Texas Short-Term Rental Laws: State and City Rules

Texas STR laws: the direct answer for your property

Texas does not provide one statewide operating answer for every short-term rental address. The genuinely statewide layer is tax: Texas imposes a 6% state hotel occupancy tax on qualifying short stays — generally sleeping accommodations charged at $15 or more per day and rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days — administered by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Whether you may operate a short-term rental (STR) at a specific property is decided closer to the ground: city zoning and land-use rules, local permit or registration programs, city and sometimes county hotel occupancy taxes, and the private documents attached to the property — HOA or condo rules, deed restrictions, a lease, mortgage covenants, and your insurance policy. A platform listing is not proof of legality, and a Comptroller tax account is not an operating license. The reliable answer starts from the exact address, and "do not list yet" is the correct result whenever any of the seven gates below comes back prohibited, conflicting, or unresolved.

The Texas STR Seven-Gate Check

Gate	The question it answers	What a passing result looks like
1. Jurisdiction	Which city limits, county, and any special district govern this exact address?	The governing authorities named and confirmed with official address and city-limit lookup tools — not a mailing address or a platform's city label.
2. Land use	Is STR use allowed for this address, zoning district, and property type?	An allowed or conditional result from the city's zoning or STR program source. "Unresolved" means stop.
3. Permit	Is a license, permit, or registration required before advertising or operating?	The program name, current fee, term, and any advertising display rule, recorded from the city's own application page.
4. Tax	Which state, city, and county hotel-tax registrations, reports, and payments remain yours?	State and local accounts mapped, platform collection scope confirmed channel by channel, and every residual filing duty on a calendar.
5. Private property	Do HOA or condo documents, deed restrictions, a lease, or a required owner consent prohibit or condition the use?	Written clearance in hand — or a full stop, because a city permit does not override a private prohibition.
6. Lender	Do mortgage or other loan terms restrict business or transient use of the property?	Written confirmation from the lender wherever the loan documents are unclear.
7. Insurance	Does the current policy actually cover STR use, the liability exposure, and the named insured?	Written confirmation from the insurer or a licensed agent — or corrected coverage bound before the first booking.

On this page

• Texas STR laws: the direct answer for your property
• The statewide layer: state hotel tax, local authority, private restrictions, and penalties
• Verify the exact address before you list
• Texas city short-term rental rules matrix
• What Texas STR compliance costs in year one
• Texas STR rules by city
• Which Texas situation are you in?
• How to read verification statuses and conflicting sources
• Platform tax collection does not finish the compliance job
• Choosing STR tools at a glance
• Frequently asked questions
• Stop, verify, or proceed
• Change log
• Sources and last verified date

Where to start

• If the property is inside the city limits of Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Arlington, Galveston, or Dallas — start with the city rules matrix, then read your city's own section for the fields the matrix cannot carry.
• If your city is Corpus Christi, South Padre Island, Fredericksburg, or New Braunfels — start with four more Texas markets, which names each city's governing department and links its official program page.
• If your city is not named anywhere on this page, you are not certain which city limits apply, or the property may be unincorporated — start with the address verification workflow.
• If any gate returns prohibited, conflicting, or unresolved — hold every listing, booking, and spending plan. The matrix statuses tell you which official office to ask.
• Now: gates one through seven, in order. Can wait: furnishing, photography, pricing tools, and management software — none of them changes a legality result, and money spent before the gates clear is at risk. Only in some cases: county tax overlays, condo-regime approvals, landlord consent for tenant-hosts, and lender review for recently financed properties.
• If an official source conflicts with itself, an injunction or preemption question affects your city, your HOA, deed, lease, or lender documents are ambiguous, or your coverage is unconfirmed — get a Texas-licensed real-estate attorney, a qualified tax professional, or a licensed insurance agent involved before you commit money.

Your first action

Enter or confirm the property's exact address in the governing city's and county's official jurisdiction and zoning lookup tools, and save the results — a PDF or screenshot with the date. Do this before you apply for anything, buy anything, or list anywhere. If you cannot tell which city's tools govern the address, that is the first question for the county and the likely city, in writing.

How this page works, its limits, and the terms it uses

The core asset below is a seven-city matrix and seven city sections built from official city program, permit, tax, and ordinance sources, each field carrying a status from the Rental Income HQ Verification Status Key. Every field was checked against its linked official source on August 9, 2026; the next scheduled check is September 9, 2026. For the national framework behind these layers — how state, local, private, platform, and tax rules interact anywhere in the U.S. — see short-term rental regulations explained. This page owns the Texas detail.

Rental Income HQ is an independent educational site for landlords and short-term rental hosts, and this page is researched and maintained by its editorial team against the sources listed at the end. It is not a law firm, tax practice, insurance agency, brokerage, or government office, and nothing here is individualized legal, tax, or insurance advice. Where a figure on this page conflicts with what the administering city, county, or state office tells you in writing, the official answer governs and this page is wrong — corrections and changed rules are logged with their dates in the change log, and the whole page is re-checked on the cadence above rather than only when someone complains.

The seven cities were chosen by population and listing volume — the state's largest metros plus Galveston, its highest-volume coastal STR market — not by how permissive their rules are; two of the seven are among the most restrictive in Texas. One field could not be closed from an official source in this review and is published as a gap rather than an estimate: Galveston's current city hotel occupancy tax rate. Two fields that were open in the previous review are now closed and are recorded in the change log. The page also publishes no revenue, occupancy, or rate figures at all, because eligibility comes before economics and those numbers belong to the income page rather than this one. The one cost model it does publish covers compliance cost only.

Six terms carry most of the weight on this page:

• Short-term rental — a residential unit rented for short stays. Each city defines the threshold in its own ordinance; sub-30-day is the common line, and both Texas hotel tax and every city program on this page use it.
• Hotel occupancy tax (HOT) — the lodging tax charged on the room consideration. Texas levies 6% at state level; cities and counties levy their own on top under separate chapters of the Tax Code.
• Platform collection agreement — an arrangement under which a booking marketplace collects and remits a specific tax layer for bookings made through that platform. It is channel-specific and layer-specific, and it never transfers the operator's registration or reporting duty by default.
• Blockface density — a cap expressed as a share of the dwelling units on one side of a street between intersections. San Antonio uses it to limit non-owner-occupied permits.
• Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) — the unincorporated area outside a city's limits over which the city has limited authority. Some city rules and taxes stop at the city limit and some extend into the ETJ; the two are different questions.
• Special exception — a discretionary approval from a city's board of adjustment allowing a use that the ordinance would otherwise cap or prohibit at that location.

The statewide layer: state hotel tax, local authority, private restrictions, and penalties

The state's most concrete statewide rule is the hotel occupancy tax. Texas imposes a 6% state hotel occupancy tax on qualifying short stays, and the Comptroller's hotel occupancy tax FAQ covers which properties and stays are included, how to register, and how platform collection agreements work. The state tax sits under Tax Code Chapter 156; a city's local tax sits under Chapter 351 and a county's under Chapter 352, which is why "the hotel tax" is never one number. Operators register with the Comptroller and report and pay on the cadence and due dates assigned to the account, described on the Comptroller's hotel occupancy tax pages along with the penalty framework for late filing.

There is one widely missed exception to that registration step, and it is the Comptroller's own. Under the Comptroller's Airbnb hotel occupancy tax FAQ, Airbnb has collected and remitted the state hotel occupancy tax on Texas bookings made through its site since May 1, 2017, and hosts cannot opt out of that collection. A host whose bookings run exclusively through a platform holding that kind of agreement is in a different position on the state layer than a host taking direct bookings. That exception is channel-specific and state-specific: it says nothing about city or county tax, and it ends the moment a second channel or a direct booking appears. Confirm your own registration obligation with the Comptroller for the channels you actually use rather than assuming either answer.

Be precise about what that state layer is not. A Comptroller hotel-tax account is a tax registration, not an operating license, and Texas has no statewide STR permit that substitutes for local approval. "Registered with the state" and "allowed to operate at this address" are different findings from different authorities. A hotel-tax account is a tax step — it is not evidence that an address is eligible for STR use.

It follows that "Texas is light on STR regulation" is the wrong frame. Texas regulation is decentralized, which is not the same as absent: the binding rules sit at the city level, and the seven starter cities below run the full range — from an annual registration with an advertising number, to district-by-district zoning prohibitions, to a program whose enforcement a court has paused. Two properties a few miles apart can face entirely different requirements because a city limit runs between them. That is why the question "is Airbnb legal in Texas?" has no honest one-word answer, and why every path on this page runs through the exact address.

Land-use permission, permits, operating rules, and local hotel taxes belong to cities and, in some respects, counties. Recent state legislation did not disturb that allocation, and it is worth being exact about what that legislation is. House Bill 2464 (89th Legislature, 2025) is a home-based-business bill — its caption is "relating to the authority of a municipality to regulate a home-based business" — and it limits how cities may regulate no-impact home-based businesses. It is not an STR statute, and its own text says so: the bill expressly does not restrict a municipality's authority to regulate short-term rental units, or a property owners' association's authority to enforce private deed and association agreements. Governor Abbott signed it on June 12, 2025, and because it passed both chambers by the required two-thirds vote it took effect immediately on that date rather than on the default September 1 — the Legislature's record of bills signed in the 89th regular session records it that way, and the Governor's office announced the signing the same day. In practical terms, the state tax layer sits alongside — not above — local ordinances and private contracts. Some bookings also carry county hotel-tax obligations administered separately from the city; San Antonio's tax pages, for example, distinguish city filings from separate Bexar County duties.

