Airbnb will start collecting another lodging tax in an Alabama city within the next month.

AL.com reports the Birmingham City Council approved an agreement Tuesday allowing the short-term rental website to collect the city’s 6.5 percent tax on rentals. Airbnb already collects a four percent state lodging tax for all Alabama rentals, including Birmingham.

Assistant City Attorney Julie Barnard says the tax will be collected automatically when a room is booked within city limits.

Airbnb then will send the collected tax revenue to the city.

The city previously didn’t have a system requiring Birmingham Airbnb hosts to collect lodging tax on rentals.

Airbnb says Birmingham hosts earned about $1.5 million in 2017 from around 14,400 guests.

That means the city lost nearly $100,000 in lodging tax revenue that year.
(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

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