New York Short-Term Rental Rules by City: NYC Local Law 18 and Beyond

Short-term rental regulation in New York is split between two completely different worlds. Inside New York City, the combined force of state Multiple Dwelling Law §4(8)(a) and NYC Local Law 18 of 2021 makes it nearly impossible to run a traditional Airbnb-style whole-apartment rental — the city is the most-regulated STR market in the country and has lost more than 90% of its pre-2023 listings as a result. Outside the five boroughs, the state defers to municipalities under home rule, producing a patchwork that ranges from registration-only programs in Buffalo and Rochester to multi-year moratoria in parts of the Hamptons and density caps in the Catskills. If you own, operate, or are thinking about buying a short-term rental anywhere in New York State, the first question is which legal regime you are actually living under. This guide walks through the New York City framework in detail, then surveys the other cities and regions where STR regulation has tightened significantly between 2022 and 2026.

The state law backdrop

New York State has no single comprehensive short-term rental statute. What it has is a piece of pre-Airbnb tenement law from 1929, the Multiple Dwelling Law (MDL), which applies to buildings with three or more units in cities with populations over 325,000 — effectively just New York City. MDL §4(8)(a) defines "Class A" multiple dwellings as units that must be used for "permanent residence purposes" only, meaning occupancy by the same person or family for thirty consecutive days or more. The practical effect is that most NYC apartments cannot legally be rented for stays of less than 30 nights, full stop, unless a permanent resident is present during the guest's stay. This single sentence of state law, written nearly a century before Airbnb existed, is the foundation of everything else.

The MDL was amended in 2016 to make advertising an illegal short-term rental a violation in itself, with fines of $1,000, $5,000, and $7,500 for first, second, and third offenses — assessable even if no actual rental occurred. That amendment, codified at MDL §121, is the statutory hook the New York Attorney General's office used in early Airbnb litigation. The MDL applies only to multiple dwellings, so one- and two-family homes in NYC are exempt from the 30-day rule, but remain subject to local law and zoning. Outside NYC, the MDL has limited reach, and upstate STR regulation is built on local zoning and licensing authority granted by New York General City Law and the Municipal Home Rule Law.

Unlike Florida, Arizona, or Tennessee, the New York legislature has never passed a law preventing cities from regulating or banning short-term rentals. Multiple state-level proposals have surfaced — a statewide registration database, platform tax collection, rental caps — but as of 2026, none has been enacted. STR law in New York is overwhelmingly a local-government story, and the most consequential local government is the City of New York.

NYC Local Law 18: the most impactful STR law in America

In December 2021, the New York City Council passed Local Law 18 of 2022 (the official designation reflects its 2022 enactment date), codified at NYC Administrative Code §§26-3101 through 26-3108. The law created a "Short-Term Rental Registration Law" administered by the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE). After multiple delays driven by platform litigation, enforcement began on September 5, 2023. The effect was immediate and dramatic. According to data tracked by Inside Airbnb and confirmed by Airbnb's own reporting, the number of available short-term whole-unit listings in New York City dropped from roughly 22,000 in August 2023 to under 2,500 by the end of October 2023, a decline of more than 90% in eight weeks. No other city in the United States has produced a comparable supply-side contraction through regulation.

Local Law 18 has three core components. First, it requires every host offering a rental of less than 30 days to register with OSE, providing the host's name, the unit address, a sworn statement that the unit is the host's permanent residence, proof of legal occupancy (deed, lease, or co-op share certificate), the building's certificate of occupancy classification, and an attestation that the rental complies with MDL §4(8)(a). Second, it bars booking platforms — Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and any other "booking service" within the statutory definition — from processing transactions for unregistered units. Platforms must verify that each listing has a valid OSE registration number before allowing any booking to complete. Third, it imposes civil penalties of up to $1,500 per violation on hosts and up to $1,500 per transaction on platforms that process unregistered bookings, with a separate $500-per-violation fine on hosts who fail to comply with conditions of their registration.

The registration requirement was paired with substantive limits that effectively eliminate the conventional Airbnb business model in NYC. Registration is only available to permanent residents renting their own primary residence, and only for "hosted" stays — meaning the registered host must be physically present in the dwelling unit during the guest's stay. A whole-apartment, owner-absent rental of less than 30 nights is not eligible for registration under any circumstance, regardless of building type, neighborhood, or zoning. The host must also be the building's lawful occupant; tenants in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartments cannot register without explicit written permission from their landlord, which most landlords decline to give because of separate state and local tenant-protection rules.