What noncompliance actually costs

Texas caps what a city can fine you, and the cap is set by statute rather than by each ordinance. Under Local Government Code § 54.001, a fine for violating a municipal ordinance may not exceed $500, except that a violation of an ordinance governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation may carry up to $2,000. Two things turn that ceiling into real money. Ordinances routinely make each day a separate offense — Fort Worth's STR article says so in terms — so an unregistered listing left up for a month is not one $500 exposure. And the fine is only the visible part: revocation, a waiting period before you can reapply, platform delisting, and back hotel tax with penalty and interest usually cost more than the citation. Where a city publishes its own schedule, it appears in that city's section below; where it does not, the statutory ceiling is the outer bound and the administering department is the place to ask.

The private layer is the one most often skipped. HOA and condominium declarations, deed restrictions, leases, and mortgage covenants are contracts, and a contract can prohibit or condition short-term renting even where the city allows it. No city permit overrides them. Tenant-hosts need the landlord's written permission; recently financed owners should read the deed of trust and loan covenants for transient-use or business-use restrictions and get written lender confirmation where the language is unclear.

Insurance is a gate of the same kind. The Texas Department of Insurance's home-sharing guidance explains that a standard homeowners or landlord policy may not fit short-term rental use: coverage may be excluded or limited, or the use may require different underwriting or an endorsement. No policy is automatically "void" because a property is rented — but you should not assume anything either way. Confirm, in writing, with your insurer or a licensed agent that the actual use, the liability exposure, and the named insured are covered, and do not treat a platform's host-protection program as a substitute for that confirmation. Two of the seven cities below make this concrete: Arlington requires a certificate showing $1 million per-occurrence liability coverage from a Texas-licensed carrier before it will issue a permit.

Verify the exact address before you list

The workflow below is ordered so that a failed step stops spending before it starts. Work it with official sources only — a search snippet, a forum answer, or a third-party guide is not a legality source — and save what you find as you go. Each step names the record to keep, because the folder is the deliverable.

1. Confirm the jurisdiction. Establish the property's exact address, municipal limits, county, and any special district using official lookup tools. Keep: dated screenshots or PDFs of the official address, city-limit, and county results. Stop if you cannot confirm which city, if any, governs the address — ask the county and the likely city in writing before going further.
2. Identify zoning and property type. Use the governing city's official planning or zoning source to identify the district and whether transient or STR use is allowed for your property type. Keep: the district, the code section or written answer, and who provided it. Stop if the district prohibits the use or the answer is unclear — a written answer from the planning or zoning department resolves it; an assumption does not.
3. Open the current STR program. Read the city's current STR program page, code, and application. Record the program name, whether approval is required before advertising or operating, the current fee, the term, and any rule requiring a permit or registration number in advertising. Keep: the application, approval, permit number, term, and advertising rule. Stop if the official pages conflict with each other — treat the field as unresolved and contact the administering department.
4. Map every tax layer. Register for state hotel occupancy tax with the Comptroller as required, then map city and any county hotel-tax registrations. For each booking channel, record what the platform collects, for which layer, and what reporting and payment remain yours. Keep: the Comptroller registration and assigned filing schedule, each local account and due date, and each platform's written statement of what it collects. Stop if you cannot tell who files what — that question goes to the tax office or a qualified tax professional before the first booking, not after.
5. Clear the private, lender, and insurance gates. Read the HOA or condo documents, deed restrictions, and lease; obtain written landlord, association, or lender confirmation where required or unclear; and get written insurer or agent confirmation that the actual use is covered. Keep: the declarations, every written approval, the lender's written answer, and the policy or endorsement naming the actual use and insured. Stop if any document prohibits the use — a city permit will not override it.
6. Build the maintenance file. Create a renewal and filing calendar covering permit terms, tax due dates, inspection cycles, and insurance renewals, and save every official page you relied on as a dated PDF or screenshot with its URL and a re-check date. Keep: the calendar and the source archive. Stop if you find yourself relying on a page you cannot re-locate — the file is what protects you when a rule changes.

The output of this workflow is not a feeling of confidence; it is a folder of dated official answers. That folder is what a code officer, a tax office, an association board, or an insurer will ask about — and it is what tells you, six months from now, whether a rule you relied on has changed.

If you are already listed and a gate is not cleared

Plenty of people arrive here mid-operation, having found the permit or tax rule after the first booking rather than before it. The sequence does not change, but the order of urgency does. Work gates one through four now rather than after a complaint, because most Texas enforcement is complaint-driven and the exposure compounds daily. Do not treat existing bookings, a live listing, or years of quiet operation as evidence of permission — Arlington's own rules state plainly that STRs operating before its ordinance took effect were not grandfathered. Contact the administering department and the tax office in writing, ask what a property in your position should do, and keep the answer.

Where hotel tax has gone unpaid, registering and filing is generally cheaper than being found, because penalty and interest accrue on the unpaid tax either way. Before you self-report unfiled periods, though, talk to a qualified tax professional about how far back the exposure runs and about any voluntary-disclosure treatment available for your situation — particularly in a city like Fort Worth, where failing to collect, report, or remit the city hotel tax is written into the ordinance as a misdemeanor rather than a civil matter. Get the HOA, lease, lender, and insurance positions confirmed before the next stay, since an uninsured claim during an unpermitted operation is the worst version of this problem. And if you have already received a citation, a notice of violation, or an order of revocation, talk to a Texas-licensed attorney before you respond — several of the cities below run short appeal windows measured in days.

Texas city short-term rental rules matrix

City rules matrix checked against linked official city sources on August 9, 2026.

All fields below were checked against the linked official city sources on August 9, 2026. These seven cities are a starter set, not a directory of everywhere STRs are regulated in Texas: if your city is absent, check four more Texas markets, then run the verification workflow and read if your city is not in the table — absence here says nothing about your city's rules.

Every fee states its unit basis and its as-of date. Where an official current figure could not be located, the cell says so and the row carries the gap in its status — a missing value is never published as zero, and a blank or "confirm with the city" cell never means "no rule." The matrix runs as two tables so that each one stays readable on a phone; the same seven cities appear in the same order in both. Each city's section below carries the operating rules, penalty detail, processing times, and the questions to ask before you pay.

Table 1 — Eligibility, program, and cost

City	Can you operate, and where	Program, fee, and term	Verification status
Austin	Accessory use in all residential zoning districts with a valid operating license; per-operator limits apply by site type.	Operating license, Development Services. $836.30 per new license; $385.30 per renewal. Two years per the City's October 2025 change statement, though other City pages still describe licensing as annual.	Verified with limitation — City pages describe the term two ways.
San Antonio	Permit required inside city limits. Type 1 (owner- or operator-occupied primary residence) has no density limit; Type 2 (non-owner-occupied) is density-limited.	Permit, Development Services. Type 1 $300 per permit; Type 2 $450 per permit, charged again at renewal. Three years; nontransferable; one permit per unit.	Verified.
Houston	Registration required inside city limits under the ordinance adopted in 2025; compliance was required from January 1, 2026.	Certificate of registration; $275 per property per year. Confirm any administrative add-on at application. Certificates issued on or before December 31, 2026 expire December 31, 2027.	Verified.
Fort Worth	Allowed only where the Zoning Ordinance permits — mixed-use, commercial, and form-based districts; the Zoning Ordinance does not allow transient use in residential districts.	Registration under City Code ch. 7, art. XIII. $150 per new registration; $100 per renewal. Expires the last day of the month one year after issuance; nontransferable.	Verified.
Arlington	Allowed only in RM-12, RMF-22, all non-residential and mixed-use districts, and the designated STR Zone near the entertainment hub; the structure must be residential.	STR permit, Planning and Development Services. $500 non-refundable at application and at each renewal. One year; one permit per address; owner- and location-specific.	Verified.
Galveston	Allowed with annual registration; the City took over administration from the Park Board effective October 1, 2025.	Annual registration; $250 per year per property. Renewals open December 1 and are due December 31. Each unit receives a GVR number that must appear in all advertising.	Verified.
Dallas	Unresolved — the City states that enforcement of its two 2023 STR ordinances (zoning and registration) is temporarily enjoined; property, noise, and nuisance ordinances continue to be enforced.	No permit fee is published here while the injunction status is unresolved. Hotel-tax registration is free.	Verified with limitation — court status open.

Table 2 — Limits, tax, and exposure

City	Occupancy and density limits	Local hotel tax and platform scope	Penalty exposure	Verification status
Austin	No citywide guest-count cap published on the STR program page. Per-operator limits: up to two units per single-family site, others 1,000 ft apart; 25% on qualifying mixed-use sites; 10% on multi-family.	City rate 11% (9% occupancy plus 2% venue project), 17% with state tax. Platforms must collect and remit; the operator still files quarterly, including zero reports.	No STR fine schedule published on the program page; statewide ceiling applies. Unlicensed advertising is prohibited by ordinance.	Verified with limitation — no published guest-count cap located.
San Antonio	Type 2 capped at 12.5% of units on a block face, and 12.5% of units in a multi-family building; a Board of Adjustment special exception is required at or above the cap. No STR-specific guest-count cap located.	City 9.00% and Bexar County 1.75%, plus the 6% state tax — 16.75% combined. Monthly operator reporting is required even where a platform remits. Outside city limits: county tax only, no city permit.	Late tax carries 5% penalty in the second month and a further 5% in the third, minimum $5 each, plus 10% annual interest.	Verified with limitation — no published guest-count cap located.
Houston	No citywide guest-count cap published on the registration page. Advertising the property as an event space is prohibited.	Comptroller states the Houston stack as 7% city, 2% Harris County, and 2% Harris County–Houston Sports Authority, plus 6% state — 17% combined. Airbnb-only listings need no HOT proof; any other channel does.	Operating without a certificate carries a fine of $100–$500 for each day of the violation, and the City may revoke for non-compliance or excessive nuisance violations.	Verified with limitation — filing cadence not published on the registration page.
Fort Worth	Two persons per bedroom plus two, maximum 12 regardless of bedroom count, one group at a time; vehicles limited to available off-street spaces.	City rate 9%, 15% with state tax; report and pay monthly by the 25th, including zero-activity months.	Each day is a separate offense; up to $500, or up to $2,000 for offenses governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation. Revocation after a citation, with a one-year wait.	Verified.
Arlington	Two persons per bedroom plus two, capped at 12 regardless of size, set at permit review. No cap on the number of permits citywide.	City rate 9%, 15% with state tax, registered and filed by the operator. No platform holds a collection agreement with Arlington, so platform state-tax collection does not cover the city tax.	Revocation after more than two citations in 12 months, an uncured condition, or a false statement; order effective three days after mailing, with ten days to appeal.	Verified with limitation — filing cadence not published on the treasury page.
Galveston	Occupancy, parking, and noise rules must be posted for guests; no citywide guest-count cap verified in this review.	City hotel tax applies; the City states that at this time only Airbnb, Vrbo, and some management companies collect and remit it. Current city rate not verified from an official source in this review.	Three verified violations in 12 months can send the license to the STR Licensing Board for a revocation recommendation. Missing the December 31 renewal sends the invalid GVR number to the platforms and the listing is removed.	Partial — program, fee, and enforcement verified; current city tax rate Blocked.
Dallas	The enjoined ordinances would set limits; nothing citywide is currently enforceable beyond general property and nuisance codes.	The Controller's current hotel tax page states 9% of net room revenue; older Controller documents state 7%. Published as a conflict. Monthly filing by the 15th; the City states it has no platform collection agreement.	Nuisance, noise, and property codes remain enforceable against STR properties under the statewide fine ceiling.	Verified with limitation — court status and tax-rate conflict both open.

