Short-term rental rules and hotel taxes in Dallas and Fort Worth, explained plainly

The rules in one paragraph

In Dallas and Fort Worth, a short-term rental owes Texas state hotel occupancy tax, owes a city hotel occupancy tax, and must be registered with the city. Dallas states that it has no collection agreement with Airbnb or VRBO, so the owner, operator or manager files and pays the city tax monthly. Fort Worth allows short-term rentals only outside its residential zoning districts and requires registration before a property is listed. HOA deed restrictions can add limits on top of all of this, and the rules can change, so confirm them for your specific address before you buy, furnish or list.

We at PMI Big Tex manage short-term rentals across North Texas, and compliance questions come up in almost every first conversation. This guide summarizes what the state and the two largest cities publish, with the sources listed below. It is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules and rates change, so check the current pages and talk to a licensed attorney or tax professional about your own property.

The state layer: Texas hotel occupancy tax

Texas treats a short-term rental much like a hotel room for tax purposes. The Texas Comptroller states that the state hotel occupancy tax rate is 6% of the cost of a room, that it applies to rooms costing $15 or more per day, and that it covers not only hotels and motels but also bed and breakfasts, condominiums, apartments and houses. The Comptroller also states that people leasing their houses must collect the tax from guests the same way a hotel does, and that property management companies, online travel companies and other third-party rental companies may also be responsible for collecting it.

The Comptroller notes that cities, certain counties and special purpose districts can impose an additional local hotel tax. That local layer is where most of the variation, and most of the confusion, comes from.

Dallas: registration and the city hotel tax

The City of Dallas Controller's Office treats a short-term rental as a hotel for hotel tax purposes, defining it as the rental of all or part of a residential property to someone who is not a permanent resident, meaning someone without the right to use the space for at least 30 consecutive days. The office states that every hotel, including short-term rentals, must have a registration form on file with the city, and that registration can be completed online.

The city rate is 9% of net room receipts, collected from guests. Reports and payments are due monthly, by the 15th day of the month following the month the tax was collected. The point new hosts most often miss is this: the Controller's Office states that the city does not have a collection agreement with any platform, such as Airbnb or VRBO. The owner, operator or manager is responsible for registering the property and paying the tax, even if the platform handles other taxes on the booking.

Keep in mind that the city tax sits on top of the state tax, so guests see both on the bill. Price your listing with the full taxed total in mind, because that is the number a guest compares with the hotel down the road.

• Register the property with the city before collecting tax
• Collect the city tax from guests along with the state tax
• File and pay monthly, by the 15th of the following month
• Keep records of every stay and every amount collected

What a late Dallas filing costs

The Controller's Office publishes its timing rules plainly. Payments postmarked by the 15th receive a 1% discount on the taxes due. A payment one or more days late owes all taxes due plus 10% annual interest. A payment three or more months late adds a 15% penalty plus the interest, a change the page notes takes effect February 1, 2026. The page also states that penalties and interest cannot be waived or forgiven.

Those terms make a missed month expensive and a missed year painful. The fix is simple and boring: register before your first booking, put the 15th on your calendar every month and reconcile the tax collected against your booking records each time you file. If you have been hosting without filing, talk to a tax professional about getting current before the gap grows.

Dallas zoning: the 2023 ordinance and the court fight

Separate from the tax rules, Dallas adopted an ordinance in 2023 that bans short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. Operators challenged it in court. FOX 4 reported in February 2025 that a state appeals court upheld a lower court's temporary injunction, which meant short-term rentals could keep operating in residential neighborhoods while the legal challenge continued. The report noted that the ruling concerned the temporary injunction, not whether the ordinance itself is legal, and that the city could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court or proceed to trial.

For an owner, that means two things. First, the zoning question in Dallas is unsettled, and the outcome could change what is allowed in residential areas. Check the current status before buying a property for short-term use. Second, the court fight over zoning does not pause the tax and registration rules described above; the Controller's Office still states that every short-term rental must be registered and must remit the city tax.

Fort Worth: zoning decides before anything else

Fort Worth takes a different approach, and it starts with the zoning map. The City of Fort Worth states that short-term rentals are allowed in all mixed-use and most form-based districts, as well as commercial and industrial districts, and that they are not allowed in residential districts, which its page lists as the A, AR, B, R1, R2, CR, C, D and UR districts. A single-family house in a residential district therefore generally cannot operate legally as a short-term rental there.

The zoning confirmation is worth running before you make an offer on a property, not after closing. The city's page explains that an address where short-term rental is not permitted receives a determination that the use is prohibited at that location. Rezoning is a separate and much longer process, so for most buyers that determination settles the question.

Where short-term rentals are allowed, registration comes first. Fort Worth states that owners must register the property through its LocalGov system before it is listed, upload a zoning confirmation showing a success message, and renew the registration annually. The city lists a first-time application fee of $150 and an annual renewal fee of $100. Its hotel occupancy tax is 9% of room receipts, made up of a 7% hotel tax and a 2% convention tax, with reports and payments due monthly by the 25th of the following month, even in months with no bookings.

Suburbs and HOAs: check every address on its own

The suburbs around both cities each set their own rules, and they do not follow a single pattern. Some require registration or permits, some levy their own hotel tax, and some regulate occupancy, parking or noise. Before you buy or list in Plano, Frisco, Irving, McKinney, Grapevine or anywhere else, look up that city's current short-term rental and hotel tax pages, or call the city directly.

Then check the HOA. Deed restrictions and association rules can limit or prohibit short-term rentals even where the city allows them, and associations can enforce their own rules with fines. Condo bylaws often have minimum lease terms. Read the documents yourself rather than relying on a seller's or neighbor's summary, and ask the association in writing if anything is unclear.

• City zoning and any short-term rental ordinance
• City registration or permit requirements
• Local hotel occupancy tax rate, filing system and due date
• HOA deed restrictions and association rules
• Condo bylaws and minimum lease terms
• Occupancy, parking and noise rules

A monthly routine that keeps you compliant

Compliance is mostly a habit. Owners who stay out of trouble treat the tax filing like a utility bill: the same day every month, the same records, no exceptions. Keep a simple ledger of every stay with dates, nightly revenue, cleaning fees and taxes collected, and reconcile it against platform payouts before you file. Keep copies of registrations and renewal dates where you will see them.

If a manager handles your property, ask exactly which of these steps they perform and which remain yours, and get the answer in the management agreement. Responsibility that nobody has written down tends to fall back on the owner, usually at the worst moment.

Personal use deserves its own log, because the IRS treats days you or your family use the property differently from rental days. Our guide to the mistakes new Texas hosts make covers that and other year-end surprises. Insurance is the other half of protecting the property; our guide on insurance and protecting a short-term rental explains what to ask your agent.

Where we fit in

When you come to us, we talk through the rules that apply to your specific address as part of the free consultation, along with a free rental analysis of what the property could earn. Each property we manage gets its own bookkeeping and accounting, which keeps the stay-by-stay records that filings depend on in one place. If the rules or the HOA point away from short-term rental, we will say so, and our guide comparing short-term and long-term rental for a house helps you weigh the alternative.

If you live elsewhere and are trying to keep up with filings from a distance, our guide on running a rental from out of state covers the rest of what remote owners need in place. Our office is on Turtle Creek Boulevard, and we manage short-term rentals throughout the metro area.

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