10 rules for unincorporated Horry County, South Carolina.
Verified from official government sources
Every Grand Strand short-term rental needs a local business license. Unincorporated Horry County allows STRs broadly as a residential use, but the City of Myrtle Beach prohibits them in most traditional residential ("R") zones, permitting them only where zoning specifically allows.
Short-term rental guests must keep quiet overnight. North Myrtle Beach enforces quiet hours from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am, prohibiting any sustained or repetitive noise audible beyond the property line. Horry County and Myrtle Beach enforce parallel noise ordinances against disruptive STR gatherings.
City of North Myrtle Beach — Quiet Hours / Noise (STR Rules)
It is illegal for any person to cause or permit any sustained or repetitive noise, regardless of the source, that is audible beyond the property line between the hours of 11:00 pm and 7:00 am, when such noise is excessive, disrupting the peace or disturbing the general public.
South Carolina levies a 7% state accommodations tax on transient lodging. On top of that, Horry County charges a hospitality fee/local accommodations tax of 3% of gross proceeds outside city limits, or 1.5% inside a city. Stays of 90+ consecutive days are exempt.
Horry County Hospitality Fee / Local Accommodations Tax reporting form; S.C. Code §12-36-920
1. Gross proceeds from Rental of Transient Accommodations outside city limits $____ x 3% (.03). 2–8. ...inside [Atlantic Beach/Aynor/Conway/Loris/Myrtle Beach/North Myrtle Beach/Surfside Beach] $____ x 1.5% (.015).
Grand Strand cities regulate STR guest parking tightly. North Myrtle Beach requires hosts to report their compliant on-site spaces, which cap the vehicles allowed. Guests must not overhang pavement, block sidewalks or rights-of-way, and cannot park within 30 feet of an intersection where shoulder parking is allowed.
City of North Myrtle Beach — Short-Term Rental / Transient Parking Rules (adopted May 2021)
Where the City allows shoulder parking within street rights-of-way, no car may park within 30 feet from the edge of the roadway pavement on the approach leg to any intersection... The number of parking spaces reported also represents the maximum number of vehicles permitted to park on-site.
Horry County sets no STR-specific maximum-occupancy number; occupancy is limited by the building and property-maintenance code. Grand Strand cities set their own caps — in North Myrtle Beach the number of on-site parking spaces you report to the City is the maximum number of vehicles allowed.
Horry County does not require short-term rentals to carry a specific insurance policy. The City of Myrtle Beach asks for proof of property insurance as part of its STR business-license process. Beyond that, adequate liability and flood coverage is the operator's own responsibility on this coastal, storm-exposed coast.
Horry County and its cities set no annual limit on how many nights a property may be rented short-term. The only threshold is duration: a stay becomes long-term (and tax-exempt) once the same guest occupies for 90 consecutive days, the line South Carolina uses to define a 'transient.'
S.C. Code §12-36-920(A)
The gross proceeds derived from the lease or rental of sleeping accommodations supplied to the same person for a period of ninety continuous days are not considered proceeds from transients.
Before renting, unincorporated-county hosts register with Horry County's Business License office (BLHospitality@horrycountysc.gov) and open a Hospitality Fee / Local Accommodations Tax account. Returns are filed on the county's monthly Accommodations Reporting Form, due the 20th of the month after each reporting period.
Horry County Hospitality Fee / Local Accommodations Tax — Accommodations Reporting Form
Accommodations MONTHLY Reporting Form — Due on the 20th of the month following Reporting period end. Use this form to report all rentals you have both inside and outside the city limits.
No Horry County or Grand Strand ordinance requires the host to be present during a stay; unhosted whole-home rentals are legal. North Myrtle Beach is moving toward a Responsible Local Agent rule — owners living within 30 miles may self-serve, otherwise a licensed property manager must be designated.
Neither Horry County nor its cities require an STR to be the owner's primary residence. Investor-owned, non-owner-occupied rentals are allowed. Myrtle Beach controls STRs through zoning rather than residency: a parcel not already in an STR-permitted zone cannot be converted to that use.
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