"AirBnB" Hotel Planned for Austin's Rainey St.

[David Ivy]

You may soon be able to buy your own hotel room in Austin to operate as an AirBnB short-term rental. Miami-based NGD Homesharing plans to open a 33-story hotel in 2022 in the Rainey Street District and sell the individual units as condos. This is not a timeshare or fractional ownership model. The property will have hotel zoning, which requires that unit owners themselves can only reside in the building for a maximum of 30 days at a time.  However, in partnership with AirBnB, owners may lease their units on a short-term/hotel basis like any other AirBnB property. Units will range in price from $300s to $1.2 million and be 454 sqft. to 1,390 sqft.

This is a clever way around Austin's current STR ordinance. If this were built like any other residential condominium tower, at most 25% of the unit owners would be allowed to operate a short-term rental, provided the condo association allows STR in the first place. Instead this property will be permitted, built, licensed, and operated as a hotel. You can check details here.