Short-term rental regulations by city and state

There is no federal rule and no single state answer. Three layers decide whether you can host at a given address: the state, which may license or tax every short-term rental and may also limit what its cities are allowed to do; the county, which governs the land outside city limits; and the city, which usually decides who can host, how many nights and which permit number goes in your listing. A handful of states have taken the ban away from their cities: Arizona and Florida by statute, Tennessee by protecting properties already rented before an ordinance. North Carolina bars rental registers but leaves zoning untouched, and Texas leaves the question entirely to each city. The table above compares 105 jurisdictions, each rule checked against the ordinance or tax authority that publishes it.

On the rules alone, the friendliest states are the ones whose legislature has removed the ban from the cities. Arizona is the clearest: a city may not prohibit short-term rentals, may only ask six things on a permit application, and may not charge more than $250 for it, which is why Sedona stops at $210 a unit. Florida bars local rules on how long or how often you rent, but only those adopted after June 1, 2011, which is how Miami Beach and Longboat Key still set minimum stays. Tennessee freezes the rules that applied when a property first went on the market, and the permit that follows costs $15 in Gatlinburg. North Carolina forbids rental registers outright yet leaves zoning untouched, so Asheville confines whole-house rentals to a single district. Texas issues no state licence at all, which is why Galveston has run its own register since 2015. Rules are only half the question: the tax stack and the seasonal demand differ just as much, and both sit on the city pages.

A local law, ordinance or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate how long or how often they are rented, unless it was adopted on or before June 1, 2011. Section 509.032, Florida Statutes (2026)

Read the full Florida pagePanama City Beach short-term rental rules

Under Act 17 of 2024, counties may phase out transient accommodations in any zoning district through their zoning rules. Maui County Ordinance No. 5909 (2025)

Read the full Hawaii page

An ordinance that prohibits, effectively prohibits or otherwise regulates the use of a property as a short-term rental does not apply to a property already used as one, and the Act supersedes any municipal requirement in conflict with it. Summary of the Short-Term Rental Unit Act

Read the full Tennessee pageGatlinburg short-term rental rules

Cities and certain counties and special purpose districts are authorised to impose an additional local hotel tax, which the local taxing authority collects itself. Texas sets no equivalent statewide frame for short-term rental permits. Hotel Occupancy Tax

Read the full Texas pageSouth Padre Island short-term rental rules

A city or town may not prohibit vacation rentals or short-term rentals, and may not restrict or regulate them based on their classification, use or occupancy except as the statute provides. A.R.S. § 9-500.39, Limits on regulation of vacation rentals and short-term rentals; state preemption

Read the full Arizona pagePinetop-Lakeside short-term rental rules

A local government may not require an owner or manager of rental property to obtain a permit under the housing or minimum housing code articles to rent it, nor to register it. Zoning and development standards survive. Short-Term Rental Regulations after Schroeder, Coates' Canons

Read the full North Carolina pageBeech Mountain short-term rental rules