No room at the inn on Christmas Eve? No problem: You can still snag a “luxury loft in the heart of downtown,” as well as a “Curtis Park charmer” and a “cozy Capitol Hill apartment.” These are last-minute holiday miracles you wouldn’t have dreamed of finding a decade ago — but that was before Airbnb and other short-term rentals moved in on Denver. But now some residents are wondering if a lack of rules governing such rentals are turning this town into a motel hell.

In the spring of 2008, George Mayl discovered that the owners of the house next door to his in the quiet Cory-Merrill neighborhood of southeast Denver were renting the property out to guests for short-term stays of under thirty days — which is illegal under Denver’s current zoning codes.