STRWATCH.AI 50/50 MARKETS · UPDATED 2026-07-18 · ALL CITIES
STRWATCH.AI / TX / Austin

Is a short-term rental legal in Austin, TX?

REGULATED

Short-term rentals (any rental of a housing unit or portion of one for less than 30 consecutive days) are legal citywide in Austin, including non-owner-occupied whole homes, but every STR needs its own city operator's license before it can be rented or even advertised.

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Sources checked2026-07-158 open items listed below

Both hosted and unhosted STRs are allowed in all zoning districts (Ord. 20250227-039 made STRs an accessory use to residential uses citywide) conditional on holding a per-unit operator's license under City Code Ch. 4-23. Licensing applies in Austin's full- and limited-purpose jurisdictions. No owner-occupancy/primary-residence requirement: an operator must own or lease the unit (§4-23-31(A)); tenants may operate with owner authorization (§4-23-41(B)(8)). Density/eligibility limits (§4-23-31): on sites with 3 or fewer housing units an individual may operate up to 2 STRs; additional sites must be at least 1,000 feet apart (applies through trusts/LLCs, §4-23-31(E)-(F)); on sites with 4+ units, cap is the greater of 1 unit or 25% (site includes commercial use) or 10% (no commercial use) of the units the person owns or leases. Partial-unit STRs must give the guest exclusive use of a bedroom and shared use of a full bathroom (§4-23-34(C)). STR defined as rental for periods of less than 30 consecutive days (§4-23-1(12)), so 30+ day rentals are exempt. Chapter 4-23 as replaced in 2025 contains no numeric guest/occupancy cap. Noise rules: no sound equipment over 75 dB at the property line 10am-10pm; none audible beyond property line 10pm-10am; no noise audible to adjacent business/residence 10:30pm-7am (§4-23-34(F)-(H)). Licenses valid on Sept. 30, 2025 continued until expiration and renew into the new system (Ord. 20250911-012 Part 3). HOAs/deed restrictions may still prohibit STRs.

What you need to operate

STR Operator's License $836.30 new ($789 license fee + $47.30 notification fee, FY2026)
City of Austin Development Services Department (Code Compliance)
Renewal: Up to 2 years; renewal $385.30 ($338 renewal fee + $47.30 notification fee); apply within 60 days before expiration (existing pre-Oct-2025 licenses: at least 30 days before)
Required before operating or advertising any STR (§4-23-32); one license per unit; non-transferable and does not convey with sale; license number must appear in all advertisements. Application requires certification of no outstanding code/state-law violations, safety self-certification checklist, platforms to be used, local contact info, and owner authorization for lessee applicants (§4-23-41). Certificate of Occupancy and proof of insurance are no longer required as of Oct. 1, 2025. Director may require a third-party safety inspection if the unit had state-law or City Code violations in the prior 24 months (§4-23-41(D)). Fees are non-refundable.
official source
Local contact designation Cost not verified
City of Austin Development Services Department (City Code §4-23-33)
Every operator must designate an individual local contact present within the Austin Metro Area (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, or Caldwell County) who is authorized to make decisions about the STR, must respond within two hours of being contacted about emergency conditions, and must be present at the STR within two hours if requested by a City employee. Operator may serve as their own local contact. Contact info is mailed to all properties within 100 feet of the STR (§4-23-44).
official source
City Hotel Occupancy Tax reporting (Austin Finance Online account) Cost not verified
City of Austin Financial Services
Renewal: Quarterly reports due the last day of the month following each quarter (Apr 30, Jul 31, Oct 31, Jan 31)
Operators must file quarterly HOT reports even though platforms have been required to collect and remit city HOT on bookings since April 1, 2025, and even for zero-activity quarters. Operators using a platform must report how much HOT each platform collected on their behalf. Proof of HOT payment is required at license renewal for operators not using a platform to collect payments (§4-23-42(A)(4)).
official source
State Hotel Occupancy Tax collection/remittance Cost not verified
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (Tax Code Ch. 156)
Renewal: Monthly (due the 20th of the following month) or quarterly if qualified
The 6% state HOT applies to residential STRs (houses, condos, apartments) costing $15 or more per day. A platform collects and remits state HOT only if it has an agreement with the owner to do so; otherwise the owner must collect and remit directly to the Comptroller (Comptroller Hotel Tax FAQ). State HOT is remitted separately from city HOT.
official source

The full picture

Short-term rentals (any rental of a housing unit or portion of one for less than 30 consecutive days) are legal citywide in Austin, including non-owner-occupied whole homes, but every STR needs its own city operator's license before it can be rented or even advertised. After losing in court over its old owner-occupancy-based Type 1/2/3 regime (the Type 2 phase-out was struck down in Zaatari v. City of Austin, 2019), Austin rewrote its rules: three ordinances on Feb. 27, 2025 made STRs an accessory use in all zoning districts, moved regulation from the Land Development Code (Title 25) into business regulations (Title 4), and forced platforms to collect city hotel tax starting April 1, 2025; then Ordinance No. 20250911-012 (adopted Sept. 11, 2025, effective Oct. 1, 2025) replaced City Code Chapter 4-23 with the current regime. A host must own or lease the unit (tenants may operate with owner authorization), may operate up to two STRs on a site of three or fewer housing units, and any additional STR sites must be at least 1,000 feet apart; on sites with 4+ units the cap is the greater of one unit or 25% (with commercial use) or 10% (no commercial use) of units the person owns or leases. There is no primary-residence requirement and no numeric guest cap in the current chapter. Licenses cost $836.30 new / $385.30 renewal, last up to two years, are non-transferable, and the license number must appear in every listing. A local contact within the five-county Austin metro must respond to emergencies within two hours. Guests pay 17% total hotel occupancy tax (6% state + 11% city). Violations are strict-liability offenses fined up to $500 with each day a separate offense, and since July 1, 2026 platforms must display license numbers and delist unlicensed properties within 10 days of a city notice and may not take fees for unlicensed bookings.

