Pearland City Council on Oct. 25 approved an ordinance that creates a requirement for a registration program to operate short-term rentals within the city and eventually bring a requirement for short-term rental property owners to pay hotel occupancy taxes, or HOT, to Pearland.
Pearland defines a short-term rental as a residential dwelling unit or a bedroom in a residential dwelling unit that is temporarily rented out for compensation for less than 30 consecutive days, according to agenda documents.
“[Once the ordinance passes] we’ll move into formalizing an actual agreement with LodgingRevs, who is our recommended vendor and owns the cloud-based software system,” Pearland Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Tracy Rohrbacher said. “Once that contract is agreed to by both sides, we’ll move into a process, which looks like a 10-week process, to create the workflow that is customized for our needs.”
During the Oct. 25 City Council meeting, the ordinance was amended to include the condition that after the 10-week process is complete by the CVB and LodgingRevs, City Council will be given a presentation on what is recommended the city does to collect HOT taxes.
The amendment was brought forth by Council Member Luke Orlando, seconded by Council Member Alex Kamkar and passed unanimously.
“At the conclusion of [the 10 weeks], we would be able to provide an update, if council desires, on what that is going to look like before we actually launch communications with short-term rental property owners,” Rohrbacher said.
Once City Council approves a system to collect HOT from short-term rental property owners, they will need to register online, and the taxes will be based on 7% of what the short-term rentals’ rate charge is, she added.
During the City Council meeting on Oct. 11, City Council approved an ordinance that established a committee tasked with evaluating regulatory options, such as permitting, inspection requirements, occupancy limits and more, according to agenda documents.
