With the board of supervisors approval of a short-term rental ordinance on Tuesday, visitors staying at a short-term rental in the county are set to pay a little extra.
The ordinance, approved unanimously during the board’s Tuesday meeting at the courthouse, will make all short-term rentals, like those brokered through Airbnb and VRBO, subject to the 2% hotel tax.
Platforms will be reaching out to short-term rental owners in the coming month before the ordinance goes into effect to notify them of the change, County Administrator Jay Fisher told The Dispatch after Tuesday’s meeting.
“Once an ordinance has been passed and we provide it to Airbnb, VRBO and those (companies), they let the owners know, ‘Hey, there’s a new tax, and you’ve got to pay it,’” Fisher said.
Fisher said the ordinance is closely modeled after one Columbus passed late last year. Under both, short-term rental owners are required to register the rental with either the city or county, reapply annually for a permit, designate a local property manager and post signage designating the property as a short-term rental, among other things.
Unlike in the city, short-term rental owners in the county must receive approval through the Lowndes County Building Department and receive a permit through the Lowndes County Tax Collector’s Office. The initial permit costs owners $125, with an annual renewal fee of $50.
Owners will be required to post signage displaying the rental’s permit number, a contact for the local property manager and the phone number for the city’s permitting office to reach about complaints or violations.
“The only penalty (for violations) at this point is that you can have your permit rescinded,” Fisher said.
While he did not have the exact number of applications, Building Official Nathan Katona said the city has received several permit requests and is preparing to begin enforcing its ordinance.
“As long as they reach out and contact us, we’re good because the Planning Commission only meets once a month,” Katona said. “But from this step, anyone that doesn’t (reach out) that receives that letter of just explaining to them, they would be in violation (and) we would start the official enforcement process.”
Other business
In other business Tuesday, the board:
■ approved recommendations to award bids for the county’s 2026 road plan, including milling to Murphree Paving for $112,365, resealing to Pavement Restorations, Inc. for $58,301, DBST to Pavement Restorations, Inc. for $83,220 and asphalt overlay to APAC at $148 per ton of asphalt; and
■ approved Bryant Bean’s application to fill the remainder of Rissa Lawrence’s term on the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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