Short-Term Rental Laws by State (2026): Every State + What Changed

Short-term rental law in the United States is written at three levels, and the state level is the one most roundups skip. Cities write the permit rules hosts argue about. Platforms enforce them. But the state decides whether a city may ban rentals at all, whether a host needs a state license or registry number before the first guest arrives, and which lodging tax applies before the local layer is stacked on top.

The table below answers those three questions for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the most consequential 2025–2026 change in each and a link to Haven's guide where one exists. The narrative that follows covers the year's two opposing trends: legislatures stripping cities of the power to cap rentals, and cities handing enforcement to Airbnb and Vrbo instead of code officers. Every claim below carries a date and a status: in effect, scheduled, or still a proposal.

Key facts

• Six states bar local short-term rental bans outright as of October 14, 2026 (Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin), and six more limit what cities may do without removing their authority (Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah). The other 38 states leave the question to cities and counties.
• Idaho HB 583, signed March 16, 2026, and Indiana HEA 1210 both took effect July 1, 2026; Idaho removes STR-specific permits and caps, Indiana bans rental caps while leaving registration and safety rules in place.
• Eight jurisdictions require a state-level license, registry entry, or tax license before operating: Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. Everywhere else the license, if any, is local.
• California SB 346 took effect January 1, 2026: once a city adopts an enabling ordinance, platforms must report each rental's physical address, with parcel number and listing URL on request, as often as quarterly.
• Clark County, Nevada's ban on platforms processing bookings for unlicensed rentals was adopted 5-0 on August 18, 2026 and took effect September 2, 2026; Austin's platform delisting rules took effect July 1, 2026.
• Rhode Island's non-owner-occupied property tax began July 1, 2026 at $2.50 per $500 of assessed value above $1 million, with the first installment due September 15, 2026 and the next on December 15; Maryland's Short-Term Rental Fire Safety Act took effect October 1, 2026.

Short-term rental laws by state: the 2026 table

The preemption column says whether state law stops a city from banning short-term rentals (Yes), limits local rules without removing them (Partial), or leaves the question local (No). The license column covers state-level requirements only. The tax column lists the state layer; the local layer is where most of the variation lives, so confirm the combined rate with the city before entering it in a booking engine.

Reviewed October 14, 2026. Rules change often; confirm with the state and city before relying on a row.

Two conventions in the table. "Varies by city" means the state made no change we could document and the live rules sit in local ordinances. "Not verified" means the sources we checked disagreed or were secondary, so the cell is flagged rather than guessed. Where a platform collects the state layer for you, the local layer and every direct booking are still yours to register, collect, and file; Haven's taxes and accounting tools keep the lodging tax rules for each jurisdiction you host in, with cited rate suggestions, on every plan.

Two levers, pulling opposite ways

Preemption is a state law overriding local ordinances, stripping a city of its power to regulate an activity. Platform accountability starts from a different premise: rather than chasing owners one citation at a time, a city makes the booking platform legally answerable for keeping unlicensed properties off its site, or at least out of its checkout.

Both matured in 2026. Legislatures that treat rentals as an ordinary use of private property took local caps off the table. Councils that want fewer rentals gave up on door-to-door code enforcement and began writing rules for the two companies that process the money. Your address determines which lever you meet first. Private deed restrictions sit outside both; What courts have actually held about short-term rentals is the companion survey of that covenant record.

The preemption states: Idaho and Indiana

Idaho's HB 583 reclassifies short-term rentals as a nontransient residential use and bars local governments from adopting STR-specific rules they would not apply to long-term occupancy. It cleared the House 54 to 16 on February 12, 2026 and the Senate 23 to 12 on March 9, was signed March 16, and took effect July 1, 2026. McCall's STR operational permits disappeared on that date while the city's 8 percent local-option lodging tax survived. The mechanics are in our state preemption explainer; this is the map it belongs to.

Indiana's HEA 1210, also effective July 1, 2026, prohibits cities and counties from capping the number of residential rental properties, with a reprieve for Carmel and Fishers until January 1, 2028. Registration, inspections, and safety standards survive, provided they do not function as a cap in disguise, and the law leaves private HOA covenants untouched while restricting HOA votes on rental restrictions to owners who live in their homes.

