VIDEO: Airbnb Is Now Collecting And Remitting State Taxes

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Airbnb has become a popular housing option for many people.

However, there has now been a slight change in the rental process.

At the beginning of the month, Airbnb began collecting and remitting state taxes for all bookings.

In 2016, Airbnb brought nearly $4 million in revenue to the state

Now, with the state collecting and remitting hotel taxes, hosts say they understand the decision and don’t think it’ll impact their business.

“Airbnb is now the catch phrase for short term rental,” said Dorothy Hendrick, who rents property through Airbnb.

Hendrick has been renting properties through Airbnb for about a year now.

She rents properties in Starkville, and said she enjoys the rental process, and knows how beneficial and convenient it can be.

“We enjoy the personable part of renting by Airbnb,” she expressed. “We meet some very nice people, and a lot of them are really interesting from all parts of the country, even other countries.”

With Starkville being a college town, Hendrick said there’s always a high demand of people looking for a place to stay, especially on the weekends Mississippi State has a home football game.

“We diversify,” Hendrick explained. “We have regular long-term rentals where people move in their furniture and they stay for a year, and then we also have this short term Airbnb business. I would say Gross income is probably about three times what a normal long-term yearly rent would be.”

However, when she found out Airbnb will now start collecting and remitting hotel taxes, Hendrick said she understood it was a business decision.

“It’s the norm, and nothing unusual,” she said.

Airbnb now collects and remits the 7% state hotel tax on all of its bookings, along with local tourism and economic development taxes administered by the state.

The taxes will be added in when renters pay for their Airbnb, then Airbnb will will remit the taxes to the state.

“When I go to visit a hotel I’m being charged hotel taxes, and probably recreational fees, and city taxes and things like that, and I don’t mind paying those,” said Hendrick . “So, I think that Airbnb, i’m assuming they are going to collect it for us, and the easier they make it for me, I probably won’t even miss a beat, I won’t even know it. So, I would say that it does not bother me.”

Mississippi now joins various other states including Alabama to have this change implemented.