Cook County does not offer an extended home-share permit equivalent to Chicago's tiered Shared Housing categories or LA's Home-Sharing extended permit. Unincorporated Cook STRs operate under a single registration tier with no annual night cap to extend.
Some major cities create a baseline home-share permit limited to 90 or 120 nights per year and an extended permit unlocking unlimited nights for primary-residence hosts. Cook County's Ordinance 19-5236 takes a different approach: a single STR registration with no annual night cap, no primary-residence requirement, and no graduated permit tiers. Operators in unincorporated areas register once with the Department of Revenue, pay the registration fee, and remit Hotel Accommodations Tax on each booking. Hosts seeking extended-stay protections look instead to Illinois landlord-tenant law, which converts a stay into a tenancy after roughly 30 consecutive days regardless of platform.
Trying to operate under a non-existent extended permit, mislabeling a Cook County registration to a platform, or claiming an exemption that does not apply triggers Department of Revenue penalties, registration revocation, back-tax liability, and platform delisting.
See how Arlington Heights's extended home share rules stack up against other locations.
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