CAIRO — The Cairo City Council continued to deliberate the details of a proposed ordinance that would allow short-term rentals through services such as Airbnb.

Several council members have stated as far back as September that constituents expressed interest to them in allowing short-term rentals through Airbnb, an online marketplace that allows property owners to rent out space similarly to hotels. The proposed ordinance the council discussed Monday evening would modify the city code to regulate the practice.

Council member Jerry Cox noted that the City of Bainbridge included a definition of the term “short-term rental” in their recent ordinance on the subject, something which City Manager Chris Addleton said could provide guidance for city officials enforcing the proposed rules.

“I don’t want to put all of this on a building official to be arbitrary,” Addleton said. “He needs to have some kind of guidelines for whatever precedent he sets. He’s going to have to have that standard.”

City attorney Thomas Lehman offered to modify the proposed ordinance to include a definition similar to Bainbridge’s, something he said could be fit in “very easily.”

Other issues discussed Monday night included occupancy limitations for the rentals themselves. Council member Jimmy Douglas said limitations should be based on parking availability rather than the square footage of the rental.

“If you’ve got six bedrooms and six cars, then you’ve got a problem,” Douglas said. “If you’ve got six bedroom and three cars or two cars, it’s not a problem.”

Lehman suggested amending the proposed ordinance to base the amount of guests permitted on both the number of bedrooms and beds in the rental itself. In essence, the city attorney said the number of occupants would be determined by the facility itself — a suggestion to which the council appeared supportive.

Also discussed Monday night was the possibility of entire houses being rented out for events such as bachelorette parties or weddings, an issue Addleton noted has been recently discussed in the Florida legislature.

Mayor Booker Gainor expressed doubt that Cairo would attract renters of that variety, and Cox said the council could simply walk back the ordinance at a later date if the practice proved to be too daunting to effectively regulate.

“If it gets to be abused, then just bring it back up here and let’s get rid of it,” Cox said. “But at this point, I would like to see us (do this).”

Council members reviewed the language of the proposed ordinance in January and then again Feb. 10 prior to Monday night’s discussion.