Short-Term Rental Rules in the Largest U.S. Markets in 2026

Permit rules in the biggest U.S. short-term rental markets, read October 2026: who issues, caps, residence rules, public registers and record counts.

Published Oct 23, 2026 · 29 min read · by Lead Mining Company

This is a reference for businesses that sell to short-term rental owners: property managers, co-hosts, cleaning and turnover companies, insurers, furnishers, photographers, maintenance and pool vendors, real-estate agents and lenders. It covers the largest permit markets in the United States as of October 2026, region by region. For each market it names the office that issues the permit, the main rule as written on the official page, what the public register shows, and how many records from that register sit in our data, with how many carry a phone or email.

Rules as read in October 2026; check the official page before acting. We opened the official program pages on October 22 and 23, 2026. Where a page refused to load for us, we say so, link it and do not restate it. Cities change these rules often. Austin changed its license term, caps and platform rules within the last year, and South Lake Tahoe now runs under a court ruling that struck down its voter-approved Measure T. Treat every line below as a dated reading, not as legal advice.

All counts from our data are as of October 2026 and come from the PermitPulse dataset: 283,611 records from 64 public registers, of which 127,924 carry a phone number or an email address. "Records" means rows in our data. "Contactable" means the row has a phone or an email. A register that publishes only addresses and owner names shows 0 contactable even when it is large.

How to read the tables

Each regional section has one table and short notes. The columns mean the same thing everywhere.

Who issues. The office named on the official page. In many places a second office handles tax. We name the one that runs the permit or registration.
Main rule. The rule on the official page that most affects who can operate: a primary residence requirement, a cap, a zoning limit, a duty to show a number in listings, or a tax registration. Only what the page says. Where the page is silent on a topic, we leave it out rather than fill it from a third-party summary.
Records in our data. The record count for that register in our dataset, as of October 2026. Some registers keep expired, denied and cancelled permits next to active ones, so a record count is not the same as a count of operating rentals.
Phone or email. How many of those records carry a phone or email in our data. When we only have the figure at state or market level, we say which.

To check a single property against these registers, use the free STR permit lookup. For the full list of registers and their sizes, see the register index.

The five rules that decide a market

Local rules vary in detail, but five features explain most of the difference between markets for anyone selling to owners.

Primary residence requirement

Some cities only permit a short-term rental in the home where the operator lives. Philadelphia's Limited Lodging Operator License is limited to "an owner or tenant living in the property as their primary residence." Portland's Type A permit requires the resident to live in the unit for at least 270 days a year. Charleston's ordinance requires the property to be the owner's full-time primary residence, verified by the county's 4% legal residence tax exemption, except for commercially zoned properties in its overlay. Cambridge requires the operator to live in the unit as a primary residence. Where this rule applies, the people on the register are mostly individuals renting part of their own home or a unit next to it. They buy fewer outside services than a whole-home investor and they are more often reached at the property itself.

Caps

A cap limits how many permits can exist. San Diego caps whole-home licenses outside Mission Beach at 1% of the city's housing units, and Mission Beach at 30% of its planning area. South Lake Tahoe has a 900-permit cap in residential zones. San Juan County, Washington caps new vacation rental permits by island. A cap does two things to a register. It slows the arrival of new names, and it makes each existing permit valuable, so permits change hands with the property more often than they lapse.

Zoning limits

Many cities allow whole-home rentals only in some zones. Honolulu allows short-term rentals only in resort-zoned areas and a few apartment-zoned areas. Miami Beach prohibits them in all single-family homes. Asheville allows whole-unit rentals only in its resort district. Chattanooga allows non-resident (absentee) rentals only in listed commercial and form-based zones. Zoning limits push new filings into a small number of neighborhoods, which is useful for route-based vendors like cleaners and maintenance crews.

Number display in listings

Several cities require the permit or license number in every listing. Seattle requires it "on every listing advertising or offering the short-term rental unit." Portland requires it in all advertising. Miami Beach requires both the Business Tax Receipt number and the Resort Tax certificate number in every advertisement. This matters to vendors because it lets you match a listing you can see on a booking site to a permit record, and from there to an owner name and mailing address where the register publishes them.

Tax registration

Almost every market requires a lodging or occupancy tax account, but who holds it varies. Texas requires state hotel occupancy tax on rentals of 29 days or less. Chicago lists a 4.5% hotel accommodation tax plus a 6% shared housing surcharge, which licensed platforms remit for bookings they process. Hawaii requires a Transient Accommodations Tax registration for rentals under 180 consecutive days. Some states publish their tax permit rolls, which is why the Texas hotel tax roll is the largest single source of Texas records in our data.

Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
Nashville, TN	Metro Nashville Codes Administration	Permit text on the public register names two classes: owner occupied, where "proof of residence has been verified," and not owner occupied, where an "owner compliance letter" is verified. Codes page did not load for us.	17,712 (Residential Short Term Rental Permits)	0 (Tennessee, state level)
Chattanooga, TN	City of Chattanooga, Land Development Office, Zoning Division	Homestay (lives there 183+ days a year) allowed in an overlay and some commercial zones; absentee only in listed commercial and form-based zones; one-year certificate.	558 (Active STVR)	0 (Tennessee, state level)
New Orleans, LA	City of New Orleans Short Term Rental Administration	Short-term rental is "not legal without a permit." In single-family homes, one bedroom must be reserved for the owner's full-time occupancy. Rentals over 30 consecutive days need no STR permit.	28,104 applications; 4,314 active licenses; 1,231 non-commercial licenses	29,221 of 33,638 in the New Orleans market
East Baton Rouge, LA	East Baton Rouge Parish	Rules page not read for this reference.	206	Louisiana: 29,350 of 34,063 (state level)
Texas, statewide	Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts	State hotel occupancy tax applies to rentals of 29 days or less; the state rate is 6 percent; cities and counties collect their own local hotel taxes.	43,130 (hotel tax permits, includes hotels and motels)	Texas: 9,017 of 57,734 (state level)
Austin, TX	Austin Development Services, Code Compliance	License required; since October 2025 licenses run two years; caps on single-family, mixed-use and multifamily sites; platforms must have a license display field and remove unlicensed listings on request from July 1, 2026.	3,819 (STR Locations)	0 of 7,744 in the Austin market
Corpus Christi and Port Aransas, TX	City of Corpus Christi; City of Port Aransas	Port Aransas page did not load for us. Corpus Christi rules not read for this reference.	8,738 (Corpus Christi STR properties)	1,115 of 4,213 in the Port Aransas market
Galveston, TX	City of Galveston	Every property used as a short-term rental needs a Galveston Vacation Rental (GVR) number; "A GVR # is required for all listings."	Galveston market: 2,713 (from the state hotel tax roll)	0 of 2,713
Arlington, Waco and Irving, TX	City of Arlington; City of Waco; City of Irving	Rules pages not read for this reference.	815; 393; 155	Texas state level as above

Nashville. Metro's Codes page for short-term rentals refused automated reads on both days we tried, so we do not restate its rules here. What we can say comes from Metro's own open data. The Residential Short Term Rental Permits layer, published by Metro's open data team, holds "current and historical details" of permit applications and issued permits since the program began. Every permit's purpose text certifies compliance with Section 6.28.030 of the Metro Code and Tennessee Public Chapter No. 972. When we queried the layer on October 23, 2026, it showed 7,010 permits with status ISSUED: 5,005 not owner occupied and 2,005 owner occupied. Our record count of 17,712 is slightly larger than the layer's 17,624 rows because we keep permits Metro has since dropped from the layer; filter on status before a campaign. Our Tennessee permit guide covers Nashville in depth.

New Orleans. New Orleans is the largest contactable city file in our data: 29,221 of 33,638 market records carry a phone or email. The applications register keeps every application since 2017, so most rows are not current permits. Its top statuses in our data are Expired (14,566), Denied (6,859), Pending (3,688) and Issued (1,882). For vendors this file is as much a history of who tried to operate as a list of who operates now. See the New Orleans market page for the breakdown.

Texas. Texas has no statewide short-term rental permit. The Comptroller's hotel tax roll covers anyone who must collect state hotel occupancy tax, which includes hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts as well as homes rented for under 30 days. City programs sit on top of it. That is why Texas records outnumber any other state in our data (57,734) but only 9,017 carry a phone or email. The Texas hotel tax guide explains how to separate rentals from hotels using the NAICS code on each permit.

Austin. Austin's page lists four license forms: Type 1, Type 2 Residential, Type 2 Commercial and Type 3. It says tenants may now operate with their landlord's permission, and that on single-family sites an individual may operate up to two units, with additional rentals at least 1,000 feet apart. Mixed-use sites may rent the greater of one unit or 25% of units; multifamily sites the greater of one unit or 10%. An Austin Finance Online account is required for hotel tax in the full-purpose jurisdiction, and booking platforms collect hotel tax for operators from April 1, 2025.

