Ocean City, MD Short-Term Rental Rules (2026)
Can I operate a short-term rental in Ocean City?
Short-term rental is lawful townwide with an annual rental licence plus a short-term supplement. The 2025 pause on new licences in single-family and mobile-home districts was repealed in March 2026, and voters rejected the minimum-stay limits.
Key facts
What the record says about short-term rentals in Ocean City, 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 Ocean City scores the way it does. Listed most important first.
What holds it back
- Permit or license (Yes) lowers the score.
- Lodging tax (12%) lowers the score.
- Platform collects tax (Partly) lowers the score.Source
Not yet known
- 8 more factors — free account
- 24 facts are not yet established, so the score leans on typical values.
Operating restrictions
What limits how, where and how often you can rent in Ocean City.
Occupancy / night caps / zoning limits
In single-family and mobile-home districts occupancy follows bedrooms, with children excluded overnight. Elsewhere a floor-area method applies, and unpermitted conversions do not count.
- R-1 and MH: two per bedroom plus two
- Other districts: 40 square feet per person plus two additional occupants
Enforcement / penalties
Unlicensed renting is a municipal infraction with daily fines. The town may suspend or revoke rental licences for violations.
New to this? Owner-occupied vs non-owner-occupied STRs, explained
Permit requirements
What you need to file or hold before hosting in Ocean City.
Permits & licensing
New applications are filed in person or by mail, and existing licences renew online. Licences require inspection consent, and renewal is blocked while code violations are open.
- Annual rental licence with noise control permit ($196 for a single-family home)
- Short-term rental housing unit supplement ($50)
- Local contact able to respond within 60 minutes
- Rental inspection within 30 days for new licences; five-year random rotation afterward
New to this? How short-term rental permits and licensing work
Taxes
Lodging, occupancy and related taxes or fees.
Taxes & fees
State sales tax is collected by platforms or by registered hosts. Worcester County room tax applies to stays of four months or less.
- Register with the Comptroller of Maryland
- Worcester County room tax application and periodic reports
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 Ocean City through the deal analyzer for cash flow, cap rate, and long-term projections.
Sources
Last verified October 22, 2026 (19 days ago). Short-term rental rules can change between checks. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before relying on this for a real decision.
- oceancitymd.gov
- wboc.com
- worcestermd.gov › node/186
- avalara.com › …rental-moratorium-in-residential-districts.html
- mgaleg.maryland.gov › bil_0003/hb1103.pdf
- mgaleg.maryland.gov › bil_0004/sb0624.pdf
- mgaleg.maryland.gov › Details/hb1221
- mgaleg.maryland.gov › Details/hb0993
- mgaleg.maryland.gov › Details/hb1103
- avalara.com › …ty-regulations-what-operators-need-to-know.html
- worcestermd.gov › node/3138
- mdcoastdispatch.com
A free STRVE account shows which rule each source supports, plus the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, change history, and rule-change alerts for Ocean City.
More STR-friendly options nearby
Nearby cities with a higher regulation score than Ocean City.
- 78/100Wildwood~47 mi
Short-term rental rules near Ocean City
All Maryland 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