Saint Paul, MN Short-Term Rentals: Host Platform Liability (2026)

Sec. 06 lays out the general provisions every short-term rental platform operating in Saint Paul must follow, and it puts the compliance burden squarely on the platform rather than leaving it implicit. First, under subsection (a) a platform must possess a valid short-term rental platform license issued under Chapter 379 before it can operate in the city at all, this is the license priced at $11,181 annually under the Sec. 01 fee schedule. Second, subsection (b) requires the platform to report to the city electronically on a quarterly basis: the total number of short-term rentals listed on the platform in the city broken out by zip code, and the total number of nights those zip-code listings were rented during the reporting period.

This reporting duty gives DSI a running census of short-term rental activity without relying on host self-reporting alone. Third, subsection (c) creates the liability-shifting rule at the heart of this target: the platform must inform every host who registers with it that the host is responsible for collecting and remitting all applicable local, state, and federal taxes on the rental, unless the platform itself performs that collection and remittance on the host's behalf. In practice this means the tax-remittance obligation defaults to the individual host, and it only shifts to the platform if the platform affirmatively takes it on; a platform that stays silent on this point, or that says nothing to a newly registered host, is not in compliance with subsection (c).

Failure to hold the required license or to meet subsections (b) and (c) exposes the platform to adverse license action by DSI under Chapter 310's uniform procedures, since operating a platform without a valid license is independently unlawful under Sec. 02.