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Eighteen months back, Jason Palmer and his wife of Grain Valley leased three separate apartments in downtown Kansas City — with dramatic views high across the skyline — with a simple idea in mind:
Short-term rentals via Airbnb. “Make some extra money,” Palmer said of his modern units at Sky on Main Luxury Apartments, 920 Main St.
Except on Wednesday, those properties ended up costing him money — $200, leveled as a fine in Kansas City Municipal Court where Palmer, appearing remotely over video, pleaded “guilty” before Judge Todd D. Wilcher for advertising and failing to properly register the properties as Kansas City ordinances enacted last year now require.
Palmer’s excuse: Sort of forgot, he told The Star. “We were very confused on the laws and regulations. We thought we had everything done by the book.”
Minutes later, Brenda Eslinger, also of Grain Valley, got hit with the same fine, $200, for failing to register her Airbnb in the same building. “Our certification inadvertently lapsed,” she told The Star.
Nieme Vidal of Kansas City was up next — the third case, third guilty plea of the morning, the third $200 fine.
Vidal’s issue: The cozy, two-bedroom bungalow she put up on Airbnb on N.E. 46th St. also wasn’t registered. Vidal couldn’t register it, because, against the ordinance, she doesn’t live in the home. The ordinance doesn’t allow short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods unless the owner lives in the house.
“I started a year ago, I applied and they denied it. I applied again, and they denied it,” she said after court. “Who wants to rent the house when the owner lives in it?”
For Vidal, enough is enough.
“I’m not going to do short-term in Kansas City anymore,” she said. “I own 15 units, a mix of short-term and long-term. It is the only one I have in Kansas City. If I’m going to buy next time, I’m not going to buy in Kansas City. It’s unfriendly to the investor.”
In May 2023, the Kansas City City Council took aim at the proliferation of Airbnbs, VRBOs and other short-term rentals in the city — a market anticipated to grow as the 2026 World Cup approaches — by passing two ordinances that went into effect on June 15, 2023 , a year ago this summer.
The ordinances moved registration of short-term rentals from the city’s Planning and Development department to the Neighborhood Services department. It also spelled out multiple new rules.
Among them: a flat $200 registration fee. No new short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods unless the owner lives in the house. (Formerly approved non-owner-occupied rentals were still OK.) As of August 2023, short-term rentals have been required to pay a 7.5% tax. Those found guilty of failing to register could be hit with fines ranging from $200 to $1,000.
Since last summer, Wilcher’s Wednesday 11 a.m. court docket has slowly been building with non-registration cases. The city last year estimated that it had about 2,000 short-term rentals, between 7% and 10% of Kansas City’s hotel space. As for August, the city had registered about 600, or 30% of its estimated total.
“I’d say three years ago, we weren’t getting short-term rental violation cases. We did not get them,” Wilcher, the judge, said from the bench.
A city attorney estimated they are now being referred between 10 to 20 violations a week — although some are dismissed, and not all are charged.
“What the neighbors have found is that properties being used for short-term rentals, it alters the character of the neighborhood,” Wilcher said. “You’ve got people coming in on vacation time, and they’re not behaving like the people they’re used to, who have 9-to-5 jobs, gone during the day, come back in the evening.”
Although fines are mounting, most so far have been small, less than $300. Through a Missouri Sunshine Law request, The Star received a spread sheet of registration violation cases. The city reported it found records of 99 short-term rental violation cases filed in municipal court between May 1, 2023 and August 12, 2024.
Of those, a collective $4,400 had been assessed in 24 cases.
Of that, the city reported, only $2,312. 50 of fines have so far been paid. Arrest warrants have been issued for defendants who have not shown up for court.
Even before he received his $200 fine, Palmer of Grain Valley said he had already been thinking of getting out of the the short-term rentals business.
“It wasn’t that profitable,” he said. “There were months you made some money and some months you didn’t.”
His wife, he said, cleaned the apartments herself. Toss in Kansas City’s 7.5% tax and “the math doesn’t make sense on it anymore,” Palmer said.
At this early point, it is unknown whether registrations for short-term rentals will rise as the 2026 World Cup approaches and when, for a few weeks in June and July, tens of thousands of soccer fans descend on Kansas City.
Considering the money that can be made, others may think it is worth risking a $200 to $1,000 fine to open an apartment or home during one of the world’s most-watched sporting events.
What Wilcher can say is that, so far, even a modest $200 fine appears be working.
“I don’t have a lot of repeat offenders,” the judge said. “It’s fair to assume that maybe it is effective. And just to avoid the experience of coming to court.
“I think people would pay $200 to avoid the experience altogether.”
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