During its July 3 meeting, Tomball City Council discussed a contract for short-term rental monitoring and compliance following the decision of the city to collect hotel occupancy tax from short-term rental properties.
In a nutshell
The contract will expand the services of Avenu, the city’s vendor for collecting hotel tax, to include monitoring and identifying short-term rental properties as well as helping short-term rental properties comply with hotel tax collection, according to the July 3 agenda packet.
- The setup fee for these services is $5,000, and the annual fee is $255 per property or $15,000, whichever is greater, according to the July 3 agenda packet.
- The contract term is for one year, Assistant City Manager Jessica Rogers said during the meeting.
Zooming out
Tomball collects a 7% hotel tax following the adoption of an ordinance in 2006, Community Impact previously reported.
There are 93 active short-term rental properties in Tomball with an average nightly rate of $236.54, according to Avenu’s presentation at City Council’s June 19 meeting. At a 40% occupancy rate, the estimated hotel tax revenue is around $250,000.
Quote of note
“We’ll provide adequate notice that will give [short-term rental properties] time to implement it because there will be some platform changes that they’ll have to make to their listings to allow that application of the fee,” Rogers said. “We’ll be providing notice, and our goal first is education and making sure everyone’s informed.”
Stay tuned
City Manager David Esquivel will execute the contract, and the city will work with Avenu to get the new services started in the near future, Rogers said in an email July 5.
View the contract below.
