{"id":424989,"date":"2026-09-03T12:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424989\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T12:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:18:20","slug":"short-term-rentals-in-el-paso-will-face-higher-guest-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424989\/","title":{"rendered":"Short-term rentals in El Paso will face higher guest fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0The City of El Paso is moving closer to collecting its local hotel occupancy tax from short-term rentals, including properties listed on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo.<\/p>\n

El Paso City Council unanimously approved changes to the city code Tuesday, Sept. 3, that include short-term rentals under the city’s hotel occupancy tax rules and allow for the collection and remittance of the tax.<\/p>\n

The hotel occupancy tax itself is not new. Short-term rental platforms have already been collecting the state’s 6% hotel occupancy tax on qualifying stays. The change allows El Paso to move forward with collecting its local portion from short-term rentals.<\/p>\n

Hotel guests in El Paso currently pay a combined 17.5% in hotel occupancy taxes. That includes 6% for the state, 2.5% for El Paso County and 9% for the City of El Paso.<\/p>\n

The same local tax structure will now extend to short-term rentals, which the city defines as residential properties rented to guests for fewer than 30 consecutive days.<\/p>\n

City officials stressed the tax will be paid by the person booking the stay, not the short-term rental property owner.<\/p>\n

Heidi Seoenz, president of the El Paso Short-Term Rental Alliance, said some owners initially worried they would be responsible for an additional tax.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a new tax. It is just the collection of the tax now being remitted to the city and county,” Seoenz said.<\/p>\n

Seoenz said the alliance supports having short-term rental platforms collect the taxes directly from guests, saying it removes the responsibility from individual property owners to collect and remit the money themselves.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be the exact same thing,” Seoenz said, comparing the process to booking a hotel. “Airbnb and the rest of the platforms, they’re adding this tax, and they’re putting it for the guests to pay.”<\/p>\n

City Council initially approved moving forward with collecting hotel occupancy taxes from short-term rentals on June 9. The resolution authorized collections to begin no earlier than 90 days and no later than 180 days after its adoption.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s vote amended the city code to include short-term rentals within the definition of a hotel for tax purposes and allows the city to enter into agreements with short-term rental platforms for collection.<\/p>\n

City officials previously estimated that collecting the tax from short-term rentals could generate approximately $3.5 million annually.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014\u00a0The City of El Paso is moving closer to collecting its local hotel occupancy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4519,138,5872,140,139,147781],"class_list":["post-424989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-city-council","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-city-council","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-seoenz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}