Davenport, IA Short-Term Rental Rules (2026)
Can I operate a short-term rental in Davenport?
Davenport has no dedicated STR ordinance, though its general rental property license ($30-$60 a year) may still apply. AirDNA shows 313 listings averaging $28K per year, 60% occupancy and a $144 ADR. Rabbu cites average home values around $308K and revenue of about $19.4K. The yield uses the $28K AirDNA revenue against the $308K price. That price looks high for Davenport and I could not verify it, so the yield could be higher with cheaper homes. One aggregator describes city STR permit and inspection requirements that I could not corroborate with the city, so verify locally. Recent/pending changes: No Davenport STR ordinance changes were found. A 2025 state bill to limit the preemption to cities above 75,000 population did not become law. A 2026 state bill on city classification of STR property was referred to committee and is not law. Davenport's population is roughly 100,000, so the 2025 bill would not have exempted it anyway. Davenport adopted a general rent abatement ordinance in November 2024.
Key facts
What the record says about short-term rentals in Davenport, with the level of law each comes from. What do these facts mean?
Can you operate?
Stay limits
Taxes
Why this score
The main reasons Davenport scores the way it does. Listed most important first.
What holds it back
- Lodging tax (12%) lowers the score.
What helps
- Iowa law bars local bans, permit caps, minimum-stay rules, and permit requirements, so local rules on those don't count.
- Platform collects tax (Yes) raises the score.Source
Not yet known
- 1 more factor — free account
- 1 fact is not yet established, so the score leans on typical values.
Operating restrictions
What limits how, where and how often you can rent in Davenport.
Occupancy / night caps / zoning limits
None. Iowa law prohibits city STR regulation, which rules out STR permit caps, and I found no Davenport moratorium. The 2025 and 2026 bills to narrow the preemption are not law. None. There is no annual night limit and no minimum stay. Both are barred by the state preemption, and Davenport has no STR ordinance.
Owner-occupancy / primary-residence rules
No owner-occupancy or primary-residence requirement exists. The state definition covers single-family houses, condo units and owner-occupied homes alike, and the city cannot regulate them. Investor-owned whole-home STRs are allowed.
Enforcement / penalties
No STR-specific enforcement program was found. The city can enforce fire and building safety, noise, nuisance and property-maintenance rules, but only in the same way it enforces them for non-STR properties. Davenport passed a general rent abatement/property maintenance ordinance in November 2024, which is not STR-specific. The Department of Revenue enforces the lodging tax.
New to this? Owner-occupied vs non-owner-occupied STRs, explained
Permit requirements
What you need to file or hold before hosting in Davenport.
Permits & licensing
No STR-specific permit or license is allowed. Iowa Code 414.1(1)(e)(4) bars a city from requiring a license or permit fee for a short-term rental property. Davenport has no dedicated STR ordinance. I found secondary claims that Davenport's general rental property license (about $30-$60 a year) may still apply to rented dwellings, but I could not verify this in the municipal code. Hosts must register with the Iowa Department of Revenue for hotel/motel and sales tax if no platform collects it for them. There is no STR permit process to wait on, so there is no waitlist and no STR-specific fee. If the general rental license applies, secondary sources put the cost at roughly $30-$60 a year. I could not confirm the fee, the inspection requirement or the timeline from the city code or the city's license page.
New to this? How short-term rental permits and licensing work
Taxes
Lodging, occupancy and related taxes or fees.
Taxes & fees
A 5% state hotel/motel excise tax applies. Secondary sources citing the Iowa Department of Revenue rate table effective July 2026 list a 7% Davenport local hotel/motel tax, for 12% combined. Davenport's own code chapter 3.24, which I could open, still shows an older 5% rate. Chapter 3.24 exempts stays of more than 31 consecutive days. The 6% state sales tax applies to separately taxable items other than the room. Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit the lodging taxes on bookings made through them.
New to this? Short-term rental lodging taxes, explained
Recent changes
The dated change history is part of the free account. Email alerts above need no account.
Market assumptions
Estimates, not lawRevenue, occupancy and returns depend on the specific property and are estimates, separate from the rules above.
Run any property in Davenport through the deal analyzer for cash flow, cap rate, and long-term projections.
Sources
Last verified November 4, 2026 (6 days ago). Short-term rental rules can change between checks. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before relying on this for a real decision.
- legis.iowa.gov › code/414.1.pdf
- ecode360.com
- legis.iowa.gov › chapter/423A.pdf
- bnbcalc.com
- checkmaterentals.com
- legis.iowa.gov › 2023/414.1.pdf
- legis.iowa.gov › 2026/423A.3.pdf
- legis.iowa.gov › 2026/423A.5A.pdf
- legis.iowa.gov › attachments/SF341.html
- revenue.iowa.gov
- fastdemocracy.com
- centerville-ia.org
A free STRVE account shows which rule each source supports, plus the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, change history, and rule-change alerts for Davenport.
Short-term rental rules near Davenport
All Iowa cities →How we research this
The STRVE Score is our own regulation rating, built from seven levels of authority: state, county, town, HOA, deed restrictions, special districts, and platform rules. Each level is scored separately, with its own citations and the date we verified it. The headline number is the strictest of the seven, never an average, because the tightest rule is the one that governs you.
We keep a history of what a city's rules said before and when they changed, so a score that moves is traceable to the rule that moved it.
- Highly permissive
- 90+
- Friendly
- 70–89
- Moderate
- 45–69
- Heavily restricted
- 20–44
- Effectively banned
- 0–19
Not legal advice
STRVE is a research tool, not financial or legal advice. Always verify regulation, tax, and permitting details with the local jurisdiction and a licensed professional before you buy.
The STRVE Score and the seven-level breakdown are our own rating framework, not an official or government rating, and no jurisdiction endorses or reviews them. The rules behind them are researched from public sources with AI assistance and are current only as of the verification date shown, so they can be incomplete, outdated, or wrong. None of it substitutes for advice from local counsel. Confirm every permit, tax, occupancy, and zoning requirement against the jurisdiction's own municipal code and with an attorney licensed in that jurisdiction before you buy, list, or operate. Terms of Service