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WARREN -- Commissioners are expected to vote to require short-term rental facilities with five or less rooms to pay the same lodging tax that larger hotels and motels currently have to pay.
Trumbull now charges 5% lodging or bed taxes on short-term lease organizations that have five or more beds. Of that amount, 3% is used by the Western Reserve Port Authority, and 2% is used by the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau.
There are 20 other counties across Ohio with this same type of policy, and two Trumbull communities, Howland and Liberty, have these same rules, according to Nicholas Coggins, assistant director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission.
Commissioner Denny Malloy noted that requiring these smaller facilities to charge the lodging tax will help them because the Trumbull Tourism Bureau will now be able to advertise them in its programs and on its website.
The tourism bureau currently does not advertise short-term rentals, but every establishment with five beds or more is on Trumbull Tourism’s website.
"All we are doing is leveling the playing field," Commissioner Tony Bernard said.