Fee comparison

STR permit fees by city: what 17 cities charge to license a short-term rental

STR Regulations Guide · September 2026 · Last verified September 5, 2026

The permit fee is usually the smallest cost of running a short-term rental legally. But it is the first number operators look up, because it tells you something about how seriously the city treats its program. A $75 license and a $925 license signal different levels of administrative overhead, and usually different levels of enforcement behind them.

This table covers 17 cities that require a permit, license, or registration to operate a short-term rental. It does not cover lodging taxes, which are a separate obligation in every jurisdiction. It also does not cover inspection fees, which some cities charge on top of the license.

The fee table

What the table shows

The range is wide: a Boston limited-share host pays $25 a year, while a San Francisco host pays $925 every two years. But the headline number is often misleading, because cities structure fees differently.

Some cities split the cost into pieces. Denver charges a $50 application fee plus a $100 license fee. Chicago layers a $150 annual registration on top of a $250 bi-annual license plus $60 per unit. The total in Chicago for a single unit is $460 in year one, which makes it one of the more expensive cities despite no single line item looking large.

Some cities tier by property type. San Diego has four tiers based on whether the property is owner-occupied and whether it is a whole-home rental. Boston splits into limited share ($25), home share ($200), and owner-adjacent ($200). New Orleans draws a sharp line between residential ($50) and commercial ($1,000). The tier you fall into matters more than the city you are in.

Some cities use longer terms. Austin, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington DC issue two-year licenses. On a per-year basis, San Francisco's $925 is $462.50, Portland's $400 is $200, and DC's $99 is $49.50, which makes DC the second-cheapest city in the table on an annualized basis.

What the fee does not include

The permit fee is the cost of the license itself. It does not include:

• Lodging and occupancy taxes. Every city on this list imposes them, typically 5% to 15% of the nightly rate, collected from the guest and remitted by the host or the platform. These are a separate obligation with their own registration.
• Fire and safety inspection fees. Charleston and some other cities require a fire inspection before issuing the permit, with a separate fee. The inspection cost is not in the table.
• Business license or tax certificate fees. Several cities (Savannah, Charleston, Chicago) require a general business license on top of the STR-specific permit. Those fees vary by revenue and are not included.
• Penalties for operating without a permit. These range from $500 per violation (common) to $5,000 per violation (New York City) to $1,000 per day (some California cities). The cheapest permit is always cheaper than the first fine.

The pattern

Cities that adopted STR regulations early (San Francisco in 2015, Nashville in 2014) tend to charge more and have more complex fee structures. Cities that adopted later (Scottsdale in 2022, Colorado Springs) tend to have simpler, lower fees, possibly because they learned from the administrative burden the early adopters built.

The fee also tracks, roughly, with how restrictive the city's overall STR rules are. San Francisco ($925, host-present requirement, 90-night cap on unhosted stays) and New York City ($145, host-present requirement, 2-guest maximum) charge very different fees but both tightly restrict operations. Denver ($150, primary-residence requirement) and Seattle ($75, no cap on nights) are cheaper and less restrictive. The correlation is loose, but operators shopping for where to invest notice it.

None of this tells you whether you can legally operate at your specific address. The fee is the last step; zoning, HOA rules, lease restrictions, and the city's cap or lottery (if it has one) come first. But the fee is the number most people search for first, so here it is, sourced, in one place.

For a deeper look at any of these cities' full rules, see our city guides (Austin and Nashville are live; more are added as each one is fully sourced). For how to read the ordinance yourself, see How to read any city's STR ordinance in 30 minutes.

Sources

Every fee in the table above was read from the city's own licensing or fee-schedule page. The pages checked, by city:

1. Austin: Development Services Department, STR license application (austintexas.gov)
2. Boston: Inspectional Services Department, short-term rental registration (boston.gov)
3. Charleston: Planning/Zoning, short-term rental permit information (charleston-sc.gov)
4. Chicago: Business Affairs & Consumer Protection, shared housing licensing (chicago.gov)
5. Colorado Springs: Planning & Development, short-term rentals (coloradosprings.gov)
6. Denver: Business Licensing, short-term rental new application (denvergov.org)
7. Los Angeles: Dept. of City Planning, home-sharing registration (planning.lacity.gov)
8. Nashville: Metro Codes, short-term rental property permits (nashville.gov)
9. New Orleans: Safety & Permits, short-term rental administration (nola.gov)
10. New York City: Office of Special Enforcement, STR registration (nyc.gov)
11. Portland: Permitting & Development, ASTR permits (portland.gov)
12. San Diego: Office of the City Treasurer, STRO licensing (sandiego.gov)
13. San Francisco: Office of Short-Term Rentals, STR FAQs (sfplanning.org)
14. Savannah: City of Savannah, STVR regulations (savannahga.gov)
15. Scottsdale: City of Scottsdale, vacation and short-term rentals (scottsdaleaz.gov)
16. Seattle: Finance & Administrative Services, short-term rental regulations (seattle.gov)
17. Washington, DC: DLCP, license and filing fees (dlcp.dc.gov)