Florida

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
Florida, statewide	Florida DBPR, Division of Hotels and Restaurants	State vacation rental license. DBPR's guide page did not load for us; local pages below require the state license first.	50,110 (vacation rental licenses, 7 districts)	Florida: 39,708 of 53,152 (state level)
Miami Beach	City of Miami Beach	Prohibited in all single-family homes and in many multifamily buildings in certain zoning districts; every advertisement must show the city Business Tax Receipt number and Resort Tax certificate number.	Miami Beach market: 3,619	2,736 of 3,619
Fort Lauderdale	City of Fort Lauderdale, Community Enhancement and Compliance	Property must hold State and County licenses before the city application; registration includes an inspection; maximum occupancy two persons per legal bedroom.	Fort Lauderdale market: 3,870	2,810 of 3,870
Orlando	City of Orlando	Home sharing only: the registrant must live on site and be present when hosting; renting an entire unit is not allowed under this registration; annual fee ($275 first year).	537 (city open data)	Orlando-Kissimmee market: 5,019 of 6,392
Osceola County (Kissimmee area)	Osceola County; Tax Collector	Verify zoning on the county overlay map, get the state vacation rental license, then a Local Business Tax Receipt using the state license number.	In the Orlando-Kissimmee market above	As above
Sarasota (city)	City of Sarasota, Development Services	One- to four-family dwellings in residential zones need a certificate of registration; listings must show the certificate number; occupancy 10 in single-family zones and 12 in multifamily zones; annual renewal July 1 to October 1.	Sarasota-Bradenton market: 2,798	2,161 of 2,798
Panama City Beach	City of Panama City Beach	Page did not load for us.	Panama City Beach market: 3,920	3,277 of 3,920
Destin and 30A	State license; local rules vary	Not restated.	Destin-30A market: 3,359	2,667 of 3,359
St. Augustine	City of St. Augustine	Rules page not read for this reference.	189	Florida state level as above

Florida is the most contactable state in our data because the state license file carries a phone on most rows: 39,708 of 53,152 Florida records have a phone or email. The state file also carries an owner name on 50,107 of 50,110 rows and an owner mailing address, which makes it the strongest single file for mail as well. Florida's license file has no filing date, so we track what is new by the date a row first appears in our data, not by an application date. The Florida license guide covers the condo and dwelling license classes.

The Florida rule pattern is layered. The state licenses the unit. The county issues a tax receipt and collects tourist tax. Some cities add their own registration, inspection and occupancy limit. Fort Lauderdale states the order outright: state and county licenses first, then the city. For a vendor this means the state file is the base list, and city rules tell you where the operators carry the heaviest compliance load. Inspection-heavy cities like Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota are where owners most often need fire, safety and occupancy work done before renewal.

Miami Beach is the strongest example of zoning setting the shape of the market. Its single-family ban means the Miami Beach records in our data lean to condos: 2,710 condo licenses against 908 dwelling licenses. The city also publishes a list of apartment buildings authorized for short-term rental, which tells a vendor which buildings to work.

Georgia, the Carolinas, Kentucky and Virginia

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
Atlanta, GA	City of Atlanta, Department of City Planning	Page did not load for us.	1,549	Georgia: 3,043 of 3,675 (state level)
Charleston, SC	City of Charleston, Zoning	Three residential permit categories by location; the property must be the owner's full-time primary residence, verified by the county 4% legal residence exemption, except commercially zoned properties in the STR overlay; permits renew yearly.	907 (operational permits)	0 (South Carolina, state level)
Beaufort, SC	City of Beaufort	Rules page not read for this reference.	273	0
Asheville, NC	City of Asheville	Homestay: the applicant lives in the dwelling full-time and rents one or two bedrooms for under 30 days; whole-unit rentals only in the resort zoning district; homestay permits renew yearly.	1,712 (homestay permits)	0 (North Carolina, state level)
Louisville, KY	Louisville Metro Office of Planning	Page did not load for us.	1,566	Louisville market: 2,506 of 2,537
Lexington, KY	Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government	Zoning compliance permit, business license and an annual special fees license ($200 first unit, $100 each additional); hosted rentals must prove a permanent resident lives there.	1,467	Kentucky: 2,531 of 4,029 (state level)
Norfolk, VA	City of Norfolk	Rules page not read for this reference.	163	146 of 163 (Virginia, state level)

Charleston and Asheville are both primary-residence markets for most of their area, and both registers publish addresses but no phone or email in our data. Charleston's three categories are worth knowing: Category I is the Old and Historic District, where a property must be individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places to qualify; Category II is the rest of the peninsula outside the overlay; Category III is the rest of the city, including West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, Cainhoy and Daniel Island. A vendor working Charleston by mail should expect owners who live at the property.

