Is Boerne, Texas good for short-term rentals?

Boerne allows short-term rentals under Ordinance No. 2023-09, so the real question is what caps the return. The binding constraints are a 200-foot block-face separation in residential zones, occupancy of two per bedroom plus two, a ban on events, 13 percent hotel occupancy tax, and a $500,000 liability insurance minimum.

The regulatory picture in one screen

Boerne is not a prohibition city and it is not an open city. It licenses. The full mechanics live on a separate page — what are the short-term rental rules in Boerne — but the parts that shape an underwriting model are these, all from the City of Boerne's short-term rental page:

$200 registration, two-year permit term, $200 renewal filed within 30 days of expiration.
Safety inspection required inside the city limits, $100 through a city inspector or done by an outside licensed inspector. Not required in the ETJ.
Liability insurance: $500,000 per occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate.
200-foot separation from another STR on the same block face in residentially zoned areas.
Occupancy: two people per bedroom plus two additional people. One parking space per bedroom.
Events prohibited.
Hotel occupancy tax remitted through the city portal.
Rules reach the city limits and the ETJ.

One more thing before the analysis: Boerne is the county seat of Kendall County, not part of the City of San Antonio and not in Bexar County. San Antonio's STR ordinance, with its own permit types and density formula, does not apply here. Investors read the San Antonio rules constantly and then buy in Boerne. Different rulebook.

The permit is two years, and what happens on resale is a question for the city

The ordinance sets a two-year term. The posted materials do not resolve whether an existing permit transfers to a new owner when the property sells. Treat that as unanswered until the Boerne Planning Department answers it in writing for the specific address.

That is not a technicality. If a permit does not run with the property, a buyer paying an STR price is buying income that depends on an approval they do not yet hold. And if the block-face situation has changed since the seller's permit was issued, a fresh application may not be grantable at all.

The block-face rule caps supply exactly where demand is

In residentially zoned areas, an STR cannot operate within 200 feet of another STR on the same block face, including residentially zoned property inside the Historic, Downtown and River Road overlay districts (City of Boerne). In the commercial portions of those overlays there is no separation requirement. Outside those overlays, STRs are prohibited in commercial zones.

The practical effect is the single most important fact on this page. The blocks closest to the Hill Country Mile — the walkable ones where a guest will pay a premium to park once and stay put — are exactly the blocks where the 200-foot allowance is most likely to already be consumed by an existing permit holder. A property can be a perfect STR in every respect and still be ineligible because a neighbor filed first.

This cuts both ways for an owner who clears it. Supply on a given block face is limited by ordinance, not by market appetite. That is a durable moat for a permit that already exists — and a hard wall for one that does not.

Confirm eligibility for the exact address with the Planning Department at (830) 248-1501 during the option period, not after closing.

Occupancy sets a hard ceiling on the revenue model

Two per bedroom plus two. A two-bedroom sleeps six. A three-bedroom sleeps eight. A four-bedroom sleeps ten.

That ceiling is what makes the large-group play difficult in Boerne's residential zones. A five-bedroom ranch house marketed to a reunion of eighteen cannot legally host eighteen, and a listing advertising that headcount is advertising a violation. If the model depends on a per-head rate times a large party, the ordinance has already priced it out.

Parking is one space per bedroom, with street parking allowed — which matters on the narrow older streets near downtown where on-site parking is scarce and neighbor complaints start.

Events are prohibited, so the venue play is off the table

Occupants may not hold events at the property. No weddings, no receptions, no corporate offsites, no paid photo shoots dressed up as a stay.

This closes a specific arbitrage that works in other Hill Country markets: buy acreage, rent it nightly, and sell the venue separately at a multiple of the nightly rate. In Boerne's STR framework that second revenue line does not exist. Anyone underwriting a Boerne property on event income is underwriting income the ordinance does not allow.

Tax and insurance are real line items, not rounding

Hotel occupancy tax in Boerne runs 13 percent combined — 6 percent state and 7 percent city (City of Boerne, Current Tax Rates), remitted through the city portal. Whether a booking platform collects and remits any portion on a host's behalf is a question for the platform and for a CPA; the obligation sits with the operator either way.

The insurance minimum — $500,000 per occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate — is the item most often missed at the modeling stage. A standard HO-3 homeowner's policy generally excludes commercial or transient-occupancy use, so the premium in the spreadsheet is usually the wrong premium. Get a real quote from an insurance agent who writes short-term rental coverage before the offer, not a placeholder.

Property tax is its own adjustment. A short-term rental is not a residence homestead, so it gets no homestead exemption and no 10 percent homestead cap. See how rental properties are taxed differently in Texas.

The demand side, stated only as far as the data goes

What is verifiable: Kendall County grew 20.3 percent between 2020 and 2025, from an estimated 44,568 to 53,289, with most of that coming from domestic migration — people moving in (Community Impact). Boerne is the Hill Country county seat roughly 31 miles from San Antonio on Interstate 10, which puts a metro of that size inside an easy drive for a weekend stay.

That is a real demand story. It is not an occupancy rate, an average daily rate, a RevPAR figure or a cap rate, and nobody should accept those numbers from a blog post about a market this small. Submarket performance in Boerne varies block to block — largely because of the block-face rule above.

What to actually do before writing an offer

Confirm STR eligibility for the specific address with the City of Boerne Planning Department, and get the answer on permit transferability in writing.
Check the deed restrictions and any POA declaration. A city permit is not HOA permission. See can an HOA ban short-term rentals in Texas.
Pull actual comparable performance data for real Boerne listings at a similar bedroom count and location, rather than a market-level average.
Have a CPA model it with hotel occupancy tax, the non-homestead property tax treatment, the real insurance quote, cleaning and management, and the reserve for a two-year permit cycle.
Build the analysis so it still works if the permit needs to be applied for fresh.

Boerne can work as a short-term rental market. Whether a particular house works is a question about that block face, that declaration, and that pro forma — and all three are answerable before the option period ends.

Questions about a specific property?

Call or text 830-446-3847 · Email heath.shepard@kw.com

This page describes publicly posted City of Boerne requirements as of September 2026 and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Confirm current terms with the City of Boerne Planning Department, deed restrictions with a Texas real estate attorney, and the numbers with a CPA.