Erie County Raising Fees On Air BNB Rentals In Western New York

Thanks to an agreement between local lawmakers and the tech company that owns the Airbnb platform, Western New Yorkers should be prepared to pay a little more when using a short-term rental in Erie County.

According to an information release from Airbnb, the company and Erie County officials have entered into a voluntary agreement for Airbnb to begin collecting a 3% rent tax.

The fee is the county's Hotel Occupancy Tax, which adds a 3% tax on all hotel stays in Erie County. Historically, people renting out their private properties have been exempt from this fee as they are not considered hotels. Of course, this has caused hoteliers all over the nation to cry foul, as they feel that those who use services like Airbnb have an unfair advantage over traditional hotels and motels.

According to Erie County rules, the Hotel Occupancy Tax must be collected by any person who operates a hotel, an apartment hotel, a motel, a boarding house or club, a short term rental or vacation rental, or other building regularly used for the lodging of guest.

Data from Airbnb show that more than 160,000 guests arrived in Erie County in the last year and that more than 2,000 hosts will begin paying this fee starting this month. AirBNB will collect the fee directly from the renters as an added fee on the AirBNB platform and submit the payment straight to Erie County. Since the tax is being charged directly by Airbnb, the net revenue hosts will be unaffected.

New York State Law prohibits AirBNB from charging these taxes, so at least 37 other Empire State counties have established their own voluntary agreements with AirBNB to collect these fees to get around state law. Officials believe that this measure will raise an estimated $1.5 million in additional tax revenue for the county.