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Texas State Hotel Occupancy Tax 6% Rooms or sleeping accommodations costing $15+ per day rented for less than 30 consecutive days, explicitly including bed and breakfasts, condominiums, apartments and houses Not verified source
City of Austin Hotel Occupancy Tax 11% (9% occupancy tax + 2% venue project tax) Short-term rentals of less than 30 consecutive days within the City of Austin (ETJ excluded) Yes source

Enforcement

PenaltiesViolating any provision of City Code Ch. 4-23 is a strict-liability offense punishable by a fine not to exceed $500, and each day a violation continues is a separate offense (Ord. No. 20250911-012, §4-23-51; 'a culpable mental state is not required'). The director may revoke licenses for life/health/safety threats, nuisance STRs, failure to implement mitigation requirements or compliance plans, or local-contact non-response (§4-23-52), generally after notice of intent and a pre-revocation conference (§4-23-53). A unit whose license was revoked is barred from a new license for 6 months (12 months if declared a nuisance), and a nuisance-STR operator is barred from any new STR license for 12 months (§4-23-31(G)-(H)). Advertising an unlicensed STR is itself prohibited (§4-23-32(E)). Late city HOT: 5% penalty, an additional 5% on day 61, plus 10% annual interest from day 61; late state HOT: $50 per late report plus 5% (1-30 days) or 10% (30+ days). Active enforcement verified: city scraping tools (Deckard Technologies) went live Jan. 7, 2026; as of April 1, 2026 staff had identified 2,785 unlicensed addresses, issuing 65 notices of violation and 28 citations (DSD memo, Apr. 30, 2026).
Platform liabilitySince April 1, 2025, platforms that facilitate bookings and accept payments must collect and remit the city Hotel Occupancy Tax on operators' behalf (Ord. 20250227-041 amending Title 11-2; city HOT page). Since July 1, 2026 (Ord. 20250911-012 Part 4, Article 2): platforms must require each user to include a license number in every Austin STR advertisement (§4-23-22); must remove an advertisement within 10 days of a city delist notice and maintain an email address to receive delist notices (§4-23-23); must make documentation of HOT collected available to hosts at least quarterly (§4-23-24); and may not accept a fee to facilitate a booking of an unlicensed STR, with a safe-harbor presumption of compliance for platforms that comply with §§4-23-22 and 4-23-23 (§4-23-25). Platform violations are subject to the same $500-per-offense, per-day penalties (§4-23-51).
NotesReport violations via Austin 3-1-1. As of March 31, 2026 there were 2,750 active STR licenses (up 19.6% since April 1, 2025), and STR-related HOT revenue rose from $7M (FY2024) to $11.6M (FY2025) (DSD memo, Apr. 30, 2026). Per that memo, the city plans to phase in platform delist notices: delisting requests for merely-unlicensed properties are paused for six months after the new licensing system launch (scheduled May 18, 2026), beginning first with properties generating nuisance complaints, and enforcement is paused for applicants whose license applications are under review.

Pending changes

  • Phased rollout of platform delisting enforcement: although platform obligations took effect July 1, 2026, the city stated it will pause delist notices for unlicensed properties for six months after its new Deckard-based licensing system launches (launch was scheduled May 18, 2026), then phase delist requests in groups starting with nuisance-complaint properties. — effective-date-pending, approx. November 2026 (six months after May 18, 2026 system launch) [official]
  • Possible STR license fee reductions: per Council direction accompanying Ord. 20250911-012, Development Services is evaluating whether efficiencies from the new licensing system support lowering STR fees; any changes would come through the annual budget process. Staff evaluated and recommended against creating a provisional license. — proposed, FY2027 budget process [official]

What we could not verify (8)

  • Zaatari v. City of Austin (Tex. App.—Austin 2019), which struck down the old Type 2 (non-owner-occupied) phase-out and motivated the rewrite, was verified only via news coverage, not against the court opinion itself.
  • No numeric guest/occupancy cap appears anywhere in the replaced Chapter 4-23 (full 18-page executed ordinance reviewed), so max_guests is null; confirm no generally applicable occupancy limit elsewhere in the Property Maintenance Code applies to STRs.
  • Codified City Code text on library.municode.com could not be fetched (HTTP 403); this profile relies on the executed ordinance PDF (Ord. 20250911-012). Confirm Municode codification matches, including any renumbering.
  • Whether a specific platform (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) collects the 6% STATE hotel tax for a given Austin host depends on that platform's agreement with the owner (Comptroller FAQ); collectedByPlatform for the state tax is therefore null — hosts must confirm per platform and remit directly if not collected.
  • Texas preemption: HB 2767 (89R, 2025, 'online global marketplaces,' Airbnb-backed) died without a House floor vote (official history ends at Calendars, 04/25/2025); verified no STR-preemption statute was enacted in the 89th regular session, but 2025-26 special sessions were not exhaustively checked for revived STR/marketplace preemption measures.
  • Potential effect of the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act (HB 2127, 2023, 'Death Star' preemption law) and its ongoing litigation on Austin's STR licensing authority was not analyzed or verified.
  • The city's statement that STRs in the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) need no license and owe no city HOT appeared in city web content summaries; verify jurisdictional boundaries for specific properties.
  • New-license fee of $836.30 reflects the FY2026 fee schedule ($789 + $47.30); the fee is set by separate ordinance annually and may change in the FY2027 budget.

Sources

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /austin-tx.md for AI tools and researchers.

STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, checked against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between the times we check it. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.