New Orleans STR Regulations - Questions

[Michael134]

Hello All,

I am currently a host in New Orleans with an 'entire home' listing. In reality it is an efficiency/studio apartment in what used to be a garage, so it's a seperate building. I have a few questions about this as far as the new regulations go.

Should I instead label it as a private room for compliance with new rules and general accuracy of the listing? (It is a completely separate building but I want to avoid the 90-day limit)

Where can I find a list of all the new rules/Regulations?

As I always live on-site in the seperate house when renting it out, am I subject to the 90-day/year rental limitations?

I have read that you are automatically registered for the necessary permit but was wondering if this is true and, if not, where/how I can register and if so, how I can confirm I am registered. 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Barrett0]

Here we are April 3rd and no email yet from Airbnb about pass through. I know the deadline is pushed but I don't understand the delay in the launch of the registration system on Airbnb's end. I was informed the only enforcement in April would be the Vieux Carre since there is no allowance there permitted and therefore the first target. I would rather use the pass through system since it will be less confusing since Airbnb has our liability proof and other information but I am tempted to do the cities online one if I don't receive an email soon. 

[Josh9]

Hi Barrett, I did get the email, on 3/31. If you go to your hosting page for the individual listing, there should be a link at the left that says "City Registration." It is at the end of the list of links that say Calendar, Pricing, Booking, Check-In, Cancellations.

If it's not showing up for you then I don't know what. I'm assuming you know this is only for the City of New Orleans, no other cities. It is not a statewide thing. That's probably obvious but just thought I would throw it out there.

Yes, rolling it out on March 31 when we are supposed to be registered by April 1 is obscenely ridiculous. I'm assuming they did not get it done in time. Even when you pass-through register, it seems like it just sends your info to the city. I'm inferring that by the fact that the post-submit screen just says something like, "License application pending."

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

Barrett...did you not get the email from airBNB with their registration link? I got that a couple of days ago but I'm not sure I want to bother with it. I think it'd be faster to go to the source. Who knows how often airBNB will pass the registration info on to the city. I don't want to be in a position of waiting for the city to get back to me in "one to two weeks" because I'm sure it'll be more like 9 or 10 weeks and by that point airBNB will have delisted us. Hence the urgency. 

Also, I don't think for one second that airBNB's host coverage will be accepted by the city as liability insurance. Truly, I don't. 

But since I don't know anyone who has submitted an application AND heard back from the city I don't know whether they're handing out registration numbers then following up later to get the rest of the requirements or whether they want it all wrapped up before giving the registration number and with a 5/31 deadline it really matters. 

I wonder whether "license pending" is good enough to not get delisted after 5/31?

[Barrett0]

I remember in the meetings with Cantrell that the AirBnb team mentioned the already provided insurance and when I asked Francis last week he said it still counted. I didn't get the email (weird because I get a ton a day from Airbnb) but y'all have led me to the right area. 

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

Oh good! I carry a separate liability policy because I don't totally trust the guarantee anyhow, but I would still suggest that hosts get written confirmation re:host guarantee vs actual insurance. Because I have seen it mentioned exactly nowhere in the ordinance or on OneStop. 

[Julie--And-Brian-0]

I have a question regarding the 90 day rental period. Everyone I have asked seems to have a different take on this and for months I've tried getting through to the city - surprise! - I haven't heard back. According to the brochure the city has set out: "A temporary short term rental license allows for a max of 90 rental nights per license year, either for separate periods or a continuous 90 day duration. If an applicant chooses a permit for separate periods, a new license application must be filed and approved."  What exactly does this mean? If I'm not interested in renting my house for a continuous 90 day duration do I need to file and pay for a license every time a receive a new booking request? Or after 90 days I need to file again and let them know exactly how many nights were rented? 

[Josh9]

"If I'm not interested in renting my house for a continuous 90 day duration do I need to file and pay for a license every time a receive a new booking request?"

My interpretation is no. You just need to have a valid license for any time in which you are short term renting.

"Or after 90 days I need to file again and let them know exactly how many nights were rented?"

(1) My interpretation is yes, you need to have a valid license for any period in which you do rent out your place for short-term rental. So yes, if you want to rent continuously throughout the year, you need to file every 90 days. That is how I am approaching it. Or, you can take your rental off the short-term market for a period of time (I don't think it has to be 90 days), and not re-license it for the period in which you are not planning to short-term-rent. Then when you start back up, you need to get a license for the new period, which can be up to 90 days.

