Treasurer: short-term rentals rise while hotels lag; county grapples with inconsistent platform tax collection and long-term STR impacts

Warren County Treasurer Christine Norton told the Occupancy Tax Coordination Committee on June 23 that year-to-date occupancy-tax receipts showed a small decline driven by a roughly 12% drop at hotels, motels and resorts and a roughly 10% increase in short-term rentals (STRs).

“I collect the money. So I get the money in based on our 4% occupancy tax. Heather distributes the money,” Norton said while presenting the treasurer’s quarterly receipts and trend analysis.

Norton cautioned that June numbers were still incomplete because the county’s deadline for quarterly and monthly reporting is June 20 and some large hotels had not yet submitted. She said the apparent 4% year-to-date decline is likely to narrow when outstanding June submissions arrive.

Platform collection inconsistency: Norton reported she reviewed several STR host statements and found inconsistent collection of occupancy and sales taxes by booking platforms. “Airbnb is collecting 4% occupancy tax on some host statements ... they are not collecting the sales and use tax,” Norton said, adding that in other statements platforms collected sales tax but not occupancy tax. Norton said she is pursuing the issue with Airbnb and other platforms and expects New York State to mandate platform collection of county occupancy tax beginning in late 2025.

Norton described a timeline and exposure for hosts: reservations and payments made before March 1, 2025, are not retroactively subject to the new state collection rules, she said, but hosts may face exposure for bookings during the transition window if platforms did not collect tax.

County supervisors raised concerns about the longer-term effects of STR growth on the local tourism economy and housing. Supervisor Wilde summarized the trend: “Occupancy tax doubled. It started in 02/2004. It doubled in 02/19 2019. 15 years, it took to double. From 2019 to 2024, it raised by 60%. Between '21 and '22, well, this growth at 60%, was 3,800,000.0 over these last 5 years.” Wilde urged the committee to take a strategic view of how occupancy-tax revenue is being used.

Other supervisors and staff noted local zoning and permitting differences among towns: Lake George limits STRs in residential zones; Brant Lake has a cap; other towns remain more permissive. Committee members discussed that STR owners may spend less locally than hotel guests and asked whether continued STR growth could harm hotels and local businesses over time.

Staff also announced that the county has selected an end-to-end automation vendor for occupancy-tax processing to reduce manual work; staff said the automation effort will be routed through this committee and the finance committee for review and next steps.

What the committee will do next: staff said they will circulate more-complete June receipts when they are available, provide an itemized budget of occupancy-tax-funded contracts, continue engagement with state officials and booking platforms on collection practices, and report back in August on 2025 spending. Supervisors asked staff to include historical trends and sales-tax data in future reports to help assess the tourism economy.