Oregonian article on Portland's unlicensed Airbnb's

On September 9th the Oregonian published an article calling out the City of Portland for their lack of follow through with the “pass-through” agreement that was made with Airbnb. This article started a chain of events that caused the City of Portland to begin cracking down on unlicensed short term rentals in earnest. The city’s compliance department started looking up properties and started issuing fines for those properties that never got their proper paperwork submitted.

Now there is a looming January 15th date where Airbnb says they will remove any listing that doesn’t have the proper permit number listed on their site.

Out of thousands of hosts who thought they properly registered for their ASTR permit through Airbnb’s system, only about a dozen of them actually got processed through the City of Portland. Now all those hosts that thought they were permitted and ready to operate may find their listing has been removed as of January 15th.

Click the link to read the Oregonian article: Portland promised to crack down on unlicensed Airbnbs. This happened instead.

If you have found yourself without a City of Portland Type-A or Type-B ASTR permit, please use the “connect” button on my website to schedule a call and we’ll see how we can get you back in business.

Airbnb Hosts: When can I start renting my STR rooms with the new pass-through system?

NEW UPDATE INCLUDED - EDITED 10/15/19

With the new City of Portland/Airbnb “pass-through” registration being announced, I’m getting a lot of questions about the timing of allowing that first guest into the home.

*The pass-through system is for renting 1-2 STR bedrooms only. All 3-5 bedroom rentals must continue to go through the Type-II Land Use Review process to become permitted.

“Airbnb has chosen the pass-through registration data sharing agreement option. Effective November 1, 2019, Airbnb will launch an online registration system requiring new hosts to share their data with the City of Portland and asking existing hosts to allow their data to be shared with the City. Hosts that do not consent to having their data shared will be removed from the Airbnb website by January 1, 2010.” - City of Portland Press Release https://strpermit.com/documents

Once a host has shared their data with Airbnb, the information will be put on a registry along with all other ASTR permits for the City of Portland.

“Application for a permit will display on the Registry with a status of “Application” and a renewal date of “TBD” until the permit has been fully issued. These applications are considered valid unless removed from the Registry. Once a permit has been issued, the listing will update to display a status of “Issued” and a renewal date.” - Office of Management & Finance Revenue Division https://www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/article/415180

Whether you applied by filling out the ASTR application and submitted paperwork to the City, or you went through Airbnb’s online pass-through system, **you must wait until your address is recorded as “Issued” (for traditional paper applications and Airbnb pass-through) or “Recorded” (for Type-B ASTR’s) before renting out rooms to short-term guests. **EDIT 10/15/19 You now only need to be in compliance with Title 33 Planning and Zoning code rules regarding Accessory Short Term Rentals. If you have agreed to share your data with the City of Portland through Airbnb’s Pass-through system, and you are within the criteria for compliance, you can begin renting your 1-2 bedroom ASTR. If you are operating 3-5 bedrooms, you still need to go through the Bureau of Development Services to apply for your Type-II Land Use Review.

You can find your property on the STR registry here: https://www.portlandmaps.com/reports/index.cfm?action=short-term-rental

We will all have to wait and see how long it takes for new applications to be approved; that depends entirely on how quickly the City can look through each entry. In the last six months, paper applications have been taking from 12-16 weeks for approval, but yesterday a BDS clerk told me it should currently only take eight. As far as the new pass-through system goes, a memorandum from the Portland Revenue Division states, “The City is taking proactive steps to streamline and update the ASTR permit process. This includes changing the process for the required Bureau of Development Services verification of Type A Standards from an in-person inspection to a discretionary procedure and streamlining the application permit process for ASTR permits, business licenses, and Transient Lodging Tax registration to allow hosts to fill out one consolidated form via the Revenue Division to obtain these permits.”

As always, if you are thinking about becoming a short term rental host in the City of Portland, I would be happy to discuss any and all questions that you might have about obtaining either your Type-A or Type-B Accessory Short Term Rental Permit. I offer a free 20 minute call that can be booked here: https://strpermit.com/connect







City of Portland Implementing New Short-Term Rental Law

We’ve been waiting to hear the verdict of Portland City Council’s new Ordinance and find out whether Airbnb is going to comply with the new rules, and it looks like they are! The information below is from a press release that was just sent out today. You can read the full document here: https://strpermit.com/documents

On June 12, 2019, Portland City Council passed Ordinance 189557 which requires short term rental platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway to do one of the following:

  • Enter into a pass-through registration data-sharing agreement with the Bureau of Revenue and Financial Services’ Revenue Division; or

  • Remove all listings unless they are published on the City’s Short-Term Rental Registry of legal listing locations.

Airbnb has chosen the pass-through registration data sharing agreement option. Effective November 1, 2019, Airbnb will launch an online registration system requiring new hosts to share their data with the City of Portland and asking existing hosts to allow their data to be shared with the City. Hosts that do not consent to having their data shared will be removed from the Airbnb website by January 1, 2020.

The pass-through registration system will include the following information sent to the Revenue Division each month beginning December 1, 2019:

  • Name of the person listing the property and the property owner (or resident if different from the person listing the property)

  • Host, resident or property owner’s mailing address, e-mail address and telephone number • Address of the rental location

  • Number of rooms and number of guests advertised for rent

  • Description of the listing

  • Listing number and URL

  • Attestation that the host understands and agrees to abide by the City’s regulations

  • Booking and transactional by listing and host including the number of guests, the date(s) booked, and the transaction amount.

The Revenue Division and the Bureau of Development Services will use this information to enforce the City’s regulatory and tax codes.

HomeAway has chosen to use the City’s short-term rental registry. The registry is a listing of Portland locations that have already secured required permits or are otherwise deemed legal because of pending renewals or zoning. HomeAway has agreed to remove all unregistered listings from its HomeAway, VRBO, and related websites by September 30, 2019. This is the first city government interface HomeAway has launched in the U.S.

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Portland Drafts Ordinance To Crackdown On Airbnb

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The legal battle between the City of Portland and Airbnb may finally be coming to a head. The following article written and published by OPB outlines what they are calling the “crackdown.”

“Portland’s mayor is planning to introduce an ordinance that would force online short-term rental companies like Airbnb to take down unpermitted rentals. The proposed crackdown in Portland follows a federal court ruling in March that dealt a legal blow to Airbnb’s long-held position that it is not responsible for policing unpermitted listings on its site. Portland’s revenue division has been trying to reach a voluntary agreement with the company for more than a year over unpermitted rentals. The city says Airbnb’s latest offer represented a step backward, so it is preparing to try a tougher tactic: an ordinance that goes after Airbnb’s profits.”

Type A Accessory Short Term Rental (1-2 bedrooms) in a Multi-Dwelling Structure (3 units or more)

The number of dwelling units in a multi-dwelling structure (3 or more units) that can have an accessory short-term rental is limited to 1 unit, or 25 percent of the total number of units in the structure, whichever is greater.

Unlike the accessory short term rental inspection requirements in 1&2 Dwelling Structures, BDS will not inspect bedrooms in multi-dwelling structures and triplexes. Multi-Dwelling structures and triplexes are already inspected under the Portland Fire & Rescue Safety Inspection program, which examines the safety features of common areas (e.g. condition and operation of exit doors, emergency lighting, exit signs, components of fire resistive construction, fire extinguishers, and records for fire alarm and fire protection systems). However, guest bedrooms must be equipped with interconnected smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide alarm. 

Here is the City information on STRs in multi-dwelling structures.