Asheville's homestay register is a status-rich file. Its top statuses in our data are Renewed (423), In Compliance (387), Expired (365) and Revoked (326). Only 2 of 1,711 Asheville market records carry an owner name, so the address is the main field.

Louisville is among the most contactable small markets in our data. Its market file has a phone or email on 2,506 of 2,537 records, and 1,194 Louisville records are dated within the last 12 months.

California, Nevada and Arizona

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
San Diego	Office of the City Treasurer	License required for stays under one month since May 1, 2023; four tiers; Tier 3 whole-home capped at 1% of housing units outside Mission Beach; Tier 4 Mission Beach capped at 30% and closed; every host needs a free TOT certificate.	8,850 (STRO licenses)	8,847 of 8,847 in the San Diego market
San Bernardino County (Big Bear, Joshua Tree)	San Bernardino County	County FAQ did not load for us.	5,328	5,327 of 5,328
Sonoma County	Permit Sonoma	A vacation rental needs a certified property manager, a zoning permit, a TOT number and a vacation rental license; not allowed in exclusion districts or cap zones over their limit.	2,424 (permits) plus 506 (license list)	2,267 of 2,417 in the Sonoma County market
South Lake Tahoe	City of South Lake Tahoe	Permit required to operate or advertise; 900-permit cap in residential zones; tourist core and commercial zones not capped; listings must include the VHR permit number.	South Lake Tahoe market: 1,978	1,518 of 1,978
Marin County, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, LA County (unincorporated)	County or city of each	Rules pages not read for this reference.	1,594; 539; 255; 211	California: 19,420 of 24,522 (state level)
Las Vegas and Clark County, NV	Clark County; City of Las Vegas	Official pages not read for this reference.	278 and 244	Nevada: 278 of 765 (state level)
Lake Havasu City and Tempe, AZ	City of Lake Havasu City; City of Tempe	Rules pages not read for this reference.	842 and 713	Arizona: 4,790 of 5,503 (state level)

San Diego is the cleanest example of a capped market with a fully contactable register: every one of 8,847 San Diego market records carries a phone in our data. Its tiers sort hosts by how they rent. Tier 1 is part-time, 20 days a year or less. Tier 2 is home sharing with the host on site. Tier 3 is whole-home outside Mission Beach. Tier 4 is whole-home in Mission Beach. In our data, Tier 3 holds 5,114 records, Tier 2 2,477, Tier 4 1,107 and Tier 1 149. When we read the Treasurer's page, it showed 802 Tier 3 licenses remaining and none for Tier 4. The city also publishes active licenses on its open data portal and a license map.

Multi-property names are rare in San Diego. Only 12 names in the San Diego market appear on two or more addresses, and none on more than two. That fits a capped system with license-holder names: vendors there sell to many single-property hosts, not to a few large operators.

South Lake Tahoe's page states that the El Dorado County Superior Court struck down Measure T in its entirety and that the city did not appeal. The city now runs a 900-permit cap in residential zones with a waitlist. In our data the South Lake Tahoe market shows VHR Permit Closed (752), Active (728), Waitlist (250) and Approved for Payment (112). A waitlist status is an early signal: those owners intend to operate but cannot yet.

Washington, Oregon and Hawaii

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
Seattle	Finance and Administrative Services	Business license tax certificate plus an operator's license, valid 12 months, $75 per unit; up to two units, one of which must be the primary residence; license number on every listing in the format STR-OPLI-##-######.	9,769	3 of 16,750 in the Seattle market
San Juan County, WA	San Juan County Community Development	Permit needed for stays under 30 days; new permits capped by island (San Juan 337, Orcas 211, Lopez 135); ads must include the permit or compliance number.	755	Washington: 879 of 29,622 (state level)
Portland, OR	Portland Permitting and Development	Type A (one or two bedrooms, up to five guests) requires the resident to live there 270 days a year; permit number in all advertising; transient lodging tax registration.	4,462 (accessory STR permits)	0 (Oregon, state level)
Bend, OR	City of Bend	Page did not load for us on October 23, 2026.	1,249	0 (Oregon, state level)
Honolulu, HI	Department of Planning and Permitting	Registration required; allowed only in resort-zoned areas and a few apartment-zoned areas; Nonconforming Use Certificate holders renew yearly, September 1 to October 15.	1,490	0 (Hawaii, state level)
Hawaii, statewide	Department of Taxation	Transient Accommodations Tax registration for anyone renting to a transient for under 180 consecutive days.	Not a separate register in our data	n/a

The Pacific Northwest is the most address-heavy region in our data. Washington has 29,622 records but only 879 with a phone or email. Seattle's market file carries no owner name at all in our data (0 of 16,750), so the unit address and permit are the fields to work with. Seattle's display rule helps here: every listing must carry a number in a fixed format, which lets you tie a listing to a permit.

