AUSTIN (KXAN) — After Austin City Council approved some short-term rental regulation changes earlier this year, the city is bringing additional changes forward for a vote Thursday.
Earlier this year, city council approved the following:
- Short-term rentals (STRs) will be largely regulated through the city’s business code instead of its land development code (that goes into effect next month, Oct. 1)
- STR platforms are now required to collect Hotel Occupancy Tax (that went into effect April 1, 2025)
But the city council worried further changes may be undone by the state legislature and opted to discuss those after the legislative session.
On Thursday, the body is expected to advance additional changes including:
- For anyone owning more than one STR, the properties will need to be at least 1,000 feet apart
- For a site with more than four units, like an apartment complex, an owner can not use more than 25% of the units as an STR
- Host sites must put the city STR license number in their advertisement
- Those host platforms will be told to “de-list” advertisements at request of the city and they cannot collect fees from STRs that do not have the appropriate city license
“We want to make sure that they have certain basic things in place, like if there’s a disturbance or an issue, that there is someone local we can call, making sure that there are safety precautions in place,” Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter added.
You can find the full list of proposed changes from city staff here.
“We appreciate the City’s thoughtfulness and collaboration throughout the process of streamlining their short-term rental ordinance. We support balanced regulations that maintain the City’s ability to curb bad actors while allowing Vrbo hosts to continue their important contributions to Austin’s tourism economy,” said Jaclyn Terwey, Regional Government Affairs Manager for Expedia Group, which operates Vrbo, said.
Airbnb pointed to the benefits of short-term rentals for both the economy, the city and for hosts who have used the service to make extra income. Data from the company last year shows nearly half of Austin Airbnb hosts rented out their primary residence to make extra money — many of those people told Airbnb it helped them stay in that home.
The company also pointed to the benefits for the city — including the new collection of Hotel Occupancy Tax. According to city data Airbnb shared with KXAN, Austin collected more than $5 million in HOT from short-term rentals from April to July, the first few months of that change.
But some Austinites who have delt with nuisance short-term rentals wish the city would go further. Abby Urnovitz is one of those people who says she wishes the 1,000 foot rule would apply universally and not just to a single owner, which would space short-term rentals out regardless of owner.
“Other cities adopt geographic caps or spacing rules for overconcentration and we do not do that,” Urnovitz said.
She also wants better data and transparency from the city on short-term rentals, better staffing at code enforcement to respond to short-term rental issues and for the city to put Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars back into the communities they came from.
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