What Texas STR compliance costs in year one

This is a compliance-cost model, not a pro forma. It covers only what a city and the state require you to pay to operate legally: the permit or registration, the recurring lodging tax expressed as a rate on gross room revenue, and any other cost the ordinance itself mandates. It deliberately excludes furnishing, utilities, cleaning, supplies, management, software, maintenance, reserves, owner time, debt service, and every revenue figure — those belong to how much Airbnb hosts make, not here. Insurance appears as a line but not as a number, because a premium depends on the property, the coverage, and the carrier, and a quote is the only honest source for it.

City	Year-one permit or registration	Renewal cost and cycle	Combined lodging tax on gross room revenue	Other cost the ordinance requires
Austin	$836.30 (a $789 license fee plus a $47.30 notification fee), non-refundable	$385.30 ($338 plus the $47.30 notification fee), two-year cycle per the City's October 2025 statement	17% — 6% state, 9% city occupancy, 2% city venue project	Neighbor notification at issuance and renewal is included in the fee above; no certificate of occupancy or insurance proof required since October 2025
San Antonio	$300 Type 1 or $450 Type 2, non-refundable if not approved	Same amount at each renewal, three-year cycle	16.75% — 6% state, 9.00% city, 1.75% Bexar County	Floor plan and off-street parking documentation; hotel tax must be current before a renewal will process
Houston	$275 per property; confirm any administrative add-on at application	$275 per property per year	17% — 6% state, 7% city, 2% Harris County, 2% Harris County–Houston Sports Authority	Proof of completion of a human trafficking awareness training course; owner authorization or a current valid lease
Fort Worth	$150	$100, one-year cycle	15% — 6% state, 9% city	None published beyond the registration; occupancy and posting requirements carry no separate fee
Arlington	$500, non-refundable, not reviewed until paid	$500 at each renewal, one-year cycle	15% — 6% state, 9% city	A passed premises inspection, and a certificate evidencing $1 million per-occurrence liability coverage from a Texas-licensed carrier — premium quote required, not published
Galveston	$250 per property	$250 per year; renewals open December 1 and close December 31	6% state plus a city rate not verified from an official source in this review	Posted guest information and a 24/7 local contact; no separate fee published
Dallas	No permit fee published while enforcement of the registration ordinance is enjoined; hotel-tax registration is free	Not applicable while the injunction stands	6% state plus a city rate the Controller's own documents give as either 9% or 7% — see the conflict below	None currently enforceable beyond general property and nuisance codes

The spread on the fixed line, across the six cities that publish a fee:

Lowest	Middle of the range	Highest
Fort Worth, $150 for the first year	Houston at $275 and San Antonio Type 1 at $300	Austin, $836.30 for the first year

Which line drives the gap depends entirely on how much the property books, and the arithmetic is worth doing before you choose a market. The permit spread between the cheapest of these cities and the most expensive — Fort Worth at $150 and Austin at $836.30 — is $686.30 in year one. The lodging-tax spread is two percentage points — 15% in Fort Worth and Arlington against 17% in Austin and Houston. Divide the first number by the second and you get the crossover: $686.30 ÷ 0.02 = $34,315. Below roughly that much annual gross room revenue, the permit is the bigger line and the tax rate is a rounding error. Above it, the tax rate dominates and keeps growing while the permit stays flat. That is why a permit fee is a bad reason to pick a city and a tax rate is a defensible one. Arlington charges more than three times Fort Worth's permit fee and sits in the same 15% tax band, so the gap between those two narrows in relative terms as bookings grow; Austin and Houston sit two points higher, so their gap against Fort Worth widens without limit.

Three cautions on using this table. The tax rate is charged to the guest, but you are the one who collects, reports, and remits it, and a missed filing is your penalty rather than theirs — so treat the rate as an operating obligation, not a pass-through you can ignore. The Galveston and Dallas rows are deliberately incomplete because their city rates are, respectively, unverified and internally conflicting on the City's own documents; do not fill those cells with a number from a third-party guide. And every figure here has an as-of date of August 9, 2026, on a page whose city fee schedules move at least annually — re-check the two cells that matter to you before you build a budget on them.

Texas STR rules by city

Each section carries what the matrix cannot: the operating rules, the penalty and revocation mechanics, how long the paperwork takes, what the permit does not cover, and the specific questions to put to that city in writing before you pay a non-refundable fee. The same ten fields appear in the same order for every city, and where a field could not be closed from an official source it says so rather than going quiet.

Austin short-term rental rules

Can you operate. In February 2025 the Austin City Council made STRs an accessory use to all residential uses in all zoning districts, provided the property holds a valid operating license, per Austin Development Services. Jurisdiction still decides a great deal: properties in Austin's limited-purpose jurisdiction need a license but are not subject to city hotel occupancy tax, and properties in the extraterritorial jurisdiction need neither a license nor city HOT. Check the property against the City's jurisdiction map before anything else.

Program, fee, and term. A new operating license is $836.30, comprising a $789 license fee and a $47.30 notification fee; renewals are $385.30, comprising $338 and the same $47.30 notification fee. All fees are non-refundable whether or not the application succeeds. The license is non-transferable, so a sale means a new application at the new-license price. On the term, take the City's own change statement as the current rule: among the changes that took effect in October 2025, Development Services states that all licenses are now valid for two years instead of one. Read that alongside a live inconsistency on the City's own pages, because it affects how you diary the date — the general description on the STR page and the City's separate operating-licensing page both still say STRs are licensed annually. The two-year statement is the more specific and more recent one and is published here as the term; the annual language appears to be unrevised boilerplate rather than a competing rule. Confirm the exact expiry date shown on your own license rather than counting forward from issuance.

Who may operate, and how many. Since October 2025, tenants may operate with the landlord's permission, and a certificate of occupancy and proof of insurance are no longer required at application or renewal. Per-operator limits replaced the older approach: an individual may operate up to two STR units on a single-family site and additional units elsewhere provided they are at least 1,000 feet apart; on mixed-use sites with four or more residential units and at least one commercial use, the greater of one unit or 25% of their units; on multi-family residential sites, the greater of one unit or 10%.

Occupancy, density, and parking. No citywide guest-count cap is published on the City's STR program page, and none is published here; the per-operator and spacing limits above are the density controls. No STR-specific parking requirement was located on the program page in this review.

Local contact and advertising. Austin's STR rules sit in two places in the City Code — the licensing and operating provisions in chapter 4-23, and the land-use provisions in chapter 25-2 — and the operating detail is worth reading before you write your house rules. Under § 4-23-33, a local contact must live in the Austin metro area — Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, or Caldwell County — and be able to respond within two hours of notice of an emergency at any hour. Neighbors within 100 feet are notified at issuance and again at every renewal, at the licensee's expense. Section 4-23-34 prohibits sound equipment above 75 decibels at the property line between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., any sound equipment audible beyond the property line between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m., and advertising or promoting an unlicensed dwelling as a short-term rental at all. Since July 1, 2026, platforms must carry a license display field and remove unlicensed listings when the City asks.

Insurance and inspection. Since October 2025 the City no longer requires proof of insurance or a certificate of occupancy at application or renewal, and no routine inspection requirement is published on the program page. That is a change in what the City checks, not a change in what your insurer will cover — gate 7 still applies in full.

Tax and filing cadence. The City's hotel and rental tax page states a combined city rate of 11 percent — a 9 percent occupancy tax plus a 2 percent venue project tax, with a required receipt disclosure for the venue portion. Platforms have been required to collect and remit city HOT on operators' behalf since April 1, 2025, but the operator still files a quarterly report showing what each platform collected, and a zero report is required for quarters with no bookings. Revenue from non-platform channels is collected and remitted by the operator directly.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. The City's program page routes enforcement through 3-1-1 and its Code Compliance team but does not publish an STR fine schedule; Texas caps municipal ordinance fines at $500, or $2,000 for ordinances governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation, under Local Government Code § 54.001, so that is the outer bound here. The Code Compliance fee schedule carries a separate non-compliance fee for operating without a license. No STR-specific revocation or appeal procedure was located on the program page in this review.

Processing time. New licenses run six to eight weeks for single-family and eight to ten for multi-family, and renewals four to six and six to eight. Renewals may be filed 60 days before expiry, and a license expired less than 30 days may qualify for an extension rather than a new application.