Portland's register is mostly Type A permits (4,064 of 4,549 market records) and almost never names the holder (95 of 4,549). Portland filings have fallen each year in the registers that keep history: January to September filings were 990 in 2024, 555 in 2025 and 429 in 2026.

Honolulu's register is a compliance map, not a contact list. The city describes its STR compliance map as showing properties legally registered to operate and properties issued a notice of violation or order. In our data, Honolulu records carry no owner name and no phone or email.

Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
Denver	Denver Business Licensing	Page did not load for us.	2,550	0 of 5,074 in the Denver market
Summit County (Breckenridge area)	Summit County Government	Page did not load for us.	2,301	0 of 2,301
Aspen	City of Aspen	Permit and licensing needed for stays under 30 days; three permit types (owner-occupied, lodging exempt, classic); only the classic permit is capped in certain zones, with waitlists; monthly sales, lodging and STR excise tax filings.	747	Colorado: 304 of 10,105 (state level)
Boulder County, Clear Creek County, Littleton	Each county or city	Rules pages not read for this reference.	515; 256; 48	Colorado state level as above
Santa Fe, NM	City of Santa Fe, Land Use	Business registration plus a residential STR permit or a non-residential registration, by zoning; new residential permits subject to the city's cap.	905	New Mexico: 1,275 of 2,183 (state level)
Ruidoso, NM	Village of Ruidoso	Permit and a New Mexico GRT tax ID required; rentals of 29 days or less collect lodger's tax and GRT; the village says a map and list of licensed rentals will be available.	1,278	New Mexico state level as above
Washington City, UT	Washington City	Rules page not read for this reference.	659	Utah: 60 of 728 (state level)
Cody, WY	City of Cody	Rules page not read for this reference.	213	0

Colorado's mountain registers name owners and mailing addresses but rarely phones. Summit County's file names an owner and mailing address on 2,297 of 2,301 records, and 575 of those names are companies. Aspen's permit types are a direct guide to the buyer: owner-occupied permits are owners who live there, the lodging-exempt permit is held by lodge and condo-hotel managers, and classic permits are the capped whole-home category.

The Midwest and the Northeast

Market	Who issues	Main rule (as read October 2026)	Records in our data	Phone or email
Chicago	Business Affairs and Consumer Protection	Every shared housing unit needs an approved registration number to operate rentals of 31 days or fewer and to list on a platform; $250 annual registration; hosts with more than one registration also need a Shared Housing Unit Operator License; prohibited buildings list and restricted residential zones.	4,231 (active registrations)	0 (Illinois, state level)
Minneapolis	City of Minneapolis	Official page did not load for us.	927	Minnesota: 936 of 1,580 (state level)
Wisconsin, statewide	Wisconsin DATCP	A lodging permit is required for lodging rented to a tourist or transient.	12,919 (tourist rooming houses)	Wisconsin: 13,064 of 13,374 (state level)
Green Bay, WI	City of Green Bay	Rules page not read for this reference.	455	Wisconsin state level as above
Traverse City, MI	City of Traverse City	License required before operating; licenses expire December 31; renewals 90 to 30 days before expiry; $200 renewal fee.	1,530	1,147 of 1,530
Philadelphia	Department of Licenses and Inspections	Limited Lodging Operator License only for an owner or tenant renting their primary residence or a room in it for 30 consecutive days or less; annual renewal ($150); BIRT number and Commercial Activity License required.	1,326	0 (Pennsylvania, state level)
Cambridge, MA	Inspectional Services Department	Operator-occupied or owner-adjacent types; the operator must live in the unit as a primary residence; owner-adjacent units rent only as a whole unit; state registration and excise tax now required.	500	0 (Massachusetts, state level)
Hamilton, OH	City of Hamilton	Rules page not read for this reference.	29	Ohio: 1,910 of 1,952 (state level)

Chicago is the fastest-filling large register in our data: 3,372 of 4,223 Chicago records are dated within the last 12 months, and all 4,223 show Approved. Chicago's registration asks hosts to create an account in their legal name as it appears on government ID, and in our data none of the 4,223 names is a company. Even so, 199 names appear on two or more Chicago addresses, holding 1,173 records between them. These names look like hosts with more than one registration, the group that also needs the operator license, and they are the natural first list for managers and cleaners.

