Somerville, MA Short-Term Rentals: Extended Home Share (2026)

Somerville's Code of Ordinances defines a regulated "short-term rental" in Sec. 7-251 as accommodations rented for fewer than 28 consecutive days, whether or not a booking agent is involved. Because Sec. 7-252 applies the entire article only to units "offered as a short-term rental," a rental agreement structured for 28 days or more falls outside Article X entirely: no certificate of registration from the Inspectional Services Department (ISD), no $250 fee, no 90-day autonomous-unit cap, and none of the primary-residence documentation ISD requires under Sec.

7-254. This 28-day line matters for hosts who want to offer an "extended home share," typically a month-long or longer stay to a traveling professional, student, or relocating family, without triggering the registration process built for nightly and weekly tourist bookings. The unit still has to comply with ordinary landlord-tenant law and the state sanitary code once a stay crosses into a longer-term tenancy, and Somerville's rent control and eviction protections can attach depending on lease terms, but the STR-specific machinery in Sec. 7-253, including the shared-unit and autonomous-unit day caps, the ten-guest limit, and the posted-notice requirements, is written to govern only sub-28-day stays.

ISD, which administers the registry under Sec. 7-255, treats the 28-day threshold as the dividing line between a short-term rental and an ordinary tenancy when reviewing complaints or registration applications.