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Austin short-term rental license: what changed in 2025 and what platforms must do from July 1, 2026

Sergej Sitki · founder of ReceptionGO and host
Published October 30, 2026 · 5 min read

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change often and vary by state, county and city — confirm your situation with the local agency or a CPA.

Austin allows a short-term rental as an accessory use in residential zoning if you hold a city operating license. Since October 2025 licenses last two years, a tenant may operate with the landlord’s permission, and a single-family site is capped. From July 1, 2026 platforms must show a license-number field and take a listing down within 10 business days of a city delist notice. The city checks whether the number is real — the platform does not.

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Austin spent years in court over short-term rentals and then, in 2025, rewrote the rules around a license instead of a ban. For a host the practical question in 2026 is no longer “is it zoned?” It is “is the license on the listing, and will the city ask the platform to take the listing down?”

What the 2025 ordinances changed

On February 27, 2025 the council passed three ordinances. One made a short-term rental an accessory use to residential property in every zoning district, if it is licensed. One moved most of the operating rules into the business code. One told online platforms to collect the city’s hotel occupancy tax. On September 11, 2025 a further ordinance set the caps hosts feel day to day. Those operator rules took effect in October 2025:

• Licenses last two years.
• No certificate of occupancy and no insurance certificate for the license itself. (Your lender, your insurer and your HOA may still want a policy. The city dropped it as a license exhibit.)
• A tenant may operate, with the owner’s permission.
• Single-family sites: up to two STR units on the site, and any further STRs that operator runs elsewhere at least 1,000 feet away.
• Mixed-use sites (four or more homes plus a commercial use): the greater of one unit or 25% of the residential units.
• Multi-family sites: the greater of one unit or 10%.
• The local contact lives in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop or Caldwell County.
• Neighbors are notified at every renewal, not only the first license.
• Repeat violations can bring mitigation orders, and a property can be declared a nuisance.

Licenses that were already valid kept their term. Miss the renewal window — apply at least 30 days before expiry was the rule for those existing licenses — and the easier path closes.

Platforms, from July 1, 2026

Platform duties adopted in September 2025 took effect July 1, 2026. A platform has to let the host display a license number, and it has to remove an unlicensed listing when the city sends a delist notice. The platform is not the one deciding whether the number is valid. Austin scrapes listings, checks the number, and sends the notice. By April 1, 2026 staff had already identified 2,785 unlicensed addresses. Delisting was then paused for six months after the new license system launched on May 18, so the first waves would be phased and would start with nuisance properties. That pause is a schedule, not a defense.

What operators must do

Get the license before you advertise. Put the number in every ad. Answer complaints, because the revocation standard is built on documented calls, police reports and repeated noise. And separate the license from the tax: even a perfect license does not file your hotel occupancy tax. State tax is 6%. The city’s tax is collected by platforms under the 2025 ordinance on platform bookings, and by you on anything you sell yourself. Dallas, Houston and San Antonio do this differently — Texas hotel tax and the other big cities.

The part the license does not cover

An HOA can still prohibit short stays. A license is not a ruling on your deed restrictions. Noise complaints are how licensed properties lose the license: the April 2026 program note said the first delist wave would be nuisance addresses. Occupancy, quiet hours and a person who can be reached are the operating conditions. How those get in front of the guest before they arrive is noise and party rules. How Austin compares with the rest of the country is in short-term rental laws by city.