Wisconsin is the one Midwest state where a statewide register carries contact details: 13,064 of 13,374 Wisconsin records have a phone or email. The tourist rooming house guide covers how the state and agent counties split licensing.

Philadelphia and Cambridge are pure primary-residence registers. In our Philadelphia market data, the most addresses under one name is 3, and only 43 of 1,324 names are companies.

What the rules do to who is on the register

The rule type predicts the owner type. Our data shows the split clearly when you count company names (LLC, Inc., Corp. and similar) on registers that name the holder.

Register	Rule type	Records	Company names	Share
Florida DBPR vacation rentals	State license, whole units allowed	50,110	22,242	44%
Wisconsin tourist rooming houses	State permit, whole units allowed	12,919	5,575	43%
Traverse City vacation home rentals	City license	1,530	418	27%
Summit County, CO	County license, resort area	2,301	575	25%
Louisville Metro	Registration	1,541	387	25%
New Orleans applications	Permit, owner-occupancy rules for single-family homes	28,094	4,939	18%
Minneapolis	License and registration	926	56	6%
Philadelphia	Primary residence only	1,324	43	3%
Chicago	Registration in the host's legal name	4,223	0	0%
San Diego	Capped tiers, host-named licenses	8,847	2	0%

Counts in this table come from our October 2026 research file and may differ by a few rows from the register totals above, which were taken a day later. The pattern is the point. Where whole-home rentals are allowed and the state licenses the unit, between a quarter and nearly half of named holders are companies. Those owners usually run more than one unit and already buy management, cleaning and insurance. Where the rule requires the host to live there or to register in their own name, almost every holder is an individual with one unit. They buy less, decide faster, and respond to plain local offers.

Where owners churn

Churn shows up in registers that keep ended permits. These are the status mixes in our data for markets where the register publishes a status.

Market	Statuses in our data (top four)	What it tells a vendor
Nashville (Metro layer, October 23, 2026)	Expired 8,041; Issued 7,010; Cancelled 2,274; Revoked 164	More permits have lapsed than are active. 859 permits now marked Expired had an expiration date in the 12 months before October 23, 2026.
New Orleans	Expired 14,566; Denied 6,859; Pending 3,688; Issued 1,882	Large pending pool; denied applicants are owners who wanted to operate.
Seattle	Non-Legacy 5,800; Inactive 4,533; Active 4,463; Legacy 940	Inactive licenses are former operators, often still owners.
South Lake Tahoe	Closed 752; Active 728; Waitlist 250; Approved for Payment 112	Waitlisted owners are future operators under a cap.
Portland	Active 1,532; Permit Issued 832; Denied 419; Expired 363	Denials cluster in a primary-residence system.
Philadelphia	Active 592; Inactive 551; Expired 85; Closed 81	Nearly as many inactive as active licenses.
Asheville	Renewed 423; In Compliance 387; Expired 365; Revoked 326	Revocations are high for a homestay program.
Denver	License Issued - Active 4,494; Delinquent 383; Closed - Expired 192	Delinquent licenses are owners behind on renewal.

Churn is an opportunity for some buyers and a waste for others. A cleaning company does not want a revoked permit. A real-estate agent or investor may want exactly that owner, because a lapsed or revoked permit can mean a property that no longer earns what it did. An insurer wants the active and pending rows. Filter on status before you spend anything on outreach. The pending versus granted guide explains how to treat each status.

Where new filings concentrate

These markets have the most records dated within the 12 months before October 22, 2026, in our data. A dated record is one whose register publishes an application or issue date.

Market	Records dated in the last 12 months	Records in the market
New Orleans	6,120	33,638
Chicago	3,372	4,223
Louisville	1,194	2,537
Big Bear and Joshua Tree	1,043	5,328
Nashville (Metro layer, permits entered October 23, 2025 to October 23, 2026)	798	17,624 permit rows in the layer
Traverse City	621	1,530
Portland	587	4,549
Fredericksburg, TX	408	1,731
Port Aransas	382	4,213
Austin	342	7,744
South Padre Island	230	2,289
Philadelphia	214	1,324

Three patterns stand out. First, New Orleans filings are rising: January to September filings were 993 in 2024, 1,160 in 2025 and 1,528 in 2026. Second, Portland is shrinking on the same measure, from 990 to 555 to 429. Third, Arlington, Texas tripled, from 84 in January to September 2025 to 302 in the same months of 2026. Boulder County also rose, from 101 to 140. A rising register means owners entering the business who have not yet picked their vendors. A shrinking one means fewer new names and more competition for each.

