Carrollton, TX Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

02 of the Carrollton Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance 4291 on December 2, 2025, defines a short-term rental (STR) as a residential dwelling unit used for lodging accommodations to occupants for a period of less than thirty consecutive days that is not permanently occupied by the property owners listed on the county appraisal district's records. That not-permanently-occupied language is the operative test: it is what separates an STR from a bed and breakfast (B&B), which the same section defines as a dwelling used the same way but permanently occupied by the property owners.

Carrollton licenses two lodging categories precisely on the axis of host presence, and Chapter 97 imposes no separate requirement that an STR owner, operator, or manager be physically present at the property during a guest's stay. 25, but neither of those duties requires physical presence. A B&B, by contrast, functions under the same license structure but its owner-occupancy is built into the definition itself, so a B&B that stops being permanently occupied no longer fits that classification and must instead license and operate as an STR.