Local Law 18 also limits how many guests can stay simultaneously (a maximum of two) and prohibits any rental in a building with four or more residential units unless the building is a one-or-two-family converted dwelling — language drawn directly from the MDL's Class A multiple dwelling definition. In practice, this means hosts in any apartment building with four or more units, which is the overwhelming majority of NYC's rental housing stock, cannot register, even for hosted stays. The only buildings whose hosts can register and operate legally are one- and two-family homes, certain converted brownstones, and a narrow class of buildings that received certificates of occupancy as one- or two-family dwellings before the 1944 zoning code took effect.

The 90-day annual cap that appears in some early descriptions of NYC's STR framework is a relic of the city's pre-2023 enforcement posture and is functionally moot under Local Law 18. The 30-day MDL rule and the hosted-only registration requirement together make unhosted rentals illegal regardless of nightly count. Some legal commentators still cite a 90-day cap, but OSE's enforcement posture is that any unhosted rental under 30 days is illegal on the first night, not the 91st.

NYC enforcement and penalties

OSE is a dedicated enforcement office with authority to inspect units, issue notices of violation, and pursue civil penalties through the city's Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH). A first violation for an unregistered short-term rental can reach $1,500, and the city has obtained judgments against multi-unit "ghost hotel" operators exceeding $100,000 in aggregate penalties. Landlords whose buildings host illegal STRs can be cited for separate housing maintenance code violations, triggering Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) action against the building owner.

The booking-platform side of Local Law 18 is the more consequential lever. Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com signed compliance agreements with OSE in 2023 and now block any NYC listing without a verified registration number. Platforms also share booking data under Administrative Code §26-3104, giving the city a real-time view of every short-term transaction. Hosts who try to circumvent through direct bookings or smaller platforms face the same MDL fines, with the platform itself facing penalties up to $1,500 per illegal transaction. The economic disincentive has functionally eliminated the workaround.

For hosts who can register — primarily owner-occupiers of one- and two-family homes hosting in their own home while present — approval takes 30 to 60 days, costs $145, and requires biennial renewal. As of early 2026, OSE has approved approximately 4,000 registrations citywide, a fraction of the pre-2023 listing count.

NYC building-class and tenant-protection conflicts

Beyond the MDL and Local Law 18, NYC short-term rentals run into the city's Housing Maintenance Code, the rent stabilization law, and the cooperative or condominium board's own rules. Tenants in any rent-stabilized apartment — roughly half of all NYC rental units — face a separate statutory bar on subletting at more than the legal regulated rent under Rent Stabilization Code §2525.6, which the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) enforces. Charging Airbnb nightly rates on a rent-stabilized unit is treated as illegal profiteering, with potential lease termination and treble damages. Co-op boards almost universally prohibit short-term rentals through proprietary lease and house rules, enforceable through eviction proceedings under the Pullman doctrine. Condo boards have less direct eviction authority but routinely impose fines, restrict common-area access, and pursue declaratory judgments. The combined effect is that even in buildings where Local Law 18 might theoretically permit a hosted registration, private governance documents often make it impossible.

Hotel and occupancy tax framework

New York's tax framework stacks state and local layers. The state collects a 4% sales tax on hotel and motel room occupancies under New York Tax Law §1105(e), plus a 0.375% MCTD surcharge in downstate counties. New York City layers a 5.875% hotel room occupancy tax on rooms costing $40 or more under NYC Administrative Code §11-2502, plus a $1.50-to-$2.00 per-room per-night charge, bringing combined NYC tax on a hotel-equivalent stay to roughly 14.75% plus surcharges.

Whether an STR owes hotel occupancy tax in NYC depends on whether it qualifies as a "hotel" under tax law definitions, which generally cover transient stays of less than 180 days. Airbnb collects and remits state sales tax on all NYC stays under a voluntary agreement, and as of 2023 also collects NYC hotel occupancy tax under a separate agreement with the city Department of Finance. Vrbo hosts and smaller-platform operators remain responsible for collecting and remitting directly. Outside NYC, every county with a hotel occupancy tax applies it to STRs at rates from 2% to 5% — Erie County (Buffalo) at 3%, Onondaga County (Syracuse) at 5%, Saratoga County at 3%, Warren County (Lake George) at 4% — layered on the 4% state sales tax.

Buffalo: the largest upstate STR market

Buffalo passed Common Council Ord. No. 215 in 2017 and amended it in 2023, creating a tiered permit system administered by the Department of Permit and Inspection Services. Codified at Chapter 220 of the Buffalo City Code, the ordinance distinguishes between owner-occupied hosted STRs, unhosted STRs in an owner's primary residence (capped at a certain number of nights per year), and non-primary-residence rentals (subject to stricter zoning and density controls). Permits cost $250 annually and require insurance, a 24/7 local contact, and a fire safety inspection. Buffalo enforces a density cap of one non-primary STR per block face in residential zones.

