McKinney - March - 2026

Government

BY COLBY FARR

Registration will soon be required for short- term rental operators in McKinney. McKinney City Council members passed an ordinance amendment requiring annual registration of all rentals within city limits during a March 3 meeting. Council members voted 4-2 in favor of approving the ordinance amendment. Mayor Bill Cox and council member Rick Franklin dissented, and council member Ernest Lynch was not present for the vote. Development Services Executive Director Michael Quint said no fee was proposed to make it easy for operators to register but a fee could be added at a later date. Other North Texas cities, such as Frisco and Plano, also require short-term registration. Allen: Registration required annually • $350 for irst-time registration • $250 for renewal Frisco: Registration required annually • $300 for irst-time registration • $300 for renewal Plano: Registration required annually • $300 for irst-time registration • $200 for renewal McKinney: Registration required annually • No fee for registering New rules set for short-term rental operators

The background

The framework

Short-term rentals are typically dened as a residential property that is rented to someone who is not a permanent resident, according to a sta presentation. The city collects hotel occupancy taxes directly from Airbnb and Vrbo, two platforms that manage short-term rental reservations in McKinney. When a visitor books a hotel or a short-term rental, they pay a 13% hotel occupancy tax. The city keeps 7%, and the remaining is collected by the state. Dollars collected by the city are used for promoting local events that generate overnight stays. Hotel occupancy tax revenues have increased each of the last ve years, with more than $3.3 million generated in scal year 2024-25.

As part of the annual registration, rental operators must provide contact information for someone who can be reached 24 hours a day, according to a city document. The program aims to help identify rentals in McKinney in order to assist investigations related to criminal conduct or public nuisances. “Without a registration ordinance, it’s dicult to know how many short-term rentals we actually have,” Quint said. Ocials estimate there are about 486 short-term rentals operating in and around McKinney, according to the sta presentation. Council member Geré Feltus asked how much sta time it would take to operate a registration program and whether that would justify a fee. Quint said it depends on how the program is administered and whether it can be automated through a platform such as Energov. “At a high level, we don’t think it’ll be a whole lot of work if we can automate it,” he said. “If it’s not automated and we have to do everything through paper applications, there’ll be some nominal load on city sta resources.” Any short-term rental operators who do not register with the city would be subject to a Class C misdemeanor, which is similar for other code violations, Quint said. Code violations are punishable by a ne of up to $500, according to McKinney’s code of ordinances.

Hotel occupancy tax revenues in McKinney

$4M Hotel occupancy tax revenue

$3M

$2M

$1M

SOURCE: CITY OF MCKINNEYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

SOURCE: VISIT MCKINNEYCOMMUNITY IMPACT

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