Every rental of under 30 days inside Austin needs an operating licence. Since the 2025 overhaul, a short-term rental is an accessory use allowed in all zoning districts, but only with a valid licence. This page summarises the licence, the fees, and the tax reports that come with it, from the city's own pages.
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| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Term | Two years, following the October 2025 changes. Renewal applications open 60 days before expiry. A licence expired by more than 30 days means applying as new. |
| Fees | $736.60 for a new licence ($642 plus $94.60 notification). Renewal is $369.60 ($275 plus $94.60). Fees are non-refundable. |
| Transfer | Licences do not transfer. A change of owner means a new licence. |
| Applying as a manager | The licence is issued for a specific property in the name of the owner or the operator. A manager applying for an owner files a notarised Agent Authorization Form, signed by the owner, naming everyone authorised to act on licensing. The owner's government ID is also required. |
| Account | An Austin Finance Online account is required before a licence is issued, and the same account is used for hotel tax reports. One account can hold many properties. |
| Notification | On every new licence and every renewal, the city notifies properties within 100 feet, at the licence holder's expense. That notification fee is part of the amounts above. |
| Processing times | New applications take roughly 6 to 8 weeks for a single-family home and 8 to 10 weeks for multi-family. Renewals take 4 to 8 weeks. Incomplete applications can be cancelled without a refund. |
| Limits | On a single-family site, one person may hold up to two units, or more if they are at least 1,000 feet apart. Multi-family sites are limited to the greater of one unit or 10 percent of units; mixed-use sites to the greater of one unit or 25 percent. |
A licence holder who does not live in the Austin metro area (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties) must name a local contact who is in the area and can respond within two hours, at any time of day. Any change to the local contact information must be given to the city in writing within 3 business days. It is one of the shortest reporting deadlines in Texas short-term rental law, and one of the easiest to miss.
Inside the home, an information packet must sit in a visible common area: the local contact's details, noise and parking rules, the trash schedule, and current burn ban or water restriction information.
Austin's city hotel occupancy tax is 11 percent (9 percent occupancy plus a 2 percent venue tax), on top of the state's 6 percent. Reports are quarterly, and a report is required even in a quarter with no rentals.
| Report | When | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| City report and payment | Last day of the month after each quarter: April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31 | Filed through Austin Finance Online. A copy of the state report for the same period goes with it. |
| Platform documentation | Every quarter | Since April 1, 2025, booking platforms that take payment must collect and remit the city tax. The operator must still document, each quarter, how much tax each platform collected on their behalf. |
| Direct and own-channel revenue | Every quarter | Collected and remitted by the operator. Nothing about this part is automatic. |
| State report, 6% | Monthly, due the 20th; quarterly for smaller amounts owed | Filed with the Texas Comptroller, separately from the city. |
Late or missing reports draw a 5 percent penalty, a further 5 percent after day 61, and interest at 10 percent a year. Licence renewal also depends on the reports: the city confirms that quarterly reports were filed for each quarter as part of the licensing process.
From July 1, 2026, platforms operating in Austin must provide a field for the licence number in listings and must remove unlicensed listings when the city asks. Advertising an unlicensed rental is prohibited.
An Austin home means 8 to 16 filings a year, a licence renewal every two years with neighbour notification, contact changes reported inside 3 business days, and a quarterly paper trail proving what the platforms did and did not collect. The free checker turns a whole portfolio into one due list.
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Sources, reviewed October 31, 2026: City of Austin short-term rental and hotel occupancy tax pages at austintexas.gov; Austin Ordinance 20250227-041 (city hotel tax collection by platforms); Texas Comptroller hotel occupancy tax guidance. Note: parts of the city's page still carry pre-2025 one-year licence wording; the two-year term follows the city's published October 2025 changes. This summary is information, not legal or tax advice.