Trenton, NJ Short-Term Rentals: Host Platform Liability (2026)

Trenton City Code § 228-13.B lets the City enter enforcement agreements directly with booking agents, the platforms that 'facilitate reservations or collect payments' for hosts under the § 228-1 definition. Those agreements can require a booking agent to remove a listing that exceeds the maximum days a unit may be rented short-term, to remove any listing 'deemed ineligible for use as a short-term rental under the provisions of this chapter,' meaning units caught by the three-strike rule or the other bars in § 228-3, and to block hosts from posting a listing at all without a valid City-issued registration number.

Subsection C makes participation effectively mandatory: 'Any booking agent that fails to enter into such agreements to actively prevent, remove, or de-list any ineligible listings shall be prohibited from conducting business in the City.' That is a citywide operating ban on the platform, not a per-listing fine, layered on top of the underlying enforcement power that already runs through the Trenton Police Department under § 228-13.A. Separately, § 228-5.F and § 228-10.B contemplate a cooperative role for booking agents, letting them provide registration services and requiring them to permit owners to display their registration number on listings, so a platform's obligations under Chapter 228 run in both directions: helping owners comply, and pulling down those who don't.