What the permit does not cover. The license speaks only to the City's own requirements. It does not clear an HOA or condominium declaration, a deed restriction, a lease, a lender covenant, or an insurance policy, and it does not transfer with the property when you sell.

Confirm in writing before you pay. The exact expiry date the City will put on your license, given the two-year and annual statements on its own pages. Whether your address sits in the full-purpose, limited-purpose, or extraterritorial jurisdiction, since that decides both the license and the tax. Whether the per-operator limit for your site type leaves room for the unit you intend to license, given anything you already operate.

San Antonio short-term rental rules

Can you operate. A permit is required for any STR inside the city limits, and the permit type turns on occupancy. Development Services issues Type 1 permits where the owner or operator lives on the property as a primary residence, and Type 2 permits where they do not. Type 1 carries no density limit. Type 2 is density-limited, and the City's current short-term rental ordinance sets out the arithmetic: in single-family residential, 12.5% of the dwelling units on a block face — one side of a street between intersections; in a multi-family building of five to seven units, exactly one Type 2 unit; in a building of eight or more units, 12.5% of the units. The Unified Development Code was amended effective January 1, 2023 to require rounding down, so 14 units on a block face yields one permitted Type 2 rather than two. At or above the cap, a special exception from the Board of Adjustment is required before a Type 2 permit can issue. The ordinance applies only inside the city limits: a property elsewhere in Bexar County needs no city permit but still needs a hotel-tax account and still owes county tax.

Program, fee, and term. Type 1 permits are $300 and Type 2 permits are $450, each valid for three years, non-transferable, one permit per unit. Application fees are non-refundable if the application is not approved, which makes the density check the step to complete before payment rather than after. Renewal is charged at the same amount as the original permit — Type 1 $300 and Type 2 $450 — under the fee schedule City Council approved on June 13, 2024 and applied from June 14, 2024, as the City's own permit renewal guide sets out at the payment step. If you have seen a $100 renewal figure quoted in a third-party guide, that was the pre-2024 fee and it is superseded. Two renewal conditions are worth diarising now rather than discovering at expiry: you cannot renew if the property owner, the designated operator, or the permit type has changed — that requires a new application — and a renewal will be denied if your hotel occupancy taxes are not current or covered by a payment plan with Finance.

Occupancy, density, and parking. No STR-specific guest-count cap was located on the City's permit pages in this review, and none is published here — ask Development Services what maximum occupancy applies to your unit and on what basis before you advertise a sleeping capacity. The density controls are the Type 2 block-face and building caps above. The application and every renewal require a floor plan and documentation of the location of the off-street parking spaces.

Local contact and advertising. The permit record carries a 24-hour contact, which the renewal process asks you to confirm or update. No advertising display rule requiring the permit number in listings was located on the City's permit pages in this review; if you are relying on one either way, get the answer from Development Services in writing.

Insurance and inspection. No insurance requirement and no routine inspection requirement were located on the City's permit pages in this review. The documentation the City does require is the floor plan, the off-street parking locations, and — for a tenant applicant — proof of permission to operate.

Tax and filing cadence. The City's short-term rental hotel occupancy tax pages run city and county collection together: the City collects 9.00% for itself and 1.75% for Bexar County, on top of the 6% state tax. Reporting is monthly, and the City's STR tax guidance is explicit that all operators file a monthly report regardless of whether a platform remits directly. Late tax accrues a 5% penalty beginning the first day of the second month after the reporting period and another 5% at the third month, never less than $5 per penalty, with interest at 10% a year — the City's from the second month, the County's from the third.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. The City's permit pages do not publish an STR fine schedule, so the Local Government Code § 54.001 ceiling — $500, or $2,000 for ordinances governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation — is the outer bound, and Development Services is the place to ask. The penalties the City does publish are the tax ones set out above, and they are the ones most operators actually meet. No STR-specific revocation or appeal timetable was located on the permit pages in this review.

Processing time. No processing window was located on the City's permit pages in this review; treat the permit as a lead-time item, and treat the Board of Adjustment route as a much longer one if your block face is at its cap. The City's system does send renewal reminders three months and one month before expiry, so the renewal clock is the one part of the timeline you can rely on.

What the permit does not cover. The permit attaches to the unit rather than the owner's portfolio, so a second unit on the same lot needs its own permit and its own fee. Accessory dwelling units carry their own rules under the current ordinance, and the answer turns on who lives on the property. Nothing in the permit reaches a deed restriction, an association declaration, a lease, a lender covenant, or an insurance policy.

Confirm in writing before you pay. What the current density position is on your block face, and whether a Type 2 permit can issue there today. Whether an accessory dwelling unit on your lot qualifies, and under which permit type, given who lives on the property. Whether your hotel occupancy tax account is current, before you file a renewal that would otherwise be denied.

Houston short-term rental rules

Can you operate. Houston adopted its first comprehensive STR ordinance in 2025 and requires a certificate of registration for any STR inside the city limits. Compliance was required from January 1, 2026. Houston does not run conventional zoning, so the gating question is registration and the private layer rather than a district lookup — and in Houston the private layer does real work, because recorded deed restrictions are widespread and enforceable independently of the City.

Program, fee, and term. The City's registration page runs the process through an online portal, and the program announcement states an annual registration fee of $275 per rental property; confirm any administrative add-on at the time of application. Registration is annual, and the City states that all certificates issued on or before December 31, 2026 expire December 31, 2027. Applications require a 24-hour emergency contact, property-owner authorization or a current valid lease, proof of completion of a human trafficking awareness training course, and the listing links for the property.

Occupancy, density, and parking. No citywide guest-count cap, permit cap, or STR parking requirement is published on the City's registration page, and none is published here. Advertising the property as an event space is prohibited.

Local contact and advertising. A 24-hour emergency contact is required at application. Hosts must give the City-issued registration number to each listing platform once registration completes. On January 1, 2027, the City will begin notifying platforms to remove listings that lack a certificate of registration. Complaints route through a 24-hour hotline to the responsible City department — noise to the police department, trash to solid waste management, building and fire issues to their departments.

Insurance and inspection. No insurance requirement and no routine inspection requirement are published on the City's registration page. The human trafficking awareness training certificate is the one training or documentation condition the City does impose.

Tax and filing cadence. The registration itself carries a tax condition worth reading closely: listings only on Airbnb do not require proof of hotel occupancy tax, while any listing in addition to or outside Airbnb requires either proof of HOT remittance or registration on a HOT remittance platform. That is a channel test, not a blanket exemption — adding a second channel changes what you must show. For the rate stack, the Comptroller's FAQ gives Houston as its worked example: 6% state, 7% city, 2% Harris County, and 2% Harris County–Houston Sports Authority. The filing cadence and due dates for the city and county layers are not published on the registration page; get them from the administering tax office in writing before your first return is due.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. Operating without a certificate of registration carries a fine of between $100 and $500 for each day of the violation, and the City may revoke a certificate for non-compliance with City code or excessive nuisance violations. No appeal window for a revocation is published on the registration page; ask the administering department what it is before you need it.

Processing time. The City currently reports longer processing times because of application volume and publishes no processing window, so treat the certificate as a lead-time item rather than a same-week formality.

What the permit does not cover. In Houston more than anywhere else on this page, a certificate of registration is not a land-use clearance. Recorded deed restrictions govern large parts of the city and are enforced by neighbors and civic associations rather than by the City; the certificate does not touch them, nor an HOA declaration, a lease, a lender covenant, or an insurance policy.

Confirm in writing before you pay. Whether your intended channel mix triggers the hotel-tax proof requirement. What your certificate's expiration date will be, given the December 31, 2027 statement. What the City's current administrative fee is on top of the $275, and what the filing cadence is for each tax layer, so your first-year budget and calendar are both right.

Fort Worth short-term rental rules

Can you operate. Fort Worth is the clearest prohibition case among the seven. The short-term rental registration ordinance (No. 26005-02-2023, adopted February 14, 2023, now City Code chapter 7, article XIII) records that the City's Zoning Ordinance does not allow residentially zoned property to be used for transient stays of less than 30 days. Registration is available only where the Zoning Ordinance already permits the use — in practice the mixed-use, commercial, and form-based districts — so the zoning check is not a formality, it is the whole question. Ordinance § 7-454 makes it unlawful to rent, lease, or even advertise an unregistered STR.

Program, fee, and term. A registration is $150 and an annual renewal is $100, paid when each application is filed. Registration expires on the last day of the month one year after issuance, may be renewed from 30 days before expiry, and is non-transferable; a renewal filed after expiry is treated as a new application. Incomplete applications are not accepted.

Occupancy, density, and parking. The ordinance caps occupancy at two persons per bedroom plus two additional persons, with an absolute maximum of 12 persons regardless of bedroom count, and allows only one group at a time; a city employee's visual observation of more than 12 people is prima facie evidence and probable cause for a citation. Vehicles are limited to the available off-street spaces. The minimum stay is one night. Special events — receptions, weddings, reunions, bachelor or bachelorette parties, concerts and the like — are prohibited, as is advertising them. No cap on the number of registrations the City will issue is published.

Local contact and advertising. A copy of the registration must be posted inside the front entrance, the assigned registration number must appear in every advertisement, and a local responsible party must be reachable at all times while occupants are present and able to be at the property within one hour of a call.

Insurance and inspection. No insurance requirement and no routine inspection requirement were located in the ordinance or on the City's STR page in this review.

Tax and filing cadence. Ordinance § 7-460 requires the operator to collect the city hotel occupancy tax imposed by Code § 32-17, remit it by the due date, and file the reports required by §§ 32-18 and 32-19; failing to collect, report, or remit, or filing a false report, is a misdemeanor. The City's short-term rental page states a 9% city rate with monthly reporting due by the 25th, including zero reports for months with no activity.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. Section 7-473 makes each day a violation exists a separate offense, punishable by a fine up to $500, or up to $2,000 where the offense governs fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation and a culpable mental state is alleged — the ceilings Local Government Code § 54.001 sets for any Texas municipal ordinance. Registration may be revoked for a single citation within the preceding 12 months, a knowingly false statement, failure to report a material change, or failure to comply with the hotel occupancy tax chapter. Revocation takes effect on personal service or three days after mailing, the holder has ten days to appeal to the City Manager or a designee, and if the appeal fails no new registration may issue for that property for one year.