Buffalo sits at roughly 278,000 population, just below the MDL's 325,000 threshold, so the 30-day rule does not bind multi-unit buildings — giving Buffalo's STR market room NYC's lacks. Hosts in Allentown, Elmwood Village, and the West Side run active operations under the permit system, though a 2024 Common Council push tightening enforcement and adding quarterly tax remittance has slowed new listings.

Rochester and Syracuse: registration with teeth

Rochester's 2022 ordinance, codified at City Code Chapter 90, requires STR operators to register with the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development, pay a $200 annual permit fee, and comply with city building and fire codes for transient occupancy. The ordinance limits non-primary-residence STRs to commercial and mixed-use districts and caps permits in residential zones. Rochester requires platforms to verify registration before listing, though platform enforcement is less aggressive than NYC's.

Syracuse adopted a similar program in 2023 under Local Law No. 4, requiring annual registration through the Department of Code Enforcement at a $150 fee, a safety inspection, $500,000 liability insurance, and quiet-hours and parking compliance. Syracuse limits non-owner-occupied STRs to specific zoning districts with permits capped in residential zones. Enforcement has focused on the Westcott, University Hill, and Eastwood neighborhoods, where Syracuse University-area clustering generated the most political pressure.

Albany and the Capital Region

Albany's 2021 ordinance, codified at City Code Part 22, requires registration with the Department of Buildings and Regulatory Compliance, a $250 permit fee, primary-residence status for whole-unit rentals, and bedroom-based occupancy limits. Hosted STRs are allowed in any residential zone; unhosted whole-unit STRs are restricted to mixed-use and downtown districts. After complaints from Center Square and Pine Hills, the city tightened enforcement in 2024 to require a Class A building inspection before any new registration is issued.

Saratoga Springs: tourism-town tension

Saratoga Springs is one of the most heavily tourism-driven cities in New York, with the August thoroughbred racing season tripling overnight demand each year. The city adopted Local Law No. 5 of 2023 to regulate short-term rentals after a multi-year council debate. The law requires registration through the City Clerk's office, a $300 annual permit fee, designation of a primary residence for hosted-only rentals, and a separate "transient lodging" permit for non-primary-residence rentals that costs $750 annually and is subject to a citywide cap of 100 permits. The cap was reached during the first registration window in 2024, generating a waiting list and a competitive resale market for transferable permits, which the city explicitly prohibited in a 2025 amendment to close that loophole.

Lake George and Warren County: heavy tourism, light regulation

The Lake George region, encompassing the Village of Lake George and the surrounding Town of Lake George, Bolton, and Queensbury within Warren County, has historically been a permissive STR market by New York standards. The Village of Lake George passed a local STR registration ordinance in 2023 that requires registration with the Village Clerk, payment of the 4% Warren County hotel occupancy tax, and basic safety compliance, but does not impose primary-residence requirements or numerical caps. The surrounding towns have variously adopted registration programs (Bolton, Lake George Town) or remain largely unregulated (Queensbury for most zoning districts). The state Multiple Dwelling Law does not reach Warren County, and the area's predominantly single-family and small-multi-unit housing stock falls outside most of the structural barriers that limit STRs downstate.

The Catskills: Hudson, Woodstock, and Ulster County

The Hudson Valley and Catskills have seen rapid STR growth since 2019, with downstate buyers acquiring second homes for personal use plus rental income. Hudson, NY (Columbia County) passed a Short-Term Rental Local Law in 2022 capping non-owner-occupied STRs at 1% of the city's housing stock, requiring annual registration with the Code Enforcement Office at $500 per unit, and imposing a quarterly tax remittance through the Columbia County Treasurer's office. Woodstock, NY (Ulster County) adopted one of the strictest rural STR ordinances in the state in 2023, requiring registration, a primary-residence designation for any whole-unit rental, and a 60-day annual cap on non-primary-residence STRs in residential zones. Surrounding Ulster County towns — Saugerties, Phoenicia, Big Indian — have variously adopted or are considering registration programs, with the New Paltz town board imposing a moratorium on new STR registrations in late 2024 pending a comprehensive zoning rewrite.

The Hamptons: the strictest STR enforcement outside NYC

The East End of Long Island runs the most aggressive STR enforcement of any New York region outside the five boroughs. East Hampton Town Code Chapter 199 requires all rentals shorter than 14 nights to register through the Town's Rental Registry, pay a $300 fee, and pass a safety inspection covering smoke and CO detectors, egress, and pool barriers. East Hampton bans whole-house rentals of less than two weeks in any residential zone, with limited owner-hosted exceptions, and imposes fines up to $8,000 per offense plus $1,000 daily for continuing violations. Town inspectors actively monitor Airbnb, Vrbo, and StayMarquis listings and have brought hundreds of enforcement actions since 2022.

Southampton Town Code Chapter 270 takes a similar approach, requiring registration, limiting rentals to four occurrences per year per dwelling unless permitted as a "transient rental," and capping occupancy at two persons per bedroom plus two additional. The villages of Southampton, Sag Harbor, and East Hampton each layer additional rules on top of town-level requirements, with frequent moratoria on new STR registrations in village-adjacent districts.

Hosted versus unhosted: the central distinction

The single most important regulatory distinction across New York is whether a rental is "hosted" — meaning the registered operator is physically present in the unit during the guest's stay — or "unhosted." In NYC, only hosted rentals are eligible for Local Law 18 registration. In Albany, Saratoga Springs, and most Hudson Valley municipalities, hosted rentals face lighter regulation, no numerical caps, and lower fees, while unhosted rentals are confined to specific zoning districts, subject to caps, and assessed higher fees. The hosted distinction also matters for tenant-protection conflicts: a hosted rental of a portion of a primary residence is generally not a "sublease" under landlord-tenant law, while an unhosted whole-unit rental can be treated as an illegal sublet under both rent-stabilization rules and conventional lease terms.

Whole-apartment versus private room

In NYC, even "private room" rentals are constrained by the hosted-only requirement of Local Law 18. Renting a spare bedroom while the host is at work or on vacation does not qualify — the host must be home during the entire guest stay. The two-guest maximum applies to the rental, regardless of how many bedrooms exist in the unit. Outside NYC, the whole-apartment versus private-room distinction tends to track local zoning treatment: private rooms in owner-occupied homes are usually allowed without registration in residential zones, while whole-apartment rentals trigger the full permit and registration framework.

Enforcement trends 2024-2026

Three enforcement trends define New York STR regulation in the current cycle. First, platform accountability. The NYC Local Law 18 model — requiring platforms to verify host registration before processing transactions — has been adopted in modified form by Saratoga Springs (2025), Hudson (2024), and is under consideration in Rochester and Buffalo. Once platforms are co-opted as enforcement partners, host-side circumvention becomes economically unviable, and supply contracts sharply.

Second, density caps. Hudson's 1%-of-housing-stock cap, Saratoga Springs' 100-permit cap, and East Hampton's effective ban on short-term whole-house rentals all reflect a movement from "register and operate" to "register if a permit is available." The result is that prospective hosts in regulated NY municipalities now face market-based scarcity for permits in addition to the underlying compliance burden.

Third, tax enforcement. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance launched an STR-focused compliance initiative in 2024, cross-referencing platform booking data with sales-tax and hotel-occupancy-tax filings. Hosts who collected platform-remitted state sales tax but failed to register and remit local occupancy tax have received audit notices; counties with high tourism volumes have begun issuing assessments based on platform data shared under information-sharing agreements.

What to do if you operate a short-term rental in New York

For NYC, the decision tree is simple: if you do not own or lawfully occupy a one- or two-family dwelling as your permanent residence, and you cannot be present during every guest stay, you cannot legally operate a short-term rental. Period. The cost of attempting to operate outside Local Law 18 is high, the platforms are blocking listings, and the city's enforcement posture is aggressive. For owner-occupiers who can comply, register through the OSE portal, expect a 30-to-60-day approval window, and budget for biennial renewal.

For upstate and Long Island, the answer depends entirely on the municipality. Look up the city or town code, confirm whether your unit qualifies under the local registration regime, and budget for the permit fee, the safety inspection, the local responsible-party requirement, and the layered state and county hotel occupancy taxes. If the municipality runs a permit cap and is currently at capacity, expect a waiting list; if it has imposed a moratorium, expect that moratorium to be extended. Long-term rentals of 30 days or more remain unaffected by these laws in most jurisdictions and are often the cleanest path for owners of apartment-building units in NYC or single-family homes in cap-constrained upstate cities.

How to verify your specific rules

State law sets the floor for what is allowed and the framework for tax collection. Local ordinances determine whether you can operate, what permit fees apply, whether platforms will list you, and what enforcement risk you carry. CityRuleLookup maintains a short-term rental page for every covered city in New York that pulls together the local permit requirements, fee schedules, occupancy limits, primary-residence rules, and platform-compliance status. Start with your specific city, then confirm with the issuing municipal office — the City Clerk in upstate cities, the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement in NYC, the Town Clerk on Long Island — and, if your unit is subject to rent stabilization, a co-op or condo board, or an HOA, consult a real-estate attorney before listing. In a state that has chosen to leave STR regulation largely to localities, the local rule is the rule that matters.