(2) You do NOT need to report number of nights rented to nola.gov. Airbnb will be reporting that information directly to the City.

I am not sure what is going on with other rental platforms, except I am pretty sure they are not reporting number of rental nights to the City as of right now. I think Vrbo plans to do so in the coming months but they are not ready yet. That is just rumor; I don't know for sure.

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

Wow that IS worded poorly. I thought the temporary license was intended to cover 90 nights in any given period whether they were continuous or not. Like major holidays and festivals. I thought that was its express purpose. So it would be $50 per year with a homestead exemption period (like rent your own home where YOU live), and $150 per year without (like, rent your own personal decond home/vacation home/pied-a-terre that you usually visit yourslef but for 90 days will rent to someone else for that purpose). 

Airbnb will definitely report the number of nights rented to the city. They do that in other cities. Hosts get an email warning them when they're approaching the limit, then are cut off from hosting again until 365 days pass. Then another 90 day license can be applied for.

The way this is worded it seems as if they want you to reapply for a temporary license that only covers the particular booking you're applying for, and then again for the next until you hit 90 in any given 365 day span. Which makes no sense. Because what if you have a  booking is months away and someone books again for the following week and borks your 90 limit? I cannot imagine this is what they mean, or that they plan to issue a completely new T-STR registration number for each booking till you hit 90 even though it would make an awesome cash cow for the city, it would be a logistical nightmare. 

[Josh9]

[deleted previous post and revised it after reading the actual code]

I think it's $200 per year for an accessory rental, and the license lasts one year, OR you can get a "temporary" license for an accessory rental for 90-day periods for $50 per period. For a whole-home rental, it seems you can only get "temporary" licenses that cost $150 per 90 days. I suppose you could burn through your 90 days of tenants in a couple 90-day periods then not have to buy 4 licenses per year.

Here is the actual municipal code on short-term rentals. Not exactly a simple scheme to understand.

[Julie--And-Brian-0]

Josh - I agree! I have been following this for awhile now and still do not know what the heck is going on! I'm willing to comply in any way they deem necessary - but there needs to be clarity on the laws because it seems the city is confused as well.

[Julie--And-Brian-0]

Thank you! I hope that's the correct interpretation! 🙂

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

OOOOOHHHHH! Huh.

If that's the case then they never intended to limit it to 90 days a year, the intent was to essentially make an allowance for off-site/whole home/whole unit hosts and make them pay for it repeatedly, and it just happens to cover live-in hosts who don't want to rent full time. The T-STR license would  need to be reapplied for constantly. Its purpose is not to limit the actual days per year rented at all, like some other cities?  I'm sort of amazed. It really is just a cash cow, and not even a really profitable one, even at 4 T licenses a year. 

The A-STR licenses I assume would simply be re-upped yearly by sending in the fee, and maybe re-attesting that you are fulfilling all the safety requirements, etc. 

Huh. 

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

Apologies for blowing up this thread but I just found this in an article. 

I do think it's a cap. 90 rentable days per year for a T license of either variety, needing a reapplication for a new T license after the year is through, with airBNB keeping track of the number of nights spent, sleeping the listing once the cap is hit OR reporting that the host has exceeded 90 IF the city askes them. The city is banking on hosts ignoring the 90 night cap and getting caught eventually, and I assume punished with mighty high penalty fees (as yet unannounced)

"To keep track of property owners' 90-day annual cap, Airbnb will provide monthly reports to the city on the number of days that listings are rented out through the site. That data will be anonymized, and the city must issue administrative subpoenas to get identifying information about a property suspected of exceeding the cap..."

[Julie--And-Brian-0]

"The way this is worded it seems as if they want you to reapply for a temporary license that only covers the particular booking you're applying for, and then again for the next until you hit 90 in any given 365 day span."

Bekah & Brian - Thank you! It IS worded poorly and it absolutely reads (at least on the 'brochure' the city has posted online) that I would need to pay $150 for every booking request that comes my way until it has been booked for 90 days  (this is considered a 2nd home for us and we do not have homestead exemption). This is really the only confusion I have with the new ordinance.  It wouldn't make sense for the city to approach it this way - but stranger things have happened here!  I appreciate your input! Thank you!

[Josh9]

I really don't think you have to pay $150 per booking. The code is fairly clear that it's the 90-day license that costs $150, not anything to do with number of bookings.