Processing time. No processing window was located in the ordinance or on the City's STR page in this review.

What the permit does not cover. Registration does not create zoning eligibility — it is available only where the Zoning Ordinance already permits the use, and no registration cures a prohibited district. It also does not reach deed restrictions, an association declaration, a lease, a lender covenant, or an insurance policy.

Confirm in writing before you pay. Whether your address's zoning district permits the use at all, since no registration cures a prohibited district. What your occupancy number will be on the registration, since exceeding the number shown on the permit is itself a violation. Whether any open citation against the property would block registration or trigger the one-year bar.

Arlington short-term rental rules

Can you operate. Arlington's answer is geographic and unusually strict. Under Ordinance No. 19-014, adopted April 23, 2019 and effective August 1, 2019, an STR is an allowed land use in the RM-12 and RMF-22 zoning districts, all non-residential and mixed-use districts, and the specially designated STR Zone — a contiguous area extending about a mile from the entertainment hub, bounded by East Lamar Boulevard on the north, Center Street on the west, East Abram Street on the south, and the southbound State Highway 360 frontage road on the east. Every parcel inside the STR Zone is eligible regardless of its zoning. A planned development district qualifies only if the ordinance that created it allows a housing density of 12 units per acre or more. The structure must be residential; a new residential structure cannot be built in a non-residential district for the purpose of running an STR. Do not take the boundary description on trust for a property near its edge: the City publishes the STR Zone as a map layer on its open data portal, and its short-term rental FAQ directs applicants to check the zoning for an intended STR location at the City's Maps Online tool. The FAQ also disposes of two common assumptions: the ordinances draw no distinction between owner-occupied and investor-owned STRs, and rentals operating before August 1, 2019 were not grandfathered.

Program, fee, and term. The permit fee is $500, non-refundable, paid when the application is submitted and again at every renewal — the application is not reviewed until the fee is paid. Permits run one year, are limited to one per address, and are both owner-specific and location-specific: selling the house or moving the operation means a new permit, and attempting to transfer or use another person's permit is grounds for revocation. There is no cap on how many permits the City will issue in any neighborhood or census tract. The City's short-term rental process page carries the current application route.

Occupancy, density, and parking. Maximum occupancy is set during permit review at two persons per bedroom plus two, capped at 12 regardless of the property's size — a three-bedroom is eight. The number of approved parking spaces is recorded on the permit and forms part of the public permit record.

Local contact and advertising. Host rules must be posted and must carry the local responsible party's contact information and the City's parking, noise, curfew, and trash regulations along with the penalties for violating them. No rule requiring the permit number to appear in advertising was located in the City's FAQ in this review.

Insurance and inspection. A premises inspection is required and covers smoke detectors, exits, a fire extinguisher, hazards such as exposed wiring or unapproved breaker modifications, and posted host rules. Liability coverage of $1 million per occurrence from a carrier licensed in Texas must be evidenced by a certificate at application — a hosting platform's coverage counts if it meets those terms, but screenshots and promotional material do not — and a lapse may cost the permit. An apartment may be used as an STR only with documented landlord consent.

Tax and filing cadence. Arlington is the sharpest illustration on this page of why platform collection is not the end of the tax question. The City's FAQ states that some platforms have contracts with the State of Texas to collect and remit the state tax, but that none of them has a contract with the City of Arlington — so registering with the City and filing reports for its 9 percent hotel occupancy tax is the operator's job. The treasury hotel occupancy tax page carries the registration and filing detail; the filing cadence and due dates were not published there in this review, so confirm them with Treasury when you register.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. A permit may be revoked where the holder receives more than two citations under the STR ordinances or any other City ordinance within a 12-month period, fails to comply with an express permit condition and remains non-compliant ten days after written notice, knowingly makes a false statement in the application, or otherwise becomes disqualified. An order of revocation takes effect three days after mailing, and the appeal must be filed within ten days; a hearing officer may sustain, modify, or rescind it. Ordinance fines sit under the Local Government Code § 54.001 ceilings of $500, or $2,000 for ordinances governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation.

Processing time. No processing window is published, but a premises inspection has to be scheduled and passed before a permit issues, so treat the inspection date as the real constraint on your start date.

What the permit does not cover. The City's FAQ is explicit that it will neither examine your association's covenants during permit review nor enforce them afterward. A permit therefore says nothing about your HOA or condominium declaration, deed restrictions, lease, lender covenants, or the adequacy of your policy beyond the certificate the City requires.

Confirm in writing before you pay. Whether the address is inside the STR Zone or an eligible district before you pay a non-refundable $500 — the City's planner will verify a determination you disagree with. What maximum occupancy the City will assign to your floor plan. Whether your insurer will issue a certificate in the form and limits the City requires, and on what renewal cycle.

Galveston short-term rental rules

Can you operate. Galveston allows short-term rentals with annual registration, and the administrative structure changed recently: responsibility for STR registration and hotel occupancy tax moved from the Park Board of Trustees to the City effective October 1, 2025, so older portal instructions and Park Board guidance are superseded. The City's ordinances, authorization and penalties page carries the registration authority and enforcement framework.

Program, fee, and term. Registration is $250 per property per year. Renewals for the coming calendar year open December 1 and are due by December 31, per the City's STR FAQ, and the fee funds tax administration, compliance monitoring, and a 24-hour STR complaint call center. Each registered unit is assigned a Galveston Vacation Rental (GVR) number that must appear in all advertising, including third-party listing pages.

Occupancy, density, and parking. Occupancy, parking, and noise rules must be posted for guests, but no citywide guest-count cap, permit cap, or parking minimum was verified from an official City source in this review.

Local contact and advertising. A designated local contact must be available 24 hours a day, and the response standard tightened in late 2025. Under the updated regulations the City Council adopted on November 13, 2025, the local contact must respond to a complaint within one hour and resolve the issue within two hours, and failing either window may itself count as a violation against the registration. Guests must be given posted information covering occupancy, parking, and noise rules along with local contact and emergency information. The City monitors listings against its registration database and asks platforms to remove listings without a valid GVR number.

Insurance and inspection. No insurance requirement and no routine inspection requirement were located on the City's STR pages in this review.

Tax and filing cadence. The city hotel occupancy tax applies and is now administered by the City. The FAQ states that at this time only Airbnb, Vrbo, and some property management companies collect and remit the local tax, and advises operators to verify with those platforms that the correct amount is being paid on their behalf — which means every other channel is the operator's to collect, report, and remit. The current city rate could not be verified from an official City source in this review, so no rate is published here; confirm it on the City's hotel occupancy tax page before you set pricing or file. Be careful where you take that number from in the meantime: Airbnb's own Galveston help page states a 9% local rate and directs remittance to the Park Board of Trustees — a body that no longer administers the tax — which is exactly why a platform figure is not treated as current here.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. The November 2025 changes added a graduated enforcement track. After three violations within a 12-month period, the City's Short-Term Rental Licensing Board may recommend revocation of the registration; that recommendation goes to the city manager for review and then to City Council for final action. Separately, the consequence of missing the renewal deadline is unusually direct and is calendar-driven rather than complaint-driven: the invalid GVR number and property address go to the listing platforms, the listing comes down, and getting it reinstated is the owner's problem, not the City's. Ordinance violations otherwise sit under the Local Government Code § 54.001 ceilings of $500, or $2,000 for ordinances governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation.

Processing time. No processing window was located on the City's STR pages in this review. The renewal window is the fixed date to plan around: December 1 to December 31, every year.

What the permit does not cover. Registration does not reach a deed restriction, a condominium or association declaration, a lease, a lender covenant, or an insurance policy — and it does not protect a listing from platform removal once a GVR number lapses.

Confirm in writing before you pay. The current city hotel occupancy tax rate and filing cadence under the post-October 2025 process. Which of your booking channels the City treats as collecting on your behalf, and what remains yours. What counts as a recorded violation under the three-strike process, and how an owner contests one before it reaches the Licensing Board.

Dallas short-term rental rules

Can you operate. Unresolved, and that is the honest answer rather than a hedge. The City of Dallas Code Compliance page states that a temporary injunction filed on December 6, 2023 prohibits enforcement of the City's two 2023 short-term rental ordinances — the zoning ordinance and the registration ordinance — and that in the meantime the City continues to enforce its existing ordinances on minimum property standards, noise, and nuisance. Dallas defines an STR as a full or partial rentable unit with one or more kitchens, bathrooms, or bedrooms rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days or one month, whichever is less.

Program, fee, and term. No permit fee is published here while the injunction status is unresolved, and no registration is currently being enforced. Hotel-tax registration with the City is free and is unaffected by the litigation.

Occupancy, density, and parking. The enjoined ordinances would set occupancy, parking, and density limits; none of them is currently enforceable, and nothing citywide applies beyond the general property and nuisance codes.

Local contact and advertising. No STR-specific local-contact requirement and no advertising-number rule are currently enforceable — those provisions sit inside the enjoined ordinances, which is exactly why the injunction being lifted would change your obligations rather than merely your risk.

Insurance and inspection. No STR-specific insurance or inspection requirement is currently enforceable.

