moved the honeyboxes when someone complained. She’s put safety strips on stairs, is adding a handrail near a stepdown in the living room, and says she wants to comply with the county’s rules about overnight rentals in every way.
After a meeting with county officials last week, Malnik says she understands now that she will not be technically in violation of the county’s code if she limits her guests to just three a night.
“It shouldn’t be offensive to anybody,” she said of her business. “I am willing to comply because this is a dream of mine. I am doing absolutely everything I can to make sure that this place is safe and respectable for my guests.”
Ultimately, the issue here is a question of balance between free use of personal property and public health and safety. Proponents of using homes for room rentals believe there is value to the community, not just to their own bottom lines.
Malnik believes she’s boosting the tourism industry by offering her rooms. And, if she does limit her overnight guests, she will be within the law. She believes the balance is fair, even if her neighbors don’t.
The big question for city and county officials is whether they do.
A whole bunch of people are now renting rooms in Bend and Deschutes County with the help of websites like Airbnb.
Most of these operations are unlicensed, unpermitted and operating without any oversight at all. For the most part, it’s legal under city and county code despite potential food, sanitation and fire safety issues.
The Rules:
• People may rent out one or two rooms in their private home every night to up to a total of three people per night without a license or permit of any kind.
• If a property owner rents to more than three people per night, they must go through a county landuse permitting process that can be costly.
• If a person is renting three or more rooms per night and serving breakfast they must obtain a conditional use permit for roughly $2,000, a $375 bed and breakfast restaurant license and a $135 tourist facility license.
• In Bend, people renting out entire vacation homes either through a website or a property management company must obtain a land use permit that ensures adequate parking and a maximum occupancy for homes. Violators can incur a $750 a day fine for not obtaining the land use permit.
• All people renting rooms of any number must register with the county or city and collect transient room taxes.
Source: Deschutes County Code, city of Bend code, county and city staff.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2012.
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Okay I have a serious problem with this article. I did some research and I can’t quite get over the feeling that the “neighbors” in this article might be a competing Bed and Breakfast right next door. A quick Google search shows that next door to Pegi Malnik is a B&B called Cabin Creek Bed & Breakfast.
What is the real motivation for this article? Is it to complain about a legitimate problem in Central Oregon or is this inspired by someone who is having a tough time competing with a legal (“legal under city and county code”) business that doesn’t have to pay zoning fees because they don’t serve food (which seems to be the difference between these two neighbors).
Although this story is mildly interesting, wouldn’t it be better to focus on daycares that operate in a home, pet sitting or other home business that (if unchecked) could have more of a negative impact on the local community?
Lastly for “total disclosure’s sake”, I have stayed in an AirBnB and I thought it was a great experience. These business are reviewed by those who stay there (both positively and negatively) so if someone doesn’t change the sheets or something else, it goes on record. With so many people who got “caught” following the housing downturn, AirBnB (and services like it) have kept people from losing their homes completely.
I just have to ask; don’t people have their own brains and don’t they use common sense? Is the next step going to be if a family has kids over for sleepovers more than the REGULATED amount per year or you just have a lot guests sleep over then are we going to have someone tell us how we are supposed to provide clean sheets and safe food?
I doubt if too many careless, ignorant people are going to be successful running a small B & B (with the poor economy these B&B folks are just trying to stay alive and the bills paid) (The poor economy we brought upon ourselves (in my opinion) due to the citizens of the USA’s inability to have their priorities straight and be fiscally responsible).
I also have to point out that I would think that anyone wanting to stay at a B & B would have enough brains and common sense to NOT STAY if the conditions were not favorable.
May we should be given a little more credit than what another branch of the government wants to give us credit for. Maybe its time to FORCE us to grow up and be responsible or our PEERS will make fun of us. That sounds better than REGULATION and MORE MONEY PAID to another GOVERNMENT AGENCY (or INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT).
