Washington, DC Short-Term Rental Rules (2026)
Can I operate a short-term rental in Washington?
Short-term rental is lawful in the District only for licensed individuals who live in the unit. Host-present stays are open-ended, and host-absent stays face an annual night allowance. Non-resident investor whole-home nightly rental has no lawful path today.
Key facts
What the record says about short-term rentals in Washington, 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 Washington scores the way it does. Listed most important first.
What holds it back
- Unhosted stays allowed (No) sets a hard limit on how high the score can go.Source
- Unhosted stays allowed (No) sets a hard limit on how high the score can go.Source
- Primary residence required (Yes) sets a hard limit on how high the score can go.
- Nights per year (90 nights/yr) lowers the score.
- Primary residence required (Yes) lowers the score.
- Unhosted stays allowed (No) lowers the score.Source
- Unhosted stays allowed (No) lowers the score.Source
- Permit or license (Yes) lowers the score.
- Occupancy limit (2 per bedroom, max 8) lowers the score.Source
- Occupancy limit (2 per bedroom, max 8) lowers the score.Source
- Lodging tax (15.95%) lowers the score.
Operating restrictions
What limits how, where and how often you can rent in Washington.
Occupancy / night caps / zoning limits
Hosted stays are not limited by nights. Whole-unit stays while the host is away are limited per calendar year, with an exemption process for documented time away. Booking services must refuse bookings past the limit.
- Annual night allowance for host-absent stays unless an exemption notice is transmitted
- Host must notify the program after returning from an exempt absence
Owner-occupancy / primary-residence rules
Only an individual may be licensed, and only for their own primary residence. A freestanding investment unit at another address fails the test whatever its configuration. A pending bill would let renters and second-property owners be licensed, but it is not law.
New to this? Owner-occupied vs non-owner-occupied STRs, explained
Permit requirements
What you need to file or hold before hosting in Washington.
Permits & licensing
A Basic Business License with the correct short-term or vacation endorsement is required before operating. The licence is applied for online with an Access DC account. Applicants must show the unit is their primary residence, tied to Homestead Deduction status.
- Basic Business License with Short-Term Rental or Vacation Rental endorsement
- Licence fee of $99 for a two-year term
- Proof of primary residence tied to Homestead Deduction
- Natural-person applicant only
New to this? How short-term rental permits and licensing work
Taxes
Lodging, occupancy and related taxes or fees.
Taxes & fees
Stays are subject to the District's transient-accommodation sales tax, which booking platforms collect and remit. A temporary surcharge on that tax is set to end on March 30, 2027.
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 Washington through the deal analyzer for cash flow, cap rate, and long-term projections.
Sources
Last verified October 17, 2026 (24 days ago). Short-term rental rules can change between checks. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before relying on this for a real decision.
- mayor.dc.gov
- ota.dc.gov
- wjla.com
- bnbcalc.com
- steadily.com
- otr.cfo.dc.gov
- rakidzich.com
- dlcp.dc.gov
- code.dccouncil.gov
- airbnb.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 Washington.
More STR-friendly options nearby
Nearby cities with a higher regulation score than Washington.
- 75/100Caroline County~58 mi
- 75/100Washington County~73 mi
- 55/100Gettysburg~64 mi
- 30/100Annapolis~26 mi
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