FERRYSBURG, MI - A new software program under consideration by the Ferrysburg City Council could help bridge the gap between resident complaints and short-term rental owners.

The City Council tabled the vote to pay $9,625 for rental management software during its Monday night council meeting. The contract would be with Granicus, which specializes in government management software.

Council members said they wanted to give residents more time to provide feedback on the software option.

Residents could call a 24/7 hotline to report issues, which would be immediately relayed to the property owner or management company.

City Manager Craig Bessinger said a Granicus employee will answer that phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"If there's a party going on at 2 a.m., the neighbor could call this software number," Bessinger said.

Violations of the city's rental ordinance could include loud noise, trash cans being left out, parking on lawns and individuals renting for periods of less than seven days.

Any short-term rental must be rented out for a minimum of seven days, and up to 28 days, at a time.

There are more than 200 rental units in Ferrysburg and 70 of those are short-term rentals.

The majority of complaints coming from residents this year about short-term rentals involved units being rented out for periods less than seven days, Bessinger said.

"That (would) be a different party renting the dwelling every night or every other night," Bessinger said. More complaints were made during the summer than any other time of the year, he said.

Each rental unit must have a rental permit from the city. They can be taken away for the rest of the year if a unit has three violations.

"I think this is a good idea, I think it's a way we can police our Airbnb issue that we have going on, because a lot of complaints are that they have no way to report complaints," said Councilmember Jerry Sias. "I think that will take care of most of the issues."

Councilmember Mike DeWitt proposed involving the police, suggesting that contacting the property owner alone might not be enough to address loud parties.

Bessinger said he would look into that idea.

Council also tabled the raising of rental inspection fees from $75 to $150 per unit per year, wanting to give "more notice on the increase in the rental fee" to residents, Bessinger said.

The council will revisit both the rental management software and the proposed increase in rental inspection fees at its Jan. 6 meeting.