Lawmakers mull hotel license fee
Measure would apply to short-term rentals and bed-and-breakfasts
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> City lawmakers are considering amending the section of Kingston’s code dealing with hotels to, in part, require a fee to license such businesses, which include bed-and-breakfasts and short-term rentals.
During an online meeting Wednesday, the Common Council’s Laws and Rules Committee endorsed a resolution to amend a portion of section 277-2 of the city code to note that a fee would be charged for the processing of all applications for licenses or renewals to operate a hotel in Kingston. The amount of the fee, though, is still to be determined by the council’s Finance and Audit Committee and then added to the city’s standing fee schedule.
The Common Council had previously changed the definition of “hotels” within the city code to include that it referred to facilities commonly known as bedand-breakfasts and short-term rentals.
The Laws and Rules Committee also moved to amend section 277-2, subsection C, to note that proof of the payment of the hotel bed tax charged by Ulster County would be presumptive evidence of a pre-existing business that is entitled to a hotel license.
Additionally, the committee endorsed amending section 277-3 of the code regarding the inspection of hotels and the keeping of a register of guests. The changes would remove a requirement for hotel owners to publicly maintain those records and would change the type of information kept on the registered guests, limiting it
to the name of each guest, their permanent residence, and their contact information. Such information would also be made available to the city, upon request, as part of an inspection by the building department.
The proposed changes will next go to the full Common Council for consideration. The council is scheduled to meet again next month.
The changes to the hotel section of the city code came about as part of the committee’s ongoing discussion of issues surrounding short-term rental operations in Kingston. Aldermen have sought to establish regulations for such businesses like some other communities in the region have done.
City Assistant Corporation Counsel Daniel Gartenstein told aldermen that any regulations they seek to impose have to be supported by data-driven reasons.
Aldermen ultimately agreed that requiring licenses and charging a fee for them would be a way to begin addressing the issues.
“And by doing that you start collecting the data to support whatever subsequent steps you’re going to take,” Gartenstein said. He said the first step is to get all hotels licensed and identified so aldermen know how many are regularly used for rental purposes and which ones are periodically rented when the property owner is away. Gartenstein said there are a lot of different types of short-term rental uses and city officials do not really know what they have in Kingston.