Florida's state file has no filing date, so it does not appear in the dated table. In the 30 days before October 22, 2026, rows that were first captured in our data included 95 in Panama City Beach, 87 in Miami Beach, 78 in Fort Lauderdale and 56 in Sarasota-Bradenton. First captured is not the same as newly licensed; a row can enter our data when the state publishes it, which may be after the license date. The weekly fresh records page lists what was first captured each week.

The rules explain some of this. Capped markets (San Diego, South Lake Tahoe) show few dated arrivals because new permits can only replace old ones. Markets with a recent rule change show a burst: Chicago's register in our data starts in November 2024, and most of its records are dated 2025 and 2026. Austin's 2025 changes moved licenses to two-year terms and added platform enforcement from July 1, 2026, which may produce a wave of filings as unlicensed listings are removed; we will see it in the data if it happens.

What the rules mean for each kind of vendor

Property managers and co-hosts

Your best markets are whole-home markets with a high share of company and multi-property names: Florida, Wisconsin, Summit County, Traverse City, New Orleans and the Texas coast. In primary-residence markets (Philadelphia, Chicago's single registrations, Portland Type A, Charleston outside the overlay) the host lives on site and full management is a harder sale. There, offer narrower services: guest messaging, pricing, or turnover coordination. Capped markets reward you for keeping existing permits active, because a lapsed permit may not come back. The property manager guide covers list building in more detail.

Cleaning and turnover companies

Zoning limits do your route planning for you. In Chattanooga, absentee rentals are only allowed in listed commercial and form-based zones. In Miami Beach, rentals sit in authorized apartment buildings. In Honolulu, they sit in resort zones. Use ZIP and address fields to build tight routes, then mail the owners in those routes. In Nashville's layer, ZIP 37203 alone holds 1,709 issued permits.

Insurers

Inspection and renewal rules create natural moments to quote. Fort Lauderdale inspects at registration. Sarasota inspects before each certificate and renewal. Traverse City licenses expire December 31 with renewals 90 to 30 days before. Honolulu renews September 1 to October 15. Work the calendar: reach owners before their renewal window, when they are gathering documents.

Furnishers, stagers and photographers

You want owners who are new or relaunching. Use dated filings and pending statuses: New Orleans' 3,688 pending applications, Nashville's 798 entries in the last 12 months, Chicago's 3,372 dated records. Number-display rules (Seattle, Portland, Miami Beach, Sarasota, South Lake Tahoe, San Juan County) let you check whether a permitted unit already has a live listing.

Real-estate agents, lenders and investors

The ended and refused rows are your list. Denied, revoked, expired and closed permits mark owners whose rental plan changed. In capped markets, a property with a valid permit can be worth more to a buyer, and some rules tie the permit to the owner or the address. Chattanooga lets a certificate transfer to a new owner of the same property. Tennessee's state law ends legacy protection when a property is sold or transferred. Know the transfer rule before you market a property as "permitted."

Every vendor page on our site has a section on register use for that trade, for example cleaning companies and insurance agents.

Contacting owners by channel

Most registers in this reference publish an address and an owner name, and many publish nothing else. Choose the channel by what the register gives you and by the law that governs it.

Mail. The lowest-risk channel and the one every register supports. Use the owner mailing address where the register has one (Florida, Nashville, Summit County, New Orleans applications), and the property address otherwise. The direct mail guide covers addressing and timing.
Phone and text. Permit holders are often individuals, and permit phones are often personal mobiles. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the National Do Not Call Registry apply. Do not use autodialers, prerecorded messages or artificial voices, and do not text without consent. Our TCPA and Do Not Call guide explains the rules in detail.
Email. CAN-SPAM applies, and the FTC says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Identify yourself, use an accurate subject line, include a physical postal address and honor opt-outs within 10 business days. The FTC compliance guide lists each requirement.

This section is general information, not legal advice. Talk to your own counsel before you run a calling or texting program.

Checklist before you act on a rule

Open the official page linked in this reference and check its date. If the page changed since October 2026, the page wins.
Confirm which office governs the property. In Florida, the state, the county and sometimes the city each license. In Texas, the state collects hotel tax and the city permits. In Sevier County, Tennessee, the county program covers units outside city limits only.
Check whether the register you are using keeps ended permits. If it does, filter on status first.
Check whether the register names the owner and gives a mailing address. If it gives only the property address, plan for mail to the property.
Match the offer to the rule type: full management for whole-home markets, narrower services for primary-residence markets.
Time outreach to renewal windows where the city publishes them.
Count permits, not rows, where a register has more than one row per permit or per address.
Apply TCPA, Do Not Call and CAN-SPAM rules before any call, text or email.

