San Juan County – Orcas Island, WA (Unincorporated) Short-Term Rental Rules (2026)
Can I operate a short-term rental in San Juan County – Orcas Island?
A county vacation rental permit is needed to rent a house or accessory unit short term, and island caps leave no practical route to a new permit on Orcas Island; a buyer's realistic path is purchasing a property that already holds a compliant permit, which generally runs with the land.
Key facts
What the record says about short-term rentals in San Juan County – Orcas Island, with the level of law each comes from. What do these facts mean?
Can you operate?
Stay limits
County · as of Oct 2026
Taxes
Why this score
The main reasons San Juan County – Orcas Island scores the way it does. Listed most important first.
What holds it back
- New permits paused (Yes) sets a hard limit on how high the score can go.
- Permit cap (Cap reached, waitlist) sets a hard limit on how high the score can go.Source
- Permit cap (Cap reached, waitlist) lowers the score.Source
- New permits paused (Yes) lowers the score.
- Permit or license (Yes) lowers the score.
- Zone eligibility (Most zones) lowers the score.Source
- Platform collects tax (Partly) lowers the score.Source
- Lodging tax (10.35%) lowers the score.
- Occupancy limit (2 per bedroom + 3) lowers the score.
Operating restrictions
What limits how, where and how often you can rent in San Juan County – Orcas Island.
Occupancy / night caps / zoning limits
Short-term use is confined to houses and accessory units in designations where it is allowed, and each permit specifies a bedroom count. Orcas Island's cap excludes master planned resort zoning; Shaw and Waldron prohibit it outright.
- Barred in natural and conservancy shoreline, agricultural resource and forest resource designations
- Single-family residence or accessory dwelling unit only
- Detached accessory units built after mid-2007 only inside urban growth areas
- Bedroom count fixed by the permit
Enforcement / penalties
The county reviews online advertising for permit numbers and penalizes advertising or operating without a permit. Annual compliance certificates and fire inspections support ongoing enforcement.
- Penalty of $2,300 for advertising or operating an unpermitted rental
- Ads without a permit or compliance number are flagged
New to this? Owner-occupied vs non-owner-occupied STRs, explained
Permit requirements
What you need to file or hold before hosting in San Juan County – Orcas Island.
Permits & licensing
The county issues conditional or provisional use permits depending on the parcel's land-use designation, with an annual certificate of compliance afterward. New permits are to be allocated by a lottery whose procedures the Council has not yet approved. Active rentals also need a state business identifier.
- Vacation rental permit for the land-use designation (conditional use application fee $2,300; provisional use $1,000)
- Annual certificate of compliance filed October through December 31 (online fee $145), even for inactive permits
- Permit or compliance number in every advertisement
- On-island property manager and 24-hour emergency contact
- State business identifier (UBI) for active rentals
- Fire marshal inspection roughly every two to three years
- Certify compliance within 90 days of a title transfer
New to this? How short-term rental permits and licensing work
Taxes
Lodging, occupancy and related taxes or fees.
Taxes & fees
Active rentals must report state sales and lodging taxes and the county layers a special lodging tax on top of sales tax. Platform collection varies, so hosts should confirm what each booking channel remits.
- Register with the state and file sales and lodging tax returns
- Special county lodging tax in addition to combined sales tax
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 San Juan County – Orcas Island through the deal analyzer for cash flow, cap rate, and long-term projections.
Sources
Last verified October 30, 2026 (11 days ago). Short-term rental rules can change between checks. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before relying on this for a real decision.
- sanjuancountywa.gov › 1579/Vacation-Rentals-Information-and-Applica
- sanjuancountywa.gov › Detail/1988
- sanjuanupdate.com
- orcas-island.com
- avalara.com
- mrsc.org
- sanjuanjournal.com
- citizenportal.ai
- app.leg.wa.gov
- wa-law.org
- dor.wa.gov › html/182656
- dor.wa.gov › …guide/online-marketplaces-and-property-managers
A free STRVE account shows which rule each source supports, plus the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, change history, and rule-change alerts for San Juan County – Orcas Island.
More STR-friendly options nearby
Nearby cities with a higher regulation score than San Juan County – Orcas Island.
- 83/100Tacoma~92 mi
Short-term rental rules near San Juan County – Orcas Island
All Washington 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