Short-term rental operators in McKinney will soon have to register annually with the city.
What’s happening?
McKinney City Council members passed an ordinance amendment requiring annual registration of all rentals within city limits during a March 3 meeting. The new ordinance follows the lead of other North Texas cities, such as Frisco and Plano, which require short-term registration. McKinney will not charge an annual fee for registration, according to city officials.
Development Services Executive Director Michael Quint said no fee was proposed because city staff wanted to make it easy for short-term rentals to register. A fee could be added at a later date, according to city officials.
“We want to make it easy,” Quint said. “We want to make it pretty efficient for any short-term rentals to register.”
The program will require each short-term rental to register annually. As part of the registration, rental operators must provide contact information for someone who can be reached 24 hours a day, according to a city document. The program aims to help identify the existence and location of rentals in McKinney in order to assist investigations related to criminal conduct or public nuisances.
“Without a registration ordinance, it’s difficult to know how many short term rentals we actually have in the city of McKinney,” Quint said.
The ordinance amendment is set to take effect after official posting, according to city officials.
The action taken
Council members voted 4-2 in favor of approving the ordinance amendment. Mayor Bill Cox and council member Rick Franklin dissented. Council member Ernest Lynch was not present for the vote.
Before the vote, Cox said the city already had ordinances in place for property nuisances related to trash, noise, lighting and parking.
“The question about short-term rentals is an enforcement question,” Cox said before the vote. “I don’t see the benefit of having someone register and give the city their name and number to reach the goal, which is to enforce existing ordinances that we have.”
The other side
Council member Patrick Cloutier said he appreciated Cox’s comments, but registration of short-term rentals was “very important.”
“One thing that registration would also help us with is reconciling these properties to make sure they’re paying hotel occupancy taxes, which is prescribed by the law,” Cloutier said.
The background
The city already collects hotel occupancy taxes directly from Airbnb and Vrbo, two platforms that manage short-term rental reservations in McKinney. The city recently updated its hotel occupancy tax ordinance to include Vrbo in those collections.
Short-term rentals are typically defined as a residential property that is rented to someone who is not a permanent resident, according to a staff presentation. When a visitor books a hotel or a short-term rental, they pay a 13% hotel occupancy tax. The city keeps 7%, and the remaining is collected by the state. Dollars collected by the city are used for promoting events that generate overnight stays.
Hotel occupancy tax revenues have increased each of the last five years, with more than $3.3 million generated in fiscal year 2024-25.
The framework
City staff and council members discussed the new registration program during a work session held before the regular meeting. Council members have discussed short-term rentals at least twice before in 2016 and 2024.
Officials estimate there are about 486 short-term rentals operating in and around McKinney, according to the staff presentation. Council member Geré Feltus asked how much staff time it would take to operate a registration program and whether that would justify a fee.
Quint said it depends on how the program is administered and whether it can be automated through a platform such as Energov.
“At a high level, we don’t think it’ll be a whole lot of work if we can automate it,” he said. “If it’s not automated and we have to do everything through paper applications, there’ll be some nominal load on city staff resources.”
City Attorney Mark Houser suggested council members revisit the subject in a year to see how much participation and effort there’s been related to the program. If needed, a fee could be imposed at that time, he said.
Any short-term rental operators who do not register with the city would be subject to a Class C misdemeanor, which is similar for other code violations, Quint said.
The discussion
Cox asked Police Chief Joe Ellenburg to walk council members through a scenario when someone is violating a code related to noise, parking, trash or lighting. Ellenburg said the department is responding to those types of calls mainly during nighttime hours.
“I would say 90% of the time we’re met with compliance,” he said. “Sometimes we return that same night on the same call, and that’s when a citation would be issued.”
Officers don’t currently know if a property is a short-term rental unless whoever is at the property tells them, Ellenburg said. The registration program could be another resource for officers responding to nuisance calls if they don’t get compliance from the people staying at the rental, Quint said.
“They can pull up that 24-hour contact information and say, ‘Hey, we visited the property,’” Quint said. “‘The people there on-site are not responding. We need you to address this issue ASAP.’”
Cox said he wasn’t “following the logic” in calling a short-term rental operator late at night.
“I don’t see that really working that way,” Cox said. “If I own a home and you’re calling me at 1:15 in the morning—the person I’ve rented it to is making noise. What can I do? I’ve got an agreement with Vrbo or someone to address that.”
Ellenburg said he owns a short-term rental in another state and that the people who rent his home are the ones who are contacted by the police and pay any fines.
“I may get called, but there’s very little I can do other than not renting to those people anymore,” Ellenburg said.
