Delegate Linda Foley told the Ways and Means Committee on Jan. 28 that House Bill 87 would update safety standards for short-term rentals and ‘‘home amenity’’ rentals, and centralize short-term rental tax collection through the Comptroller’s office.

Foley said the bill aims to prevent large, ticketed parties and unsafe events at private residences by applying safety requirements tied to scale — for example, requiring posted signage for small backyard pools and lifeguards for very large public-style pools — and by aligning smoke and carbon monoxide detection and egress signage with comparable hotel requirements. The sponsor also proposed streamlining local tax collection by centralizing remittance through the Comptroller, an approach she said industry platforms support and that could simplify compliance for jurisdictions and hosts.

Industry representatives and several platform-backed witnesses urged an unfavorable report. Airbnb said its hosts are an economic lifeline for many Maryland residents and pointed to platform policies that ban ticketed events, use reservation-screening and provide 24/7 neighborhood support. Swimply, a marketplace for hourly home-amenity rentals, told the committee the bill’s hotel-code references could effectively turn private residences into public pools and trigger building- and health-code regimes not suited to homes.

Both platforms objected to language that would obligate intermediaries to fund safety upgrades at private properties; sponsor amendments circulated during the hearing would remove that requirement. Platforms and property-management groups warned the bill could impose heavy costs, potentially push home-amenity hosts off platforms, and create enforceability problems for county governments that do not inspect private dwellings.

Supporters and the sponsor said the proposal had been discussed with the industry and that some technical and fiscal concerns remain under negotiation with the Comptroller to reduce upfront system costs or phase them in. Delegate Foley said she would present sponsor amendments that strip the requirement that platforms finance safety retrofits and remove a reference to affordable housing in the text.

Ending note: Lawmakers said they would continue to refine safety-sizing language to avoid imposing hotel-level construction requirements on modest single-family homes while targeting obviously hazardous event venues; no committee vote was recorded at the hearing.