Airbnb starts collecting short-term rental taxes in Pasadena, California, on May 1

Starting May 1, Airbnb will collect lodging taxes on behalf of its short-term rental hosts in Pasadena, California.

Pasadena hosts have been required to collect transient occupancy tax (TOT) of 12.11 percent from guests on short-term rentals since March of this year, according to new city rules passed last fall.

Effective May 1, Airbnb will collect the 12.11 percent Pasadena TOT for its hosts. However, short-term rental operators who use other services, such as VRBO or HomeAway, are responsible for registering, filing, and remitting all lodging taxes to the city. The MyLodgeTax service can help short-term rental operators easily and accurately take care of their lodging tax obligations.

The new rules also require Pasadena hosts to live in the rental property at least nine months out of the year, and they must get a short-term rental permit from the city. The regulations restrict short-term rentals to 90 days per year when the host is not present in the home; there is no limit on hosted rental days. Pasadena has established a hotline for reporting illegal short-term rental properties or parking, trash, and other nuisance complaints relating to short-term vacation rentals.

The new transient occupancy tax — boosted by Airbnb’s agreement with the city to collect the tax, is expected to generate at least $600,000 per year for Pasadena’s cash-strapped city coffers.

Pasadena Airbnb hosts made $7.8 million from short-term rentals in the year before the new law was passed, according to Airbnb.