City of College Station Blog

By Mary Ellen Leonard, Director of Fiscal Services

College Station is recognized as one of the most fan-friendly cities in the Southeastern Conference, attracting visitors from all over. So, if you rent your home or other property for Texas A&M events, you want to do it the right way.

The City of College Station can help with its easy-to-use short-term rental registration portal. Short-term rentals are residential units rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days, including single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, multifamily units, and manufactured homes.

City ordinance requires short-term rentals to register, have an inspection, and remit hotel occupancy taxes each month. The city’s Code of Ordinances authorizes a hotel occupancy tax equal to 7% of the occupant’s consideration, where the occupancy cost is at least $2 per day.

The improved registration system allows you to conduct the processes directly from the city’s Short-Term Rental Housing webpage, including filing and remitting the taxes.

On the 20th day of the month after the collection month, entities required to collect the tax must file a report and remit the appropriate amount. The report must be filed even if there was no rental.

Failure to submit the information and remit payment is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and a penalty of 15% of the tax due for every 30 days the report isn’t filed or payment isn’t made.

The permit is valid for one year and must be renewed annually. Violations of the STR ordinance — such as nonpayment of hotel occupancy taxes — may result in permit revocation, denial of the permit at renewal, or a court summons.

Short-term housing is an integral part of College Station’s overall hospitality industry. We’re here to help you achieve compliance and success.

For more information, contact Code Enforcement at 979-764-6363 or str@cstx.gov.

About the Blogger

Mary Ellen Leonard has been the city’s director of fiscal services since 2016. She previously was the chief financial officer for the Grub Burger Bar restaurant chain and operated her accounting firm for 14 years. A CPA since 1988, Mary Ellen has also served as a senior manager at Accenture and Arthur Andersen, CFO at Devereux Hospital, and senior financial analyst at Tenneco Gas Pipeline. She earned a degree in accounting from Texas A&M in 1986.

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