Manteno and Kankakee County have the opportunity to generate more revenue for Visit Kankakee County, formerly the Kankakee County Convention and Visitors Bureau, an organization that promotes the county as an overnight destination and all it has to offer.

Part of Visit Kankakee County’s revenue stream is a 5% tax on each stay in the county’s hotels and motels. Now the state is requiring the tax to be collected on short-term rentals, commonly known as Airbnb, VRBO or bed and breakfast.

The village imposes and collects the hotel tax, not Visit Kankakee County.

Currently, Kankakee is the only municipality within Kankakee County to have short-term rentals subject to the lodging tax.

Nicole Gavin, executive director of Visit Kankakee County, spoke on Monday during public comment at the Manteno Village Board meeting. She was addressing some misconceptions about the tax and what the organization provides.

“I want to be really clear on this,” she said. “It’s not a tax on Manteno residents or the business owners. It’s not paid by the host, the property owner or the village. It’s paid entirely by the visitor. It’s a small lodging fee that travelers are used to paying for in Illinois and throughout the entire country.

“Communities like Champaign, Springfield, Quad Cities, Oak Park, and many other communities in Illinois have already implemented this successfully, and the benefit those visitor dollars return directly to Manteno, not our organization, but to Manteno to help support your marketing, your initiatives, your visitor-centric events, infrastructure and more.”

Visit Kankakee County’s research shows that visitors spent $167 million in Kankakee County, and that generated over $6.8 million in local taxes in 2024.

“It saved each household over $1,300 and supports over 1,200 jobs in our county,” said Gavin, who is also a Manteno resident. “So, without that visitor spending, the dollars to make up would fall on our residents here. So tourism does matter. It fuels our jobs, it keeps our taxes lower, and it drives dollars right into our region, including Manteno.”

Further data shows that travelers are choosing short-term rentals as much or more so when they travel, including in Kankakee County. According to AirDNA, a platform that collects data on short-term rentals, there are 144 short-term rentals in Kankakee County. There are 15 that would be considered in Manteno.

Visit Kankakee County has a subscription to AirDNA, and Gavin said the data shows Kankakee County short-term rentals generated over $2 million in 2024, and are projected to exceed $3M in revenue this calendar year. Also, the average nightly rate for the year across all properties in all municipalities is $155. The occupancy rate is 48%.

Gavin said that the 15 properties in Manteno could generate $33,480 per month in stays, and the 5% hotel tax of that would be $1,674 per month or $20,088 annually. She said that’s a conservative estimate.

“It’s one of the few ways to grow tourism funding without asking residents to pay more,” she said. “And finally, I do want to clarify one more thing. Visit Kankakee County does not have a billion-dollar budget or a million-dollar budget. We are operating at just under $450,000 per year. So Manteno and its businesses are part of our membership, which gives you access to marketing support, visitor data and statewide exposure through our campaigns.”

All the village of Manteno has to do to begin collecting the 5% hotel tax on short-term rentals is to adopt an ordinance that would collect it, as it already does for its two hotels.

“It’s going to be discussed at next week’s Building and Zoning Committee meeting to see if we want to move forward,” Village Administrator Chris LaRocque said.

Gavin said the city of Kankakee already has the mechanism in place to collect the tax on short-term rentals, and the County will soon be exploring it as well.