A turnover guide for San Antonio short term rental hosts, covering the city permit types and blockface cap, hotel occupancy tax, trash and recycling rules and the cleaning standard guests expect.
San Antonio draws visitors to its historic districts and to the five missions that together form the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas. When visitors stay in a home rather than a hotel, the city regulates that stay closely.
This guide covers the San Antonio rules every host should know before the first booking, and what a guest-ready turnover clean should look like in a city of hard water, cedar pollen and long hot seasons.
The City of San Antonio issues two kinds of short term rental permit. A Type 1 permit covers a home that is owner or operator occupied, such as a garage apartment or a room in the house you live in. A Type 2 permit covers a home that is not owner occupied, and its fee is more than twice the Type 1 fee. Permits are valid for three years, cannot be transferred to a new owner and are needed for each unit separately, so a duplex with two rentals needs two permits.
The city also caps short term rental permits per blockface, meaning one side of a street between two intersections. Once a blockface reaches its cap, another permit takes a special exception from the Board of Adjustment. In popular areas near downtown, check the blockface before buying a property with rental plans.
San Antonio short term rental operators must remit hotel occupancy tax: 9 percent for the city and 1.75 percent for Bexar County. Reports are due monthly, even in a month with no bookings and nothing owed. Keep turnover records with your booking calendar, because the cleaning log is a simple way to match stays to tax reports.
None of this is cleaning work, but it shapes the schedule. A host who treats every stay as a business transaction, with a dated checklist and photos after each turnover, has what they need if a guest complains or a tax question comes up.
Guests notice the bathroom first, and in San Antonio that is where a rushed turnover shows. SAWS water runs 15 to 20 grains per gallon of hardness, so shower glass and chrome spot quickly between stays. A turnover that skips the squeegee and the faucet wipe shows by the third booking.
In cedar season, from mid December to early March, pollen collects on sills, blinds and the throw blankets guests use. A guest with cedar fever will notice, so wipe sills and blinds and wash throws more often in those weeks, and change the air filter at the start of the season.
In the long hot season, with about 122 days a year at 90 degrees or more, guests run the air conditioning hard and spend afternoons inside. Check vents and fans for dust on every turnover, and keep a spare filter on hand.
Historic properties need extra care. A rental inside one of the city's 32 locally designated historic districts, such as King William or Dignowity Hill, often has original floors and old tile that call for mild products and soft pads.
Even a well kept rental needs a deeper reset a few times a year: baseboards washed by hand, blinds wet-wiped, window tracks cleaned and shower glass treated for hard water spots. Good moments are after cedar season and after a busy run of summer bookings. When TotalCare Cleaning comes to San Antonio, a One-Time Deep Clean will cover that list. See the deep cleaning guide.
The questions San Antonio homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service San Antonio and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
