A board of county commissioners is currently authorized to license
and regulate an owner or owner's agent of a lodging unit that is rented or advertised for short-term stays, and owner's agent expressly excludes an internet hospitality service.
The bill modifies this regulatory authority by clarifying that it
applies to lodging units that are available for short-term rentals, which are rentals for less than 30 days, and by excluding a hotel unit from the scope of the authority.
The bill also changes internet hospitality service to vacation
rental service (service), defines the term, and provides separate authority for a board of county commissioners to regulate a service. This authority, however, is limited to requiring:
•
An owner or owner's agent to include a rental license or permit number, if applicable, in any listing for a lodging unit on the service's website or other digital platform; and
•
The service to remove a listing from the service's website or other digital platform, if properly notified by a county that the owner of the listed lodging unit has had a local short-term rental license or permit suspended or revoked or has been issued a notice of violation or similar legal process for not possessing a valid local short-term rental license or permit or that the county has a prohibition on short-term rentals that applies to the lodging unit. The service has 7 days from receiving the county notification to remove the listing.
To facilitate a service's ability to comply with a county ordinance,
a county, upon request of the owner of a hotel unit or a vacation rental service on which the hotel unit is listed, is required to provide written verification that the hotel unit is exempt from the ordinance because it is not a lodging unit.
