With home-sharing on AirBnb fast becoming a major player in Nevada tourism, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill aimed at capturing a portion of the revenue for the public coffer.
The legislation, sponsored by Democrat Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams of Spring Valley, would require municipalities that impose a hotel tax to also collect it from guests using hosting platforms that offer short-term rentals?that is, a place designed to rent for 30 days or less and includes AirBnb, which allows people to put a room or a whole house up for rent and connects them with a wide online network of potential guests.
“One of my focuses this session was to look at new trends in the marketplace that were not being captured within our tax structure,” she said.
She also has bills that seek to tax vaping products and electric cars.
“This is not a conversation on whether you like the new concept,” she said. “It’s centered on whether it should be included in our revenue makeup.”
Statistics show younger travelers are more likely to seek a unique lodging experience outside the traditional corporate hotel chain concept. AirBnb overtook Hilton Hotels in the number of room nights booked by the end of 2012, and 60 percent of users of the service are millennials.
“Staying in a stranger’s house is no longer a foreign concept, just as we get into a stranger’s car to move around,” said Irma Fernandez, Bustamante Adams’ legislative aide.
It’s a serious growth industry in Nevada, where AirBnb hosts earned $47.7 million last year and the number of stays rose 151 percent over 2015?this despite the fact that home-sharing isn’t allowed in most places in the key Clark County market, which includes the Las Vegas Strip, and generally requires a special use permit in the city of Las Vegas.
Democratic Assemblywoman Heidi Swank of Las Vegas is sponsoring a related measure that requires platforms such as AirBnb to submit reports to cities and counties on the number of their bookings in those jurisdictions, how much revenue was generated and how long guests stayed. Counties would also have to designate an agency that can issue subpoenas to hosting platforms and help officials determine whether hosts or guests are violating state law or local ordinances.
“This is not to get rid of short-term rentals,” Swank said. “We’ve all stayed in a good AirBnb. We just want a good-neighbor policy.”