One of the neighbors in this article is my Mother. Her and the two adjacent owners don’t want a bed and breakfast there because they want privacy. These folks are retirement age, None of them are trying to run a B&B themselves. Frankly, Malnik showed up ans stated that she was going to open her business and that there was noting the neighbors could do about it. Nice. As vor Ms. Malnik “just trying yo stay alive”, she bought the property with the intention of opening a B&B. When she was told that the HOA had covenants against this (before she purchased) she purchased the property anyway, figuring that she could force the issue. Now, anyone want to talk directly, Find me on FB. Jon Lewis, Ruth, NV.
Anybody who ever used Google knows it shows APPROX locations. There are no other B&B’s in the subdivision. The point is, the regulatory agencies need to apply the law as it stands to everyone, or no one. To L.Conley: The difference between having relatives stay a few night and a undocumented, unlicensed B&B is, one is legal and the other one isn’t. However plush, clean, friendly and economical the operation is it first and foremost needs to be legal.
After reading this article , I am a bit concerned for the rights of the property owner here. The options for use of your privately owned property is the sole right of the property owner. When you purchase property you will know what it is zoned as what it will be limited to for its uses. Most Room-Rentals if within Private Homes are arranged as Month to Month or Term Lease.
Utilities are either included with the Rent or are Separately Handled. Owners and Renters in today’s environments find themselves do to Income Shortfalls , Loss of Job income,etc.. The very real need to find alternate ways for new income sources. Renting of extra bedrooms in the house becomes a true necessity for these times. The House is Limited to the Number of bedroom occupants for that House Property. Therefore does not exceed the Correct Number of House Property Occupants and Utility Needs for these occupants. A typical B & B may offer
a breakfast ,lunch,dinner food Menu or it may not . Month to Month or Term Lease arrangements generally do not offer any Food Services with their Room-Rentals. Each Tenant or Resident will supply their own needs for : Foods, Cooking, Storage, Supplies,Pantry needs.
Room-Rentals offer use of the other Rooms within that same dwelling for these needs and their own comforts. So many People are in a very bad financial way for many years now, to end or to
over limit down the Property Owner from their ability to use room-rentals within their own homes would add another real catastrophic crunch to the Wallet and drastically reduce the financial picture for those Property Owners to maintain room-rental income within their own properties here in Bend. More Properties will Foreclose and Default thus there will be more empty deserted and abandoned homes in and around the City of Bend. People living on very
small incomes are the First to be Hit Hardest . Small income individuals or couples are most often seeking Room-Rentals within the Private Home Sectors of the City of Bend. The Elderly
are also a large group seeking a private Room-Rental within the City of Bend areas. Be so ever
careful how you go about hurting all of these individuals whom now are dependent on the
ability to find and be placed within a Private Room Rental with a caring and willing Home Owner.
Many People find themselves in true need of a simple Bedroom-Rental in the Private home setting as this fits both their financial requirements and their personal needs list, to keep things
affordable and financially responsible as well for each of them involved. Neighbors living next door or near to Properties either as a ” B & B or Private Home where Room-Rentals occur should
be on good terms with each other and work out any differences between you firstly. Financial and otherwise horrible economical times here indicate Neighbors need to be more open and friendly with each other work out problems-solve them together neighborly keep in mind that this Room-Rental offers lower cost methods of affordability to the person in need of a place to
call home and live within a smaller income as it also offers to the Property Owner a very real way
to find this alternative financial income source to stay afloat and able to pay their debts,etc..
Maintain their property ownership taxes,etc… I ask all involved to NOT reduce nor amend the
Laws or Rules for Room-Rental Taxes, etc.. to be enforced to the Private Home Sectors whom are at best these days trying to keep up with always increasing Property-Taxes,etc.. all private property owners are forced to confront yearly. Their is the real need for Private Room-Rentals within Privately Owned Properties here in the City of Bend , Many can not pay high rents for
Apartments,Duplexes, Condos, etc.. The Low income person holding a basic job here in the City of Bend earns very low wages to exists on , Lets keep our Working Poor with a place still to live.
@Great Deal: Every hear of the paragraph? I wanted to read your post but just couldn’t get past the epileptic seizure your wall of words caused.
See how easy it is to simply use the “enter” button to create an eye strain relieving space between groups of many sentences?
Seriously, if you want people to read what you post, you should invest in fixing your “enter” button.
Just saying…