Short-term rentals in Mobile, explained properly.

Sec. 64-2-24 says a use marked C is permitted only if a conditional use permit is approved by the city council, with the conditions and limits of article 5. Sec. 64-5-6 applies to any use designated as a conditional use. Table 64-2-24.1 marks short-term rentals C in R-A, R-1, R-2, R-3, R-B, T-B, LB-2, B-2, B-3, B-4 and MM and leaves H-B, B-1, B-5, CW, ML, MH, I-1 and I-2 blank, which the section defines as not permitted. The permit is in addition to the City business license under Sec. 34-46. We haven't reviewed the permit application forms, fees or processing times, so no fee is shown. The history note of Sec. 64-5-6 lists Ord. No. 64-017-2022 (7-12-22) and Ord. No. 64-027-2025 (6-3-25).

Sec. 64-5-6(g)(13) is one of the criteria for a short-term rental conditional use permit. It gives renting out multiple individual rooms to multiple separate groups or persons as the example of what is not permitted.

Sec. 64-5-6(g)(1) to (4) set these criteria for a short-term rental conditional use permit: no on-site employees, no more than eight (8) guest rooms in any one establishment, no meals served and no cooking facilities in guest rooms.

Sec. 64-5-6(g)(12) is one of the criteria for a short-term rental conditional use permit.

Sec. 64-5-6(g)(8) sets this parking criterion for a short-term rental conditional use permit. Sec. 64-5-6(g)(7) separately requires the refuse area to be screened from view and set at least twenty (20) feet from any property line and one hundred (100) feet from any dwelling on an adjacent lot.

Sec. 64-5-6(g)(9) is one of the criteria for a short-term rental conditional use permit. Sec. 64-5-6(g)(6) adds that the operation shall not alter the residential nature of the neighborhood or the character of the dwelling as a residence.

Sec. 64-5-6(g)(11) is one of the criteria for a short-term rental conditional use permit.

Sec. 34-46(b)(3) requires the name and telephone number of a local responsible party to be conspicuously posted within each short-term rental. The local responsible party must answer and respond to calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of each short-term rental period to address problems or complaints associated with the rental.

Sec. 34-46(b)(2) requires any person or entity serving or operating as a short-term rental manager that is not also the owner to obtain their own separate business license under the Mobile City Code. Sec. 34-43 defines real property management to include any person or entity that engages in renting or offering to rent a short-term rental, and states that it must hold a broker's license from the Alabama Real Estate Commission; that definition excludes persons exempt under Code of Ala. § 34-27-2 and listing services or online platforms for short-term rentals.

Sec. 34-43 defines a short-term rental as a lodging accommodation for transient guests where a residential dwelling unit or any part of it is provided in exchange for compensation. It includes a dwelling of any type, room, building, house or other habitable structure, including a manufactured home, that can be used as a transient sleeping place for less than 180 consecutive days per rental period. Hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and other land uses that the Unified Development Code defines and regulates separately are not short-term rentals. The definition also excludes a rental between parties to the sale of the dwelling where valid documentation of the sale is provided, and rentals of property subject to the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Code of Ala. § 35-9A-101 et seq.).

Section 40-26-1 of the Code of Alabama levies a privilege or license tax on every person in the business of renting or furnishing rooms, lodging or accommodations to transients in any hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp, tourist cabin or any other place in which rooms, lodgings or accommodations are regularly furnished to transients for a consideration. The rate is 5% of the charge in the 16 counties of the Alabama mountain lakes area (Blount, Cherokee, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan and Winston) and 4% in every other county, and the charge includes any charge for personal property and services furnished in the room. The tax does not apply to rooms, lodgings or accommodations supplied for 180 continuous days or more. The Alabama Department of Revenue says lodgings tax is collected through an account at My Alabama Taxes, and that counties and cities may add their own lodgings taxes of between 1% and 13%, some collected by the Department, some by third-party administrators and some by the local government itself. Local lodgings taxes are shown on each place's page.

Section 40-26-1.1 of the Code of Alabama (the Alabama Tourism Tax Protection Act of 2024, Act 2024-334) says an accommodations intermediary, meaning a business other than the owner that facilitates a lodging transaction and charges the guest a room or accommodations fee it keeps as compensation, must collect and remit the state lodgings tax and parallel local levies for transactions on or after January 1, 2025. The tax is charged on the room charge, the full retail price the guest pays including any fees. When the intermediary handles the booking for an accommodations provider (an owner with an active lodgings tax account who collects and remits the tax), the tax collected may be remitted to the provider if an executed written agreement says who remits it, and the intermediary is then not liable for tax the provider fails to remit. The intermediary must state the tax separately on the bill. Where the owner has hired a licensed professional property management company, that company is the merchant of record. The Department of Revenue's notice describes the same rules. Which local lodgings taxes a platform collects in a given place is not stated in these sources; check with the platform and the local tax office.

Section 40-26-1.1(g) requires every accommodations intermediary and accommodations provider to submit an annual report, in a form set by the Department of Revenue, listing the physical address of each accommodation rented or furnished for more than 14 days during the previous year; the report is confidential taxpayer information. Exempt are licensed professional property management companies that collect and remit the state lodgings tax (or manage homes leased for a month or more as the tenant's principal residence), hotels that collect and remit the tax, tourism marketing organizations funded by the tax, and marina, tent camping and RV providers that collect and remit it. The Department of Revenue's notice describes the same reporting rule and exemptions.