Cumberland County, ