If you're listing a property on Airbnb or VRBO, the single most expensive mistake is assuming it's allowed. A growing list of US cities run official short-term-rental (STR) permit or registration programs — operate without one and the fines run into the thousands. Here are 26 cities that do, and how to check a specific address before you list.
Zoning decides whether STR is an allowed use at that location at all. A separate permit / registration decides whether you, at this address, are licensed to do it. You can be in an STR-friendly zone and still be fined for operating without the permit — and most cities publish their permit registry as open data, so you can verify a specific address before you ever sign a lease or list.
These jurisdictions run an official STR licensing program and publish the registry. (We track each one's live permit data.)
Before you list: (1) pull the city's online zoning map to confirm STR is an allowed use there; (2) look the address up in the city's STR permit registry to see whether an active permit exists; (3) check the HOA/condo docs, which can ban STR regardless of what the city allows. If all three clear, you're good.
Every city publishes this in a different place and format, which is tedious if you operate across more than one market. We normalize all 26 registries into one consistent schema — permit ID, status, address, owner (where published), expiration — so you can check any of them the same way.
Get the STR Permit Registry data →