Tax and filing cadence. The hotel occupancy tax obligation is fully active whatever the ordinances do. The Controller's Office hotel occupancy tax page states that every person owning, operating, managing, or controlling a hotel or short-term rental in Dallas must collect hotel occupancy tax at 9% of net room revenue, report it, and pay it, and that registration is free. Older Controller documents — including its short-term rental hotel tax summary and its hotel occupancy tax reporting guide, which cites City Code chapter 44, article V — state 7%. The conflict is published rather than resolved by inference; confirm the current rate with the Controller's Office before you set pricing or file a return. Reports and payment are due by the 15th of the month following collection, and Dallas states it has no platform collection agreement, so registration, filing, and payment are the operator's.

Penalties, revocation, and appeal. While enforcement of the two 2023 ordinances is enjoined, the rules that still bind a Dallas STR are the City's general ones: minimum property standards, noise, and nuisance, enforced as they are against any property, under the Local Government Code § 54.001 ceilings of $500, or $2,000 for ordinances governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation. Hotel-tax penalties are unaffected by the injunction. No STR-specific revocation or appeal process is currently in force.

Processing time. Not applicable while enforcement of the registration ordinance is enjoined.

What the permit does not cover. There is no current permit to cover anything. Deed restrictions, association declarations, leases, lender covenants, and insurance policies apply in full and are unaffected by the litigation.

What the litigation posture means for a decision. The injunction has held through appellate review, and the City has continued to pursue reinstatement — it petitioned the Texas Supreme Court in October 2025 to review the case, arguing that enforcement authority mattered ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as KERA News reported. No decision resolving the injunction was confirmed in this review, and this is the fastest-moving fact on the page — so check it yourself rather than relying on a status statement with an as-of date. The case is styled City of Dallas v. Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance, Sammy Aflalo, Vera Elkins, Danielle Lindsey, and Denise Lowry, on appeal from the 95th District Court of Dallas County and decided below by the Fifth Court of Appeals as No. 05-23-01309-CV. Search that style or that court of appeals number in the Texas Judicial Branch's Supreme Court case search to see the current docket entries. The practical consequence for an owner weighing a purchase or a conversion is that the current position is a court order, not a settled rule: if the injunction is lifted, the zoning and registration ordinances become enforceable, and a single-family-zoned property that operates today could face a very different requirement on short notice. Underwrite the property on what happens if the ordinances take effect, and check the City's page and the docket again on the day you commit.

Confirm in writing before you pay. Which city hotel occupancy tax rate applies to your bookings today, given the City's own conflicting statements. What the City's position is on registration while the registration ordinance's enforcement is enjoined. What would be required of your property, and on what notice, if the injunction were lifted.

Four more Texas markets, and where each one starts

The four cities below are among the state's higher-volume STR markets outside the seven above, and each one is named here with its governing department, one structural rule the city itself publishes, and a direct link to its official program page. This is routing, not a rules matrix: these entries carry less depth than the seven city sections, and none of them substitutes for the verification workflow. Treat each as the correct first phone call rather than as the answer.

City	Who governs it	One rule the city publishes	Official starting point
Corpus Christi	Development Services	Registration required for properly zoned STRs inside the city limits, split into Type 1 (owner- or operator-occupied) and Type 2; Type 2 is limited to 15% of the block face, awarded first come, first served — and STRs are not permitted in single-family zoning districts within the Padre/Mustang Island Area Development Plan. The permit fee shown on the City's page is dated; confirm the current amount before you apply.	Short-Term Rentals, City of Corpus Christi
South Padre Island	City of South Padre Island	Every STR on the island must be registered with the City, and the assigned permit number must appear in all advertising of the property; city and state hotel occupancy tax accounts are part of the same registration sequence.	Hotel Occupancy Tax and short-term rental registration steps, City of South Padre Island
Fredericksburg	Development Services, under Zoning Ordinance § 20.222	A permit is required for any dwelling rented for under 30 days inside the city limits — but the City states that STRs located in its extraterritorial jurisdiction are not required to obtain a permit, which makes the city-limit question decisive here. Inspections are required before a new permit issues, on transfer, on complaint, after modifications, and annually at renewal.	Short-Term Rentals, City of Fredericksburg and its permit FAQ
New Braunfels	City of New Braunfels, under Code § 144-5.17	A permit and an annual life-safety inspection from the Fire Marshal's Office are required for every STR unit inside the city limits, and the property must be permitted before the advertisement is posted. A special use permit is additionally required in all non-residential zoning districts except C-4, C-4A, and C-4B, STRs are not allowed in the floodway, occupancy is capped at two adults per sleeping area plus two, and one off-street parking space per sleeping area is required, not counting the garage.	Short Term Rentals, City of New Braunfels

Two of those four publish a rule that catches people out. Fredericksburg's ETJ exemption runs the opposite way to Austin's treatment of its own extraterritorial jurisdiction on tax, which is a useful reminder that "outside the city limits" has no fixed meaning in Texas — it is a question you answer city by city. And New Braunfels prohibits advertising before permitting, the same trap Fort Worth and Austin set, which means the listing itself can be the violation before a single guest arrives.

If your city is not in the table

Eleven cities are not Texas. The state has well over a thousand municipalities plus 254 counties, and this page does not claim to cover them — but the routing is the same everywhere, and four authorities decide the answer for any Texas address.

• The county appraisal district confirms the parcel and, through the parcel record, which municipality if any contains it. This is the step that catches a property with a city mailing address that sits outside the city limits, where a city permit may not apply but county tax may.
• The city's planning, development, or code department owns land use and any permit or registration program. Ask, in writing, whether STR use is allowed at your address, zoning district, and property type, and whether a permit or registration is required before advertising. Silence from a city is not permission.
• The city and county tax offices own the local hotel occupancy tax. Because Tax Code §§ 351.009 and 352.009 require every Texas city and county that levies a local hotel tax to report its rate to the Comptroller, the Comptroller's local hotel occupancy tax reporting program is the one statewide place to see whether a jurisdiction levies the tax and at what rate. Read it with its stated limitation: the data is self-reported by the local governments and is not independently verified by the Comptroller, and a missing entity may mean either no local tax or a missed filing. Use it to know what to ask; confirm the rate with the jurisdiction before you file.
• The Texas Comptroller owns the 6% state hotel occupancy tax and the registration behind it, everywhere in the state, including in unincorporated areas where no city rule applies at all.

For a property in unincorporated county territory, the absence of a city permit program is not the end of the analysis. County hotel occupancy tax can still apply, deed restrictions run with the land regardless of jurisdiction, and the state tax registration is unaffected. Ask the county tax office and the county's planning or development office in writing, and keep both answers.

Which Texas situation are you in?

Your situation	What decides your answer	Where to start	The gate that most often stops this path	What to confirm in writing
Accidental landlord with a vacated home in one of the seven cities	Your city's program plus your private documents	Your city's section above, then gates 5 through 7	HOA, condo, or deed restrictions that prohibit short stays regardless of the city permit	The declaration's rental clause, and your insurer's position on the actual use
Owner-occupied host renting a room or an ADU	Whether the city treats owner occupancy differently	San Antonio's Type 1 path; otherwise your city's section	Whether an accessory dwelling unit qualifies at all, and under which permit type	The permit type your occupancy structure supports, before paying a non-refundable fee
Out-of-state or non-owner-occupied investor	Density caps, zoning eligibility, and program stability	The matrix's density and land-use columns, then the city section	A Type 2 density cap already met, a prohibited zoning district, or an unsettled program like Dallas's	Today's density position or district eligibility, and what changes if a court or council acts
Buyer underwriting a property before closing	Whether the rules survive your hold period, not just today	The city section, then the change log for how fast that city moves	Assuming the current rule is the permanent rule — Dallas is the live example	The current ordinance and litigation status on the day you commit, not the day you offered
Tenant who wants to host	Your lease first, then the city	Gate 5, then your city's section	Landlord consent — Austin and Arlington both require it in documented form	The landlord's written permission, and whether the city requires proof of it at application
Owner with a long-term tenant in place	Your lease's term and termination provisions, before any city step	The lease, then gate 2	Assuming a city permit ends a tenancy — it does not	The lease's end date and termination rights, and the notice the law requires for your tenancy
Owner whose city is not in the table	The four authorities named above	If your city is not in the table	Assuming that no published program means no rule	Written answers from the city's planning and tax offices, each dated
Owner in unincorporated county territory	County tax and private restrictions, not city zoning	If your city is not in the table	Assuming unincorporated means unregulated	The county's hotel tax position and any deed restrictions on the parcel
Already listed, gate not cleared	How fast you close the open gate	If you are already listed	Daily accrual — most Texas ordinances treat each day as a separate offense	What the administering department says a property in your position should do now

How to read verification statuses and conflicting sources

Every consequential field in the matrix and the city sections carries one of six statuses under the Rental Income HQ Verification Status Key, because on a page like this the status is part of the answer:

Status	What it means for you
Verified	A current primary source supports every displayed field for the stated scope.
Verified with limitation	Primary evidence exists, but an official conflict, transition, scope caveat, or pending confirmation affects how you can use it.
Partial	Some fields are primary-sourced; the row is not complete enough for an unqualified answer.
Blocked	A consequential official source or field could not be verified. Never read Blocked as permission, zero, or "no requirement."
Not applicable	The field genuinely does not apply, with the reason stated.
Superseded	Retained only for change history; never used as the current rule.
What Verified does not mean	That STR use is permitted at your specific address. Verified describes the city-level fields shown, not your zoning district, property type, HOA or condo documents, lease, loan terms, or insurance policy.

The starter matrix shows why the labels earn their space. Austin's official pages currently give both a two-year and an annual statement of the license term in different places, so the term is published here with the City's own change statement named as the governing one and the inconsistency shown rather than hidden — the definitive answer is the expiry date on your own license. Dallas carries two conflicts at once: the City itself says enforcement of the two 2023 ordinances is enjoined, so the honest land-use answer is "unresolved," and its Controller's current page and its own older tax documents give different city tax rates, so both are shown. San Antonio shows what closing a gap looks like: the renewal amount was Blocked in the previous review because third-party figures conflicted with the application fees, and it is now Verified from the City's own renewal guide, which turned out to disagree with every third-party figure. Houston shows the superseded case: the 2025 launch announcement remains useful history and still carries the fee, but its implementation dates have been overtaken by the current registration page, which controls. And Galveston's current city tax rate is still Blocked — no official City statement of the current rate was located in this review, so no rate is published, because a secondary-source number is worse than a labeled gap.

