Springfield, OR Short-Term Rentals: Host Platform Liability (2026)

Section 7.706, last amended by Ordinance No. 6445 in 2022, provides that transient lodging providers who receive any portion of the rent for transient lodging, and transient lodging intermediaries that provide booking service, are both "transient lodging tax collectors" and are jointly and severally liable for the tax. Section 7.700 defines a "transient lodging intermediary" as a person other than the provider who facilitates the retail sale of the lodging by charging for or collecting the rent, or by requiring the provider to use a specified third party to collect it, and separately identifies a "short-term rental hosting platform" as a type of intermediary.

Because liability is joint and several, the city's tax administrator, the finance director or a designee, is not required to exhaust remedies against the host before pursuing the platform, and either party's payment satisfies the debt. Section 7.704 requires every collector, host or platform, to hand over addresses and contact information for lodging facilities within city limits on the city's request, and section 7.712 requires quarterly returns showing gross rents, taxable rents and tax collected. Section 7.722 lets the city record a lien against real property owned by a delinquent transient lodging provider, though a lien reaches the host's property rather than a platform's.