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Grand Coulee residents can now rent out their homes for a weekend if they want to. 

The Grand Coulee City Council approved an ordinance July 21 allowing short term rentals in residential zones within the city. 

The ordinance says that short-term rentals will “allow for increased tourist accommodations,” and that there is a need for that in the city. 

Short-term rentals are defined as rentals for less than 30 days and are also referred to as “vacation rentals,” or “nightly rentals.”

The council discussed that Electric City doesn’t allow short-term rentals because of issues with people partying loudly, disturbing the locals. But they felt that Grand Coulee’s nuisance ordinances cover behavior such as excessive noise.

Mayor Paul Townsend said that it was important for those renting places out to take some responsibility for who they are renting to. 

Grand Coulee resident Cameron Whitney has experience with short term rentals, managing vacation rentals in other communities, and now able to run them here. 

“I have been doing this long enough to know that proper screening and strong house rules are extremely important to bringing in qualified guests to our home and community,” Whitney told The Star in an email, adding that a lot of online short-term rental websites that connect people to places to stay are good at screening their guests. “You can’t get upset about tourists when you live in a recreation area. That’s just stupid! … We should be welcoming these guests to our area and they will continue to return.”

In addition to the extra income it brings to those renting out properties, Whitney sees the added tax revenue from the tourists who would stay in a short-term rental, as well as the money they spend locally, as beneficial to local businesses and to the community as a whole. 

“Here in the Grand Coulee recreation area we get to live with great people, in amazing towns with beautiful views, and lots of wildlife,” he said. “We should be using this to our advantage by bringing tourists to our towns to help fund our roads, schools, infrastructure, and help the locals running businesses for us.”