When an official source conflicts with itself or with another official source, treat the field as unresolved and contact the administering department in writing before operating. This page was checked on August 9, 2026; the next scheduled check is September 9, 2026, and material changes are recorded with dates in the change log.

Platform tax collection does not finish the compliance job

The Comptroller's FAQ describes how a marketplace platform can collect and remit state hotel occupancy tax under an agreement — for bookings made through that platform. That sentence has two limits built in. The agreement is channel-specific: a direct booking, or a booking through a platform without an agreement, puts state collection and remittance back on you. And it is layer-specific: state collection says nothing about city or county tax.

The starter cities show the full range, and the range is wider than most hosts expect. Arlington states plainly that no platform holds a collection agreement with the City, so its 9% is entirely the operator's to register, file, and pay. Dallas says the same of itself. Austin sits at the other end — platforms have collected city tax since April 2025 — and still requires the operator to file quarterly, including zero reports. San Antonio keeps monthly operator reporting in place regardless of platform arrangements and distinguishes separate Bexar County obligations. Galveston states that only some platforms and management companies collect its local tax. And Houston turns the channel question into a registration condition: a property listed only on Airbnb needs no hotel-tax proof at registration, while adding any other channel triggers a requirement to show remittance or registration.

So for each booking channel, confirm three things separately — who collects, who reports, and who pays — for each tax layer, and put every residual duty on a filing calendar. Keep the evidence, too: save each platform's own written statement of what it collects, for which jurisdiction, from which date, because that statement is what you will reconcile against when a tax office asks why a return shows platform-collected amounts. And note one caution the city sources themselves flag: platform treatment can depend on the channel and even the booking date, so a statement that held for last quarter's bookings is not automatically true for next quarter's. For federal income tax, Schedule C versus Schedule E, and the rest of the tax picture beyond Texas hotel taxes, see Airbnb taxes explained; those questions are deliberately out of scope here.

Choosing STR tools at a glance

No tool creates legal eligibility. Software, pricing, and turnover decisions are downstream of a permitted, tax-registered, privately cleared, and insured operation — so treat this section as applying only after the seven gates and your city's section above are settled for your address, and score every candidate with the same discipline the workflow applies to rules and taxes: current first-party documentation, each price with its unit basis and as-of date, contract and cancellation terms in writing, and a saved copy of what you relied on. If a vendor cannot evidence a field, treat it as unresolved — not as a yes.

Your situation	Shortlist move	Confirm before you pay
Any gate prohibited, conflicting, or unresolved at your address	No shortlist. Contact the administering city department, your association or lender, and your insurer.	Which office administers the rule? What written confirmation resolves it? What changes at the next renewal or council action?
One permitted, tax-registered, insured property, self-managed	Shortlist STR management software; add dynamic pricing only if your market's rates genuinely swing.	What is the true monthly all-in cost, on what unit basis? Are your channels supported in current first-party documentation? What are the contract, cancellation, and data-export terms?
Permitted property hosted remotely, or scaling past one listing	Shortlist turnover automation alongside management software.	Does the tool document cleaner coverage for your market? How do fees scale per listing? What happens to schedules and records if you cancel?
Still deciding between a long-term lease and hosting	Pause tool shopping and run both paths' gates and numbers side by side on Airbnb vs. long-term rental.	Which path clears its gates at this address? What do symmetric, net-of-cost numbers show? What would switching later cost?

Once the gates are clear, the category pages carry the option sets: best Airbnb management software for channel and messaging management, Airbnb dynamic pricing tools for rate optimization, and Airbnb cleaning and turnover automation for remote turnover. Closing the insurance gate is not a software problem at all — it needs an insurer or licensed agent who writes short-term rental or home-sharing coverage for your property type in Texas and will confirm it in writing.

Frequently asked questions

Does an Airbnb or Vrbo listing prove my Texas property is legal to rent short-term?

No. A platform verifies eligibility under its own policies — not your city's zoning, permit, or tax rules, and not your HOA, lease, lender, or insurance terms. The inference now runs the other way: Austin already requires platforms to remove unlicensed listings on request, Houston begins the same process on January 1, 2027, and Galveston sends invalid registration numbers to the platforms. A live listing can still be an illegal operation. Work the seven gates first.

Do I still owe Texas hotel taxes on direct bookings if a platform collects on platform stays?

Yes. Collection agreements are channel-specific and layer-specific: a platform's agreement with the Comptroller can cover state hotel occupancy tax only for bookings made through that platform. Direct bookings, other channels, and any city or county tax the platform does not collect remain your registration, filing, and payment obligation. Arlington states that no platform has an agreement with the City at all — map each channel against each layer, as covered in the platform section above.

What happens if I operate a short-term rental in Texas without a permit?

It depends on the city, and the exposure is usually daily rather than one-off. Texas caps municipal ordinance fines at $500, or $2,000 for ordinances governing fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation, and cities commonly make each day a separate offense — Fort Worth's ordinance does. Houston publishes a range of $100 to $500 for each day of unregistered operation. Beyond fines, cities can revoke a registration, impose a waiting period before you reapply, and ask platforms to delist the property, and unpaid hotel tax accrues its own penalty and interest.

What should I do if my Texas city has no short-term rental page?

Don't treat silence as permission — and don't assume the property is even in that city. Confirm the governing jurisdiction with the county appraisal district and official city-limit tools, then ask the planning or code department in writing whether STR use is allowed at your address, zoning district, and property type, and ask the tax office about local hotel tax. The Comptroller's local hotel occupancy tax reporting program will tell you whether the jurisdiction levies a local tax at all. Save every answer with its date.

Can my HOA or condo association be stricter than my city's STR rules?

Yes. HOA and condo declarations, deed restrictions, leases, and lender covenants are private contracts layered on top of public law, and HB 2464 expressly preserves an association's authority to enforce its own rules and private deed agreements alongside municipal ordinances. A city permit does not override a private prohibition — Arlington's FAQ says outright that the City will neither examine your association's covenants during permit review nor enforce them afterward. Review the documents before spending, and get property-specific legal advice if anything in them is ambiguous.

Can I turn down a guest for any reason?

No — guest selection is not unregulated, and it is the one part of hosting where the person on the other side has rights you do not control. Two federal regimes can reach a short-stay rental depending on the facts. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in the rental of dwellings on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. Separately, Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 reaches any inn, hotel, motel, or other establishment providing lodging to transient guests, subject to a narrow exception for an owner-occupied building with no more than five rooms for rent. Which regime applies to a particular property is fact-specific, state and local law can add protected characteristics, and every major booking platform enforces its own non-discrimination policy on top of all of it, with delisting as the sanction. The safe practice is the same one that applies to long-term tenants: written criteria applied the same way to everyone, based on the booking rather than the person. If you are dealing with a specific incident or complaint, that is a question for a Texas-licensed attorney rather than a policy page.

What if a guest won't leave my Texas short-term rental?

Do not change the locks, cut the utilities, remove doors or appliances, or move anyone's belongings out, and do not threaten to. Under Texas Property Code chapter 92, § 92.0081 bars a landlord from removing a door, window, lock, or landlord-supplied furniture, fixture, or appliance except for a bona fide repair or replacement, and bars intentionally preventing a residential tenant from entering except by judicial process outside a few narrowly defined circumstances. Whether a particular overstaying guest counts as a residential tenant is fact-specific and turns on things like the length of the stay and what the parties agreed — which is precisely why self-help is the wrong move: if you are wrong about the guest's status, the remedy runs against you, and a wrongly excluded tenant can seek a writ of reentry and statutory damages. The lawful route is a possession action in the justice court for the precinct where the property sits. Talk to a Texas-licensed attorney before you do anything, and keep the booking record, the platform messages, and every communication.

I have a long-term tenant — can I convert the property to a short-term rental?

Not on the city's timetable. The lease governs first: an unexpired tenancy does not end because you obtained an STR permit, and a permit does not create a right to possession. Read the lease for its end date, any renewal or holdover terms, and what notice each side has to give, and remember that terminating or refusing to renew in response to a protected tenant action can create a retaliation problem of its own. Sequence it in that order — lease first, then gate 2 and your city's program — and get legal advice before you give notice. Texas landlord-tenant rules for the tenancy side of this are covered separately in our Texas landlord-tenant laws guide.

How long does it take to make a Texas short-term rental legal?

The clock is set by your slowest dependency, and city processing is often not the slowest one. Austin publishes six to eight weeks for a new single-family license and eight to ten for multi-family, with renewals at four to six and six to eight; Houston reports longer-than-usual processing and publishes no window; Arlington requires a premises inspection before issuance; New Braunfels requires an annual life-safety inspection from the Fire Marshal's Office. HOA or condo approval and getting an insurance endorsement or replacement policy bound in writing frequently take longer than any of that. An unresolved zoning question, an official conflict, or an injunction can pause everything. Sequence the applications early and take no bookings before every gate clears.

How much do Texas short-term rental hosts actually make?

This page publishes no revenue figures on purpose: eligibility comes before economics. When you do compare numbers, keep the measures straight — gross booking value is not host payout, and neither is net operating income after cleaning, utilities, software, taxes, insurance, and reserves; a gross figure is never comparable to a net one. And read the compliance cost as part of the model rather than a footnote: the year-one compliance costs above run from $150 to $836.30 in permit fees alone, on top of a combined lodging tax stack that runs from 15% to 17% of gross room revenue in the five cities whose full stack is verified above. For market-level comparisons net of real costs, see how much Airbnb hosts make.

