San Antonio’s zoning laws don’t currently allow for short-term rentals.
As drafted, the ordinance would essentially limit the amount of “type 2” rentals — properties rented out on a short-term basis where the owner doesn’t live — in a given neighborhood by instituting density restrictions.
That proposal doesn’t sit well with Austin-based HomeAway Inc.
“We believe that all property owners should be treated equally under the law, and so we urge San Antonio City Council to consider policies that protect all property types under this ordinance,” company spokesman Philip Minardi said in an email Wednesday.
The ordinance would also require local property owners who rent out their homes to visitors on a short-term basis to register with the city and pay a $200 fee, be subject to inspections and pay local hotel occupancy taxes among other requirements.
The city’s finance department currently collects hotel occupancy tax, at a rate of about 9 percent, from about 290 short-term rental owners — out of 1,600 the city estimates are operating in San Antonio, Michael Shannon, interim director of the city’s Development Services department, told council members Wednesday.
Short-term rental property owners could wind up paying a hotel occupancy tax rate of 16.8 percent — which includes city, county and state taxes — if San Antonio officials opt to make them liable for those taxes.