LEGISLATURE STUFF - Keeping Track of STR’s

By Michael Ryan

CATSKILL - Bellying up to the fiscal bar, the Greene County Legislature is looking to establish the county’s own registry for short-term rentals.

Lawmakers, at a recent meeting, approved a resolution seeking Requests for Proposals for professional services to perform the task.

County administrator Shaun Groden, in a subsequent phone interview, said paperwork has been prepared and sent to the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC).

NYSAC will disseminate the RFP’s throughout the industry, with the county hoping to receive offers later this month, expected to lead to the hiring of a Short-Term Rental Compliance Services firm.

That firm will, “provide guidance and solutions to our short-term rental and home sharing rental challenges,” the local resolution states.

Their work, the local resolution states, will include, but not be limited to, “address identification, registration service, compliance monitoring, education and outreach.”

The action is being taken in response to a short-term rental registry law passed by New York State, last year, following great controversy in the hotel/motel industry related to the proliferation of STR’s.

Senator Michelle Hinchey and then-Assembly member Patricia Fahy led a coalition effort to, “address New York’s housing crisis” and simultaneously “boost local revenue,” according to a Hinchey press release.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the legislation, in December, 2024, with the Hinchey press release stating, “New York has taken a historic step in addressing housing challenges and short-term rental transparency with the signing of its first statewide Short-Term Rental Registry into law.

“The legislation is the first-of-its-kind nationwide and a turning point in holding billion-dollar booking platforms, like Airbnb and Vrbo, accountable to the communities where they conduct business,” the release states.

“The law offers a new county-by-county look into the explosive growth of the short-term rental industry and is aimed at helping communities across the state manage housing availability and affordability while bringing in owed revenue from sales taxes and hotel and motel occupancy taxes,” the press release states.
“Short-term rentals (STRs) are essential to New York’s tourism economy but have also intensified housing challenges by increasing rents, inflating home prices and depleting available housing stock,” the release states.

“Under the new law, booking platforms will report quarterly to the New York State Department of State (DOS) on the number of bookings it facilitates in each county,” the release states

Explaining why local lawmakers are toasting the rules, the Hinchey release states, “counties that choose to create local registries will receive detailed quarterly reports from booking platforms including rental locations, occupancy nights, guest counts and taxes collected.

“This will help ensure local governments have the information they need to effectively balance the needs of the housing market and the tourism economy,” the Hinchey release states.

“It will also give local leaders more resources to address their community’s most pressing needs: over the last five years, NY communities have lost up to $550 million in uncollected sales and occupancy tax revenue, according to All The Rooms,” the Hinchey release states.
NYSAC, in a press release, states, “this registry would also enable counties to receive hotel/motel occupancy taxes from the short-term rental industry.

“Counties will be required to amend their local laws to allow for the collection of these occupancy tax revenues from STRs,” NYSAC states.

“If a county opts out of the registry, they could still enter into voluntary collection agreements or other local mechanisms to collect occupancy taxes from STR vendors,” NYSAC states.

“This may be helpful in understanding the existing housing landscape and how your economic development and planning office can assist local municipalities in land use activity,” NYSAC states.

NYSAC president Benjamin Boylin II stated, “this legislation will finally place short-term rentals on a level playing field alongside hotels and motels.”

Airbnb’s, since becoming a major player in the sleepover industry, have not been subject to the same regulations as hotels and motels, creating loud backlash about enjoying an unfair advantage in the room-pricing game.

They were also blamed for driving up the expense of family-level housing as available properties were being purchased primarily for STR use, removing them from the everyday marketplace.

STR groups called that claim inaccurate and railed against the imposition of added fees and registrations, saying they would hurt State tourism.

The State will not maintain its own STR registry, raising questions about compliance, apparently relying on booking services to provide comprehensive data on rentals for each county.