The City of Austin is moving forward with plans to overhaul its rules on short-term rentals like Airbnbs – but not before the public has a chance to weigh in.
For years, residents have complained about disturbances from people who rent these properties, as well as their impact on housing costs. In 2016, Austin adopted sweeping rules regulating these rentals, also known as STRs, but several court decisions have made a lot of these rules unenforceable.
Daniel Word with the city’s Development Services Department said many of the rentals are also operating without a license.
“I think there is an interest in providing an overhaul to the regulations to try to achieve better compliance with our licensing requirements,” he said. “And to increase the collection of hotel-occupancy tax that is owed from short-term rental operators.”
Hotel-occupancy taxes are added to hotel and motel stays to support programs that draw tourists to Austin, like music and historical preservation.
“By increasing our compliance with our licensing requirement we will have a better way of addressing properties that are causing issues in our community – like noise, or parking, or trashing, and other issues – that sometimes short-term rentals can generate,” Word said.
Cities across the country – and really across the globe – are grappling with how to regulate STRs while meeting the needs of residents and business owners. In 2023, for example, Dallas passed a rule banning them from single-family neighborhoods, but it's being challenged in court.
Austin is proposing a few other changes in hopes of making STRs fit within the nature of a neighborhood and stopping them from contributing to a shortage of affordable long-term housing, according to a city memo.
The city is collecting feedback over the next few months. Several in-person and virtual informational sessions about the changes will be held from Jan. 21 to Jan. 27. City staff will brief the City Council on Jan. 28.
There will also be several public hearings in February.
- Feb. 4, 1 p.m. , at the Joint Planning Commission and City Council meeting
- Feb. 11, 6 p.m., at the Planning Commission meeting
- Feb. 27, 10 a.m., at the City Council meeting
More information is at publicinput.com/dsdnotice.
The City Council will consider the changes in April.