Mistakes vendors make with permit rules

Treating a record count as a count of rentals. New Orleans' applications file has 28,104 records, but its active license file has 4,314. Both are true; they answer different questions.
Selling full management to a homestay host. In Asheville the homestay permit requires the host to live there full-time and rent one or two bedrooms. A whole-home pitch will not fit.
Ignoring the cap. In San Diego's Tier 4 and in South Lake Tahoe's residential zones, a lapsed permit may be gone for good. Owners there care about keeping the permit more than about growth.
Assuming a Texas hotel tax permit is a rental. The Comptroller's roll includes hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts. Filter by NAICS code first.
Calling numbers from a register without checking the rules. A phone on a permit is not consent to be called or texted.
Using a third-party summary instead of the official page. Summaries we found while researching this reference disagreed with each other on fees and caps. The official page is the only safe source.

Using the registers behind this reference

Every register in the tables above is in our PermitPulse dataset, refreshed daily, and Florida's state file every four hours. You can see a free 25-row sample of any register after a free sign-up. A state subscription is $99 a month for one state, up to 10,000 rows a month; national is $299 a month for up to 50,000 rows. A one-time download is $149 for one state or $499 for the whole country. Details are on the pricing page, and the PermitPulse page explains the fields. If you only need to check one address, the STR permit lookup is free. For a state-by-state overview of how licensing is split between states and cities, see STR permit requirements by state, and for market totals, the permit statistics page.

Questions and answers

Which U.S. cities require a short-term rental to be the operator's primary residence?

Among the official pages we read in October 2026: Philadelphia's Limited Lodging Operator License is only for an owner or tenant renting their primary residence. Portland's Type A permit requires the resident to live there at least 270 days a year. Charleston requires the owner's full-time primary residence outside its commercial overlay. Cambridge requires the operator to live in the unit. Asheville's homestay permit requires the host to live there full-time. Seattle allows up to two units, one of which must be the primary residence. Rules change, so check each official page before acting.

Which permit registers publish owner phone numbers or emails?

It depends on the register. As of October 2026, our data shows phones or emails on most records from Florida's state vacation rental licenses, New Orleans, San Diego, San Bernardino County, Wisconsin's tourist rooming houses, Louisville and Traverse City. Tennessee, Oregon, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Wyoming show 0 contactable records in our data: those registers give an address and usually an owner name only.

Which markets cap the number of short-term rental permits?

From the official pages we read in October 2026: San Diego caps whole-home licenses at 1% of housing units outside Mission Beach and 30% in Mission Beach. South Lake Tahoe caps residential-zone permits at 900. San Juan County, Washington caps new permits by island (San Juan 337, Orcas 211, Lopez 135). Austin limits units per site. Aspen caps its classic permit in certain zones. Sonoma County uses cap zones, and Chattanooga applies a 25% density cap.

Which cities require the permit number in every listing?

Seattle requires the operator license number on every listing in the format STR-OPLI-##-######. Portland requires the permit number in all advertising. Miami Beach requires the Business Tax Receipt and Resort Tax certificate numbers in every advertisement. Sarasota requires its certificate of registration number. South Lake Tahoe and San Juan County require the permit number in ads. Galveston requires a GVR number for all listings.

How current are the rules in this reference?

We opened the official pages on October 22 and 23, 2026. Where a page would not load for us, we linked it and did not restate it. Cities change short-term rental rules often, so check the official page before you act on any rule. This reference is general information, not legal advice.

Where are new short-term rental permit filings growing?

In registers that keep their full history, January to September filings in New Orleans rose from 993 in 2024 to 1,160 in 2025 and 1,528 in 2026. Arlington, Texas rose from 84 to 302 between 2025 and 2026, and Boulder County from 101 to 140. Portland fell from 990 in 2024 to 429 in 2026. Chicago has 3,372 records dated in the last 12 months.

Can I call or text the phone numbers on a permit register?

A phone on a public permit record is not consent to be called or texted. Permit holders are often individuals using personal mobiles, so the TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry apply. Do not use autodialers, prerecorded or artificial voices, and do not text without consent. Email must follow CAN-SPAM. Mail is the lowest-risk channel. This is general information, not legal advice.