Stop, verify, or proceed

Your address-specific answer ends in one of three places. Stop, if any gate — zoning, a private restriction, a lender term, uninsurable use — prohibits the operation; no tool or workaround changes that result. Verify, if a field is unresolved, conflicting, or Blocked: the next step is a written answer from the named administering office, not an estimate. Proceed, if every gate is clear: file the official application or registration, open the tax accounts, and only then move to the operational sequence in how to start an Airbnb legally. Rules on this page change on their own schedule, and this page is educational — not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Verify the exact property against the linked official sources, and bring unresolved or individualized questions to a qualified Texas professional.

Change log

Date	What changed	Source of the change
August 9, 2026	San Antonio permit renewal amount closed and published for the first time: renewals are charged at the same three-year permit fees, Type 1 $300 and Type 2 $450, under the fee schedule adopted June 13, 2024 and applied from June 14, 2024. Previously labeled Blocked; third-party $100 figures identified as the superseded pre-2024 fee.	City of San Antonio Development Services permit renewal guide
August 9, 2026	Austin license term published as two years, sourced to the City's October 2025 change statement, with the City's remaining "licensed annually" language shown as an unresolved inconsistency rather than a competing rule. Previously published as an open conflict with no term stated.	City of Austin Development Services
August 9, 2026	Galveston enforcement updated: City Council adopted revised STR regulations on November 13, 2025 creating a Short-Term Rental Licensing Board, a three-violations-in-12-months revocation track, and a one-hour response and two-hour resolution standard for the local contact.	City of Galveston
August 9, 2026	HB 2464 effective date published: signed June 12, 2025 and effective immediately on that date, rather than the default September 1, because it passed by the required two-thirds vote.	Texas Legislature Online; Office of the Governor
August 9, 2026	Year-one compliance-cost model added for the seven covered cities, with the permit-versus-tax crossover published at $34,315 of annual gross room revenue.	Derived from the city fee and tax rates verified on this page
August 9, 2026	Corpus Christi, South Padre Island, Fredericksburg, and New Braunfels added as routed markets with their governing departments and official program pages.	City of Corpus Christi; City of South Padre Island; City of Fredericksburg; City of New Braunfels
August 9, 2026	Galveston's current city hotel occupancy tax rate remains Blocked; Airbnb's help page figure identified as directing remittance to the Park Board, which no longer administers the tax.	City of Galveston; Airbnb Help Center
October 1, 2025	Galveston STR registration and hotel occupancy tax administration transferred from the Park Board of Trustees to the City; older portal instructions superseded.	City of Galveston
July 1, 2026	Austin platform regulations took effect: platforms must carry a license display field and remove unlicensed listings on City request.	City of Austin Development Services
January 1, 2026	Houston registration compliance deadline passed; enforcement of the 2025 ordinance began.	City of Houston Administration and Regulatory Affairs

Sources and last verified date

Last verified: August 9, 2026 Next review: September 9, 2026.

• Hotel Occupancy Tax FAQ — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — covered properties and stays, the 6% state rate and its $15-per-day threshold, registration, platform collection agreement scope, and the Houston local rate stack.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — state hotel-tax administration, reporting cadence, due dates, and penalty framework.
• Airbnb Hotel Occupancy Tax FAQ — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — the state-tax collection agreement covering Airbnb bookings from May 1, 2017 and its effect on host obligations.
• Local Hotel Occupancy Tax Reporting — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — Tax Code §§ 351.009 and 352.009 reporting duty, the statewide local-rate dataset, and its self-reported data limitation.
• Local Government Code Chapter 54 — Texas Legislature — § 54.001 municipal ordinance fine ceilings of $500 and $2,000.
• Property Code Chapter 92, Residential Tenancies — Texas Legislature — § 92.0081 limits on removing property and excluding a residential tenant, and § 92.009 right of reentry after an unlawful lockout.
• House Bill 2464, Enrolled Text (89th Legislature, 2025) — Texas Legislature — home-based-business regulation, and its express preservation of municipal STR ordinances and private deed and association agreements.
• Bills Signed by the Governor, 89th Regular Session — Texas Legislature Online — the June 12, 2025 signing date and immediate effective date for HB 2464.
• Governor Abbott Signs Laws To Bolster Texas Small Businesses — Office of the Governor — June 12, 2025 signing announcement naming HB 2464.
• Home Sharing — Texas Department of Insurance — why homeowners or landlord coverage may not fit STR use and the need for written insurer confirmation.
• The Fair Housing Act — U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division — protected characteristics and prohibited conduct in the rental of dwellings.
• Title II of the Civil Rights Act (Public Accommodations) — U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division — coverage of establishments providing lodging to transient guests and the narrow owner-occupied exception.
• Supreme Court of Texas Case Search — Texas Judicial Branch — current docket entries for the Dallas short-term rental litigation.
• Short-Term Rentals — City of Austin Development Services — accessory-use change, October 2025 rule changes including the two-year license term, per-operator limits, fees, local contact and noise rules, platform regulations, and processing times.
• Hotel and Rental Tax — City of Austin Financial Services — the 11% combined city rate, the venue-tax receipt disclosure, and quarterly operator reporting.
• Operating Licensing — City of Austin Development Services — the City's remaining annual-renewal language, cited to disclose the inconsistency with the two-year term.
• Short-Term Rental Permits — City of San Antonio Development Services — Type 1 and Type 2 permits, fees, three-year validity, blockface density, and the special-exception path.
• Renewing a Short-Term Rental Permit — City of San Antonio Development Services — the June 13, 2024 fee schedule applied at renewal, the Type 1 $300 and Type 2 $450 renewal amounts, renewal reminders, and the hotel-tax and ownership conditions that block a renewal.
• Current Short-Term Rental Ordinance — City of San Antonio Development Services — Type 1 and Type 2 density rules, the five-to-seven-unit and eight-plus-unit thresholds, the January 1, 2023 rounding-down amendment, and the city-limits scope.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax for STRs — City of San Antonio Finance — city and Bexar County rates, monthly operator reporting, platform scope, delinquency penalties, and interest.
• Short-Term Rental Registration — City of Houston — current registration requirements, certificate expiry, the January 1, 2027 delisting start, the Airbnb-only hotel-tax proof rule, and application documents.
• Short-Term Rental Program Announcement, April 17, 2025 — City of Houston — the $275 annual fee, the January 1, 2026 compliance deadline, the $100–$500 per-day penalty, and revocation authority.
• Short-Term Rental Registration Ordinance No. 26005-02-2023 — City of Fort Worth — registration, fees, term, occupancy and parking limits, advertising rules, revocation, appeal, and per-day penalties.
• Short-Term Rentals — City of Fort Worth — district eligibility and prohibitions, registration fees, the 9% city tax, and monthly reporting by the 25th.
• Short-Term Rental Frequently Asked Questions — City of Arlington — eligible districts and the STR Zone, the $500 fee, one-year term, occupancy formula, inspection, insurance certificate, zoning-lookup routing, absence of a platform tax agreement, and revocation and appeal.
• Short-Term Rentals — City of Arlington Planning and Development Services — the City's current STR qualification and application route.
• Short Term Rental Zone map — City of Arlington Open Data — the mapped STR Zone boundary.
• Maps Online — City of Arlington GIS — the zoning lookup the City's STR FAQ directs applicants to use.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax — City of Arlington Treasury — city hotel-tax registration and filing for the 9% rate.
• Ordinances, Authorization and Penalties — City of Galveston — registration authority, GVR advertising-number rule, enforcement, and the October 1, 2025 administration change.
• Short-Term Rental Frequently Asked Questions — City of Galveston — the $250 annual fee, the December 1–31 renewal window, delisting on non-renewal, and which platforms collect the local tax.
• New STR regulations and registration information, November 25, 2025 — City of Galveston — the November 13, 2025 Council changes: the 24/7 local contact, the one-hour response and two-hour resolution standard, and the three-violations revocation track through the STR Licensing Board.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax — City of Galveston — the City's assumption of hotel-tax receipt and STR registration, and where the current rate and forms are published.
• Galveston short-term rental help page — Airbnb Help Center — the platform's stated 9% local rate and Park Board remittance instruction; cited only to disclose why that figure is not treated as current.
• Short-Term Rentals — City of Dallas Code Compliance — the STR definition, the December 6, 2023 temporary injunction on the 2023 ordinances, and continued nuisance enforcement.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax — City of Dallas Controller's Office — the current 9% statement for hotels and short-term rentals, free registration, and monthly reporting.
• Short-Term Rentals, Hotel Occupancy Tax summary — City of Dallas Controller's Office — the 7% statement and registration process; cited to disclose the conflict with the current page.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax Reporting Information — City of Dallas Controller's Office — City Code chapter 44, article V, the 7% statement, and the 15th-of-the-month due date.
• Dallas wants SCOTX to lift a block on its short-term rentals ban — KERA News, October 22, 2025 — the City's October 2025 petition to the Texas Supreme Court; supporting reporting on litigation posture only.
• Short-Term Rentals — City of Corpus Christi Development Services — registration requirement, Type 1 and Type 2 split, the 15% block-face limit, and the Padre/Mustang Island single-family prohibition.
• Hotel Occupancy Tax and short-term rental registration steps — City of South Padre Island — the city registration requirement and the rule that the assigned permit number appear in all advertising.
• Short-Term Rentals — City of Fredericksburg — the City's STR permitting, inspection, and hotel-tax hub.
• Short-Term Rental Permit Frequently Asked Questions — City of Fredericksburg — the Zoning Ordinance § 20.222 permit requirement, the ETJ exemption, and the inspection triggers.
• Short Term Rentals — City of New Braunfels — the Code § 144-5.17 permit and annual life-safety inspection requirements, the special use permit districts, the floodway prohibition, occupancy and parking limits, and the permit-before-advertising rule.