Columbia considers new rules for short-term renters
Lexy Bell didn’t expect to make much renting her home through Airbnb, other than some extra money. Two years into the experience, though, she said she’s made lifelong friends with other hosts using the app.
The last few months have made her consider quitting.
“I’m on a really tight margin now, and it’s gotten to the point where the effort that I put into my Airbnb doesn’t really yield the results that it used to,” Bell said.
Bell and more than two dozen other hosts attended a meeting at the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau Monday night to discuss possible new rules on short-term rental units. Those would apply to any rental unit offering a space for less than 28 days, such as Airbnb or other online renting company. Those rules include applying the city’s5 percent lodging tax to each stay or requiring rental inspections through the city’s Office of Neighborhood Services.
CVB Director Amy Schneider said supply and demand for short-term rental units has grown the last three years. The average daily rate for a unit in February was $114 among the city’s 281 active listings, according to Schneider.
Hotels currently pay the lodging tax, along with city and county sales tax, on nightly stays. Airbnb hosts felt applying the same rules to them would not level the playing field, but force some of them out of the market.
Bell said the $114 average per night seemed high. She offers her home for $50 a night, before fees and taxes. Other hosts she knows also offer their place for less than $100. She said Airbnb recently raised its fees, and applying local taxes to her renters would only deepen the cut on her profits.
“I feel like the hotels have handled the 5 percent tax for a really long time, and it would just sort of crush some of these more margin Airbnbs like what I run,” Bell said. “I would probably just close mine down.”
Airbnb and the state agreed this year to apply Missouri’s state sales tax (about 4.2 percent) on nightly stays. The agreement is expected to bring in $1.1 million.
