ISHA Member Success
ISHA member state hospitality and lodging associations have over 2000 years’ experience combined. Following some of the legislative successes, they have achieved in the last two years.
 
Minimum Wage
  • Tennessee - Successfully stopped several Tennessee legislations that would have increased tipped minimum wage and the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
  • Pennsylvania - Continues to ensure that legislators understand what an extreme minimum wage and an increase in the tipped wage would do the hospitality industry in Pennsylvania.
  • New Jersey - Worked to delay the minimum wage increase.
  • Rhode Island - Defeated proposal to increase minimum wage to $15/hour and to eliminate the tipped wage.
  • Alabama - Secured pre-emption of minimum wage and mandatory benefits at the state-wide level.
 
Liquor Laws
  • Tennessee - Passed liquor legislation to allow free samples, patio allowance, liquor infusions, online training & testing, and tax simplification.
  • North Carolina - Passed the Brunch Bill which allows alcohol sales to begin in North Carolina at 10 AM (previously noon) on Sundays.
  • Georgia - Successfully promoted the passage of SB 17, the “Brunch Bill” which permits on-premise alcohol sales at 11:00am on Sunday mornings
  • Alabama - Successfully passed the brunch bill in Birmingham, Mobile and Auburn.
 
Short-Term Rentals
  •  Tennessee - Passed both state and local legislation that Short-Term Rentals now have to pay all local, state and federal taxes.  Local governments can now regulate and ban as they see fit with current legal units being grandfathered.
  • Maine - Passed legislation in Maine that requires transient rental platforms like Airbnb and VRBO to collect and remit lodging tax on behalf of their listers.
  • Florida - Successfully stopped the passage of bills that did not regulate hosting platforms such as Airbnb.
  • Wisconsin - Pursued and succeeded in passing in the state budget a requirement that short-term rentals must not only be licensed, but they also must collect and remit state and local taxes on lodging – the same as for other lodging properties.
  • Illinois - Successfully stopped a state law proposed by Home Away that would have prevented municipalities outside of Chicago from regulating short-term rentals.
  • Virginia - Successfully passed statewide legislation to reign in Airbnb. Since its passage, VRLTA has successfully been implementing Airbnb regulations in localities across the state.
  • New Jersey - Successfully amended the Airbnb tax with no Voluntary Collection Agreement to include language that the state has the authority to audit and Airbnb has to collect pertinent information.
  • Washington - Passed regulations and a tax on short-term rental units in Seattle and Walla Walla.
  • Texas - Defeated short-term rental preemption legislation that would have prevented cities from regulating the operation of short-term rental properties.
  • Oregon - Successfully passed legislation that requires third party intermediaries like Airbnb to be fully responsible for the payment of lodging tax to applicable government jurisdictions as collectors of lodging stay payments.
  • Massachusetts - Secured initial passage of the country’s most comprehensive Short-Term Rentals bill with MLA-led items including:
    • Equitable taxation of STRs, including vacation and corporate rentals
    • Basic health & safety regulations
    • Explicit anti-discrimination language to protect consumers
    • Protection of municipal oversight and regulation to develop rules for their own communities
  • Ohio - Collaborated and advocated with local jurisdictions on the specifics of short-term rental oversight to ensure a level playing field and better outcomes for communities and the industry.
  • New York City - Worked actively behind landmark legislation (Intro 0981 - Sponsor Council Member Carlina Rivera) in New York City’s Council, the legislative body, that requires all online short-term rental platforms to provide information about all transactions to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. Implementation is expected on February 1, 2019.
  • Georgia - Successfully fought off HB 579, which would have pre-empted local governments from banning, regulating, or involuntarily taxing Short-Term Rentals (i.e. Airbnb).
  • Indiana - Supported SB 249 which assigns the issue of taxation of short-term rentals to be studied in the 2018 interim.
  • California - Launched “It’s Time San Diego” and worked with Mayor Faulconer, in coordination with AHLA and SDHMA, to successfully prompt the San Diego City Council to enact strict regulations for short-term rentals.
  • Arizona - Eliminated loop-hole allowing online Short-Term Rentals to avoid paying taxes. The legislation amends the transaction privilege tax regarding the online lodging marketplace and registration with the Department of Revenue by changing the word “may” to “shall.” 
  • Arkansas - Worked with the state to encourage an agreement for Airbnb to pay state sales tax on rooms.
 
Human Trafficking
  • North Carolina - Successful in getting Human Trafficking Signage bill passed which authorizes those signs to be located in employee break rooms, rather than public areas.
  • Florida - Worked tirelessly in cooperation with the Commission to produce an ordinance in The City of Miami Beach that allows properties to implement a safety button system that works well for their property and gives the property owner one year to implement the system. The ordinance also includes a modest signage requirement and significantly reduced penalty provisions compared to the ordinance that was originally proposed.
  • Wisconsin - Worked with two state agencies to develop free Anti-Human Trafficking awareness and training videos specifically for lodging properties and distributed to all members.
  • Connecticut - Educated the CT Trafficking in Persons Council and key Legislators in order to compromise on terms included in the Public Act 17-31, An Act Concerning Human Trafficking that would support human trafficking education in the industry without penalties, as well as secure a seat on the TIP council for the lodging industry in the future.
 
Lodging Tax
  • Pennsylvania - Helped avert an increase in the State lodging tax from 9 to 10.5% in the midst of a State Government shutdown.
  • Oklahoma - Defeated the $5 per night state lodging tax, which would have raised Oklahoma City’s and Tulsa’s check-out rate to 20.14% and 19.73% respectively, making it the highest in the nation and second highest in the nation.
  • Oregon - Protected the appropriate use of lodging tax dollars by winning a court case against the City of Bend which passed a resolution to divert $350,000 from their Tourism Promotion Fund to road maintenance – a move that was deemed illegal.
  • Ohio - Engaged on the state and local level to protect hotels from illegal lodging taxes (including successful legal challenges to overturn such attempts), fees that disproportionally impact hotels, and harmful regulations.
  • Alabama - Successfully had lodging tax on meeting rooms removed.
 
 Occupancy Tax
  • North Carolina - Fought off numerous bad occupancy tax bills that would allow local jurisdictions to tap into dollars intended for tourism promotion.
  • Pennsylvania - Defeated a proposed 5 percent increase in the state occupancy tax.
  • Texas - Preserved the dedication local hotel occupancy tax revenue to only be used for events and activities that directly benefit tourists and hotel guests.
  • Connecticut - Successfully lowered taxes for B&B's, with 12 or less rooms, from a 15% combined tax plan to an 11% flat occupancy tax.
  • Hotel Association of Washington, D.C. - Defeated a proposed bed tax and protected the hotel occupancy tax from alternative uses by elected officials.  The proposed bed tax would have been used to fund government initiatives not directly beneficial to our industry.
  • Montana - Defeated HB 341 which would have raised bed tax by 1% and called for just the lodging industry to collect additional taxes that would have provided excess funds for an increase in state employee meal per diems.
 
Tourism Budget
  • Wisconsin - Successfully collaborated with partner state tourism associations to prevent budget cuts to the State Tourism Marketing Budget, when most other agencies had budget cuts.
  • Colorado - Participated in one-on-one meetings with legislators to explain the importance of tourism and worked with the TIAC Board and the CTO to ensure that the Joint Budget Committee had the information they needed to secure the same level of funding.
  • Arizona - Successfully conveyed to legislators and the Governor’s office the vital results promotion dollars deliver for the state’s economy, sparing a $1 million budget cut to state tourism promotion
  • Hotel Association of Washington, D.C. - Actively pursued increased dollars to increase tourism to the city and successfully worked with legislators to amend the District’s tax code to direct tax dollars to the city’s marketing bureau to be used to promote the city.
  • North Carolina - Fought off numerous bad occupancy tax bills that would allow local jurisdictions to tap into dollars intended for tourism promotion.

Member Resources