Two older statutes do similar work and are easy to forget. Iowa's HF 2641 (2020) treats short-term rentals as residential use and bars STR-specific permits and fees. Wisconsin's Act 59 (2017) stops any municipality from prohibiting rentals of seven consecutive days or longer, which is why the Wisconsin Court of Appeals voided Sister Bay's four-bedroom cap on July 14, 2026.

California SB 346 makes the platform report your address

SB 346 took effect January 1, 2026, but nothing happens in a given city until that city adopts an ordinance invoking it. Where one passes, booking platforms must report the physical address of every rental that used the platform during the reporting period, and the city may also demand the parcel number and the listing URL. Reporting can be required as often as quarterly, cities may audit the platforms at their own expense, and the bill does not preempt any local STR rule. In a California city with an SB 346 ordinance on the books, an unpermitted listing is no longer invisible to code enforcement.

Rhode Island's tax rewards a booked calendar

The statewide surcharge that Rhode Island began collecting July 1, 2026 applies to residential property assessed above $1 million that is neither owner-occupied nor rented for 183 days or more in the prior privilege year. The rate is $2.50 for each $500 of assessed value above the threshold, payable in four installments due September 15, December 15, March 15, and June 15. State fiscal analysts flagged 8,245 properties as likely subject and project $24.5 million in first-year revenue.

On a rental cottage assessed at $1.4 million: $400,000 above the threshold, 800 increments of $500, times $2.50, which comes to $2,000 a year. A property with real occupancy clears the 183-day exemption; an idle second home does not, so the booking calendar has become a tax document. Rhode Island also rewrote its lodging taxes on January 1, 2026: the local hotel tax doubled to 2 percent and a 5 percent whole-home rental tax replaced the state hotel tax on entire-dwelling stays, for 14 percent in total.

Cities stopped citing owners and started citing platforms

Austin set the plainest version. Its rules, effective July 1, 2026, require platforms to display license numbers and remove any property without a verified license within 10 days of a city request, with fines up to $500 per day.

Clark County, Nevada, home to the Las Vegas market, reached a narrower tool by a harder road. After U.S. District Judge Miranda Du enjoined the county's listing-verification rules on Section 230 grounds in August 2025 and its owner-side fines in December 2025, commissioners voted 5-0 on August 18, 2026 to bar platforms from processing payments for unlicensed rentals, effective September 2, 2026. The adopted text verifies licenses at booking rather than before a listing goes live, drops the removal mandate, and fines the platform $500 for a first violation and $1,000 after that. The Ninth Circuit heard the county's appeal of the December injunction on September 14, 2026 and will rule in a written opinion. Our Clark County booking ban post has the host-side checklist.

New York City shows where the model ends. The city's September 3, 2025 Local Law 18 report counts roughly 60,000 illegal listings in 2018 against about 3,000 active registrations, with over 4,300 applications denied and more than 21,000 buildings on the prohibited buildings list. Enforcement runs entirely through the platforms, and the first four-year registrations come up for renewal starting October 2026. Our Haven Research audit of U.S. short-term-rental compliance costs puts a number on how little the application fee explains that outcome: NYC's $145 filing is a floor, not the constraint. Host presence and a two-guest cap are.

The Fifth Circuit blessed the design on August 5, 2026 in Bodin v. New Orleans, holding that "a duty not to profit from unlawful activity is not a publication function" and upholding the city's one-license-per-block lottery. None of this requires a city the size of New York or New Orleans. Greenville, North Carolina voted unanimously on August 13, 2026 to require zoning permits for its roughly 270 short-term rentals, plus $1 million in liability insurance and a local agent, with 365 days for existing operators to apply.

What to do this quarter

• Confirm your permit or license status this week. In platform accountability cities, an expired license no longer produces a warning letter; it stops the reservation at checkout.
• Find your state's row above and check the license column before the tax column. A state registry number (New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts) or state license (Florida, Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona's TPT) is the first thing a platform now verifies.
• Pull your insurance declarations page and compare it against local minimums. Greenville's $1 million liability requirement is becoming a standard permit condition; the insurance gap most hosts miss explains why platform protection covers less than owners assume.
• In Rhode Island, count rental days for the July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 privilege year now, because the December 15 installment is the second of four and next year's bill is being decided by this winter's calendar.
• In Maryland, the four host duties under the Fire Safety Act have been in force since October 1, 2026: posted evacuation diagram, posted emergency numbers, a working extinguisher, and alarms under 10 years old.
• Reduce single-platform dependence. Every rule described here operates through the platforms, so a host whose entire calendar sits on one of them absorbs each enforcement change at full force. The fee math argues for the same thing from a different direction.

What to watch next

Pennsylvania's HB 2303 is still the bill most likely to be misreported as law. Introduced March 19, 2026 with a House Tourism Committee hearing on March 25, it would sort operators into three tiers and create county registries. It is a registration and safety framework rather than a preemption bill, we could confirm no committee or floor vote as of October 14, 2026, and Pennsylvania has no state preemption law, so local ordinances still govern.

Four other proposals sit in the same unresolved column: Ohio's HB 109 (preemption plus platform tax collection, third hearing March 18, 2026), Illinois HB 5776 (a 4 percent STR excise tax filed May 2026), Connecticut's sHB 5536 (a Department of Revenue Services registry, reported out of committee March 30, 2026), and Washington's HB 2559 (a local 4 percent STR tax option from April 2027, voted out of House Finance in early February 2026 with no final outcome we could confirm). Any guide presenting one of them as current law has told you something useful about the rest of its claims.

Two dated changes are certain. Oregon's state transient lodging tax rises from 1.5 percent to 2.75 percent for stays ending on or after January 1, 2027. South Dakota's state sales tax returns to 4.5 percent in July 2027. And Clark County has posted an ordinance amendment introduction dated October 20, 2026 on its website; we have not reviewed its operative text, so treat the September 2 rules as current until the county publishes the amended chapter.

The through line of 2026 is that the platforms have become the enforcement chokepoint. Hosts in the strongest position are licensed, adequately insured, and not wholly dependent on one company's booking flow. A direct booking site on your own domain, of the sort Haven builds, keeps guest relationships and booking data in your hands regardless of which ordinance passes next.

FAQ

Is Airbnb legal in every state?

No state bans short-term rentals outright, so the answer in every state is "yes, somewhere." Whether a specific address may host is decided by the city or county in 38 states, limited by state law in six (Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah), and protected from local bans in six (Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin). Private covenants and HOA rules apply on top of all of it.

Which states preempt local short-term rental bans?

Arizona (A.R.S. 9-500.39), Florida (s. 509.032(7), with pre-June 2011 ordinances grandfathered), Idaho (HB 583, effective July 1, 2026), Indiana (HEA 1210, effective July 1, 2026), Iowa (HF 2641, 2020), and Wisconsin (Act 59, 2017, for rentals of seven days or longer). Tennessee grandfathers rentals that existed before a local ban, Utah shields the listing itself from being used as evidence, and Texas relies on a general field-preemption statute rather than an STR-specific one.

Do I need a state license to run a short-term rental?

In most states, no; the license is local. The exceptions in the table are Florida's DBPR vacation rental license, Wisconsin's tourist rooming house license, Washington's business license and insurance requirement, Arizona's transaction privilege tax license, the District of Columbia's DLCP license, and registry entries in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Everywhere, a state lodging tax account is usually required for direct bookings even when no license is.

Do Airbnb and Vrbo collect the lodging tax for me?

Only in the jurisdictions on their collection lists, and only for bookings made on their platforms. Many states make platforms collect the state layer (Kentucky, West Virginia from 2026, Idaho under HB 583, Illinois for hosting platforms over the Department of Revenue's re-renter threshold) while leaving the county or city layer to the host, and a reservation on your own website falls outside every platform agreement. The state column in the table is the starting point; the city sets the rest.

How often do short-term rental laws change?

Constantly, and on several clocks at once. Legislatures move in spring sessions with July 1 or January 1 effective dates (Idaho, Indiana, Oregon's tax, Rhode Island's tax), city councils move year-round (Atlanta in September 2026, Greenville in August 2026, Salt Lake City in July 2026), and courts change the map without warning (Bodin on August 5, Lincoln County on August 12, Folly Beach on August 14, 2026). Treat any table, including this one, as a snapshot with a date on it.

Which states passed new short-term rental laws in 2026?

Idaho (HB 583) and Indiana (HEA 1210) enacted preemption laws effective July 1, 2026. California's SB 346 platform data sharing law took effect January 1, 2026. Rhode Island's non-owner-occupied property tax began July 1, 2026 after its lodging tax rewrite on January 1. Maryland's Fire Safety Act took effect October 1, 2026, West Virginia's HB 5065 put local hotel occupancy tax collection on marketplaces, and Kansas passed a temporary World Cup measure (HB 2481). Pennsylvania's HB 2303 and Ohio's HB 109 are still in committee and are not law.

Sources

State and official sources used for the table, with the date of the document or of our review:

• Alabama Department of Revenue, Transient Occupancy (Lodgings) Tax — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Avalara MyLodgeTax, Anchorage mandates registration for short-term rental properties — April 2026
• Arizona Revised Statutes 9-500.39 — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Arkansas HB1445 (2025) bill history — withdrawn April 15, 2025
• Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, state sales and use tax rates — reviewed October 14, 2026; Code of Arkansas Rules, 26 CAR § 30-1403 and § 30-1404 (tourism tax and short-term rental tax)
• California SB 346, 2025–2026 session — Chapter 751, Statutes of 2025
• Avalara MyLodgeTax, Colorado voters approve new lodging taxes — November 2025; Town of Keystone lodging tax information
• Connecticut HB 5536 (2026) bill analysis, Office of Legislative Research — April 16, 2026; bill status
• DC Office of Tax and Revenue, temporary sales tax increase on transient accommodations — February 2023
• Florida SB 608 (2026) text; Florida Statutes, s. 509.032 — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Hall County, Georgia, Hotel/Motel Tax portal (HB 896, 8% from July 1, 2026) — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Hawaii Tribune-Herald, new 2026 laws including the TAT increase — January 1, 2026; Avalara MyLodgeTax on Act 17 — May 2024; Hawaii Public Radio on Hawaii Island rules and fees — January 6, 2026
• Idaho REALTORS 2026 legislative session review (HB 583) — July 2026; Rent Responsibly on the Idaho signing — March 2026
• Illinois HB 5776 (104th General Assembly) text — May 2026; Illinois Department of Revenue, Informational Bulletin FY 2025-28 on hotel marketplace facilitators and re-renters — 2025; Airbnb, occupancy tax collection and remittance by state — reviewed October 14, 2026
• Avalara MyLodgeTax, Indiana bans city caps on rental properties — May 2026; FBT Gibbons, 2026 Indiana innkeeper's tax update — 2026
• Iowa State University Extension, 2020 legislative changes impacting planning and zoning (HF 2641) — 2020; Iowa Department of Revenue, lodging FAQ (5% state excise tax on room rental) — reviewed October 14, 2026
• Kansas 2026 Session Laws, Chapter 96 (HB 2481) — effective April 23, 2026
• Kentucky HB 832 (2026 Regular Session) — last action March 10, 2026; Shelby County transient room tax
• Louisiana Department of Revenue, state sales tax rate for hotel rooms and similar accommodations — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Avalara MyLodgeTax, new Maine rule requires registration in unorganized territories — February 2026
• Avalara MyLodgeTax, Maryland statewide short-term rental safety regulations — August 2026; Worcester County room tax rate notice — effective January 1, 2026
• Massachusetts DOR, room occupancy excise and public registry of lodging operators — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Michigan Public, House bills would give local governments the option of a short-term rental tax — October 29, 2025
• Minnesota Department of Revenue, Northfield lodging tax notice — July 2026
• Avalara MyLodgeTax, St. Louis approves new short-term rental fee — March 2026; Missouri Senate, Senator Ben Brown's Capitol Report for April 2, 2026 (SB 1066); VRMA, Missouri House approves bill to classify STRs as residential properties (HB 1768) — April 2026
• Montana Code Annotated 15-65-114, seller's permit and marketplace collection — reviewed October 13, 2026
• WOWT, Omaha city leaders look to regulate short-term rentals — July 25, 2026
• The Nevada Independent, explainer on AB 363; Clark County notification letter to short-term rental owners — September 25, 2026; Clark County ordinance amendment introduction — dated October 20, 2026
• Citizens Count, New Hampshire HB 1068 (2026) — last update March 15, 2026
• New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Local Finance Notice 2026-09 — 2026
• New Mexico Legislature, SB 149 (2026) agency analysis and HM 62 analysis — 2026 regular session; FastDemocracy bill tracker, New Mexico SB 149 (2026) — postponed indefinitely February 11, 2026
• VRMA, New York short-term rental regulations start in 2025 — January 2025; NYC Office of Special Enforcement — reviewed October 13, 2026
• North Carolina General Assembly, G.S. 160D-1207 — reviewed October 13, 2026; UNC School of Government, Coates' Canons on rental permits and registration under G.S. 160D-1207 — reviewed October 14, 2026; North Carolina S 291 (2025–2026) text and UNC School of Government bill summary for S 291 — referred to Senate Rules March 17, 2025
• Ohio House, HB 109 (136th General Assembly) and Legislative Service Commission analysis — third hearing March 18, 2026; Ohio Revised Code 5739.01, sales tax definitions (hotel, transient guests) and 5739.09, local lodging taxes — reviewed October 14, 2026
• Oregon Department of Revenue, state lodging tax — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Pennsylvania House Democrats, HB 2303 introduction release — March 2026; County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania testimony on HB 2303 — March 25, 2026
• Rhode Island Division of Taxation, Notice 2025-09 on taxation of short-term rentals — October 24, 2025; Advisory 2025-16 — August 2025
• South Carolina General Assembly, bill 442 (2025–2026) — reviewed October 13, 2026
• South Dakota Department of Revenue, county tourism tax rates — January 2026; Bloomberg Tax on the 2026 lodging guidelines
• Bloomberg Tax, Tennessee DOR Notice 25-07 on occupancy tax for short-term rental units — May 2025
• Texas Comptroller, hotel occupancy tax — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Utah Legislature, HB 256 (2025) second substitute; Utah State Tax Commission bulletin TB-21-25 — 2025
• Vermont Statutes, 32 V.S.A. 9301 (short-term rental surcharge) and 32 V.S.A. 9282 (advertising) — reviewed October 13, 2026; Vermont Legislature, H.242 (2025–2026) bill status — last action February 18, 2025; Vermont Chamber of Commerce, Universal Rental Registry clears the Senate (S.210) — February 2026
• Code of Virginia 15.2-983 — reviewed October 13, 2026; FastDemocracy bill tracker, Virginia HB 1557 (2025) and VPAP, HB 1557 — left in House Finance February 4, 2025
• Washington Legislature, HB 2559 (2026) bill report — 2026 session; Association of Washington Cities, local option short-term rental tax bill returns — February 2, 2026; Substitute HB 1798, Chapter 346, Laws of 2019 and chapter 64.37 RCW, short-term rentals — reviewed October 14, 2026
• West Virginia HB 5065 (2026) bill tracker; West Virginia Legislature — reviewed October 13, 2026
• Wisconsin Counties Association, April 2026 legal issues (Wis. Stat. 66.1014) — April 2026
• Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026 — rates as of January 1, 2026, used for the Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming state rates; midyear update — July 1, 2026
• Rent Responsibly, spring 2026 state short-term rental bills — spring 2026; Current Publishing on Carmel and HEA 1210 — March 25, 2026
• Haven Research, The Cost of Compliance in U.S. Short-Term Rental Regulation — August 24, 2026 snapshot
• Haven Research, What Courts Have Actually Held About Short-Term Rentals — August 23, 2026

Rows for Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming rely on state tax rates plus secondary compliance guides for the local picture, which is why their change cells read "Varies by city" or "No statewide change found."