Key Takeaways

  • Starkville aldermen are weighing an ordinance that would subject Airbnb and Vrbo listings to the city’s existing 2% hotel tax plus a 1% parks and recreation tax
  • A 2025 Mississippi state law change enabled local governments to extend lodging taxes to third-party platform rentals, triggering similar moves in Columbus and Lowndes County
  • A second public hearing is scheduled for July 21, after which the board will decide whether to advance the ordinance requiring short-term rental registration within 60 days of passage

Starkville, Mississippi wants a cut of every Airbnb booking, and state law now makes it possible. The city’s board of aldermen is considering an amendment to its Unified Development Code that would bring short-term rental taxation in line with traditional hotels, subjecting properties listed on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo to the same lodging taxes that brick-and-mortar hotels have paid for decades.

The push came straight from the statehouse. According to a report by The Dispatch, Mississippi lawmakers amended the state tax code during the 2025 session to explicitly allow local governments to extend lodging taxes to rentals brokered through third-party platforms, but only if the governing authority formally votes to do so.

Starkville’s draft amendment would layer up to 3% in local taxes on top of Mississippi’s existing 7% state sales tax on lodging: a 2% city hotel/motel tax plus a 1% parks and recreation tax.

Nearby Columbus and Lowndes County already moved, enacting similar STR ordinances late last year.

Registration, posting rules tied to Starkville’s STR tax proposal

“We’re just wanting to be able to get the 1%, 2% (tax), make sure the … accommodations are appropriate and have some measure of understanding of how many we’ve got,” according to Mayor Lynn Spruill.

Related: New Jersey housing official charged with accepting bribe for short-term rental permit

The proposed rules go beyond the tax bill.

Under the amendment, every vacation rental operator would need to obtain a city license, display occupancy limits and noise policies inside the unit, and post a small exterior sign with the license number and emergency contacts, including the Starkville Police Department.

Owners who clear the first public hearing would have 60 days to register if the ordinance passes, with annual renewals that can be denied for non-compliance.

The first hearing is underway; a second is set for the July 21 board meeting, when aldermen will decide whether to move the ordinance forward.