Short-term rental permit rules in El Paso County, TX — also called Airbnb permits, vacation rental licenses, or STR registration — list the application steps, fees, and operating requirements for hosting.
El Paso County issues no short-term-rental permit. Texas counties have no general zoning power in unincorporated areas, so STRs there operate without a county permit; only cities like El Paso, Socorro, and Horizon City may license rentals inside their limits.
Texas counties have no general zoning or land-use-permitting authority in unincorporated areas. Local Government Code Chapter 231 grants zoning power only to a short list of specifically named counties, and El Paso County is not one of them, so the Commissioners Court cannot require an STR permit or license outside city limits. A vacation rental in the unincorporated county therefore needs no county STR permit. Regulation is city-level: El Paso, Socorro, Horizon City, San Elizario, and other municipalities may adopt STR ordinances inside their boundaries. Unincorporated-area operators still meet building, on-site septic (OSSF), and fire-code rules and pay the county hotel occupancy tax, but there is no county STR permit to apply for.
There is no county STR permit, so no county permit-violation penalty exists in unincorporated areas. Inside a city, operating without that city's required STR registration is enforceable by the municipality (typically a Class C misdemeanor, up to $500).
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how El Paso County's permit requirements rules stack up against other locations.
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