§ 598.02. Permit Required

(A)

(1)

No person, including but not limited to an owner, operator, manager, or employee shall engage in, conduct, or carry on, or permit to be engaged in, conducted or carried on, in or upon any premises in the city of Columbus, the operation of a hotel/motel without obtaining a permit in accordance with this chapter. It shall be prima facie evidence of hotel/motel operation if a guest is found to be occupying a guest room or if any person is found to be using a hotel/motel facility.

(2)

No person, including but not limited to an owner, operator, manager or employee shall engage in, conduct, or carry on, or permit to be engaged in, conducted or carried on, in or upon any premises in the city of Columbus, the operation of a short-term rental without obtaining a permit in accordance with this chapter. It shall be prima facie evidence of a short-term rental operation if a short-term rental guest is found to be occupying or using a short-term rental.

(B)

An application for a new permit may be submitted at any time to the Director. If the application is approved and a permit is issued, the permit shall take effect on the day of issuance, and shall expire on December 31st of the year in which it was issued.

(C)

A permit to operate a hotel/motel or short-term rental shall be renewed by the applicant before the end of each calendar year.

The deadline for submitting an application for renewal shall be the first Monday of November of the year in which the permit is set to expire. Failure to renew shall result in expiration on December 31st. If a permit is successfully renewed, it shall be in effect for one calendar year, beginning on January 1st and expiring on December 31st of the same year.

(Ord. No. 1921-2015 , § 1, 11-16-2015; Ord. No. 2145-2018 , § 1, 7-30-2018)

Editor's note

Section 3 of Ord. No. 2145-2018 , adopted July 30, 2018 states "That section 598.02(A)(2) of this ordinance shall go into effect and be in effect from and after January 1, 2019. Any other provision of this ordinance notwithstanding, the Department of Public Safety is authorized to conduct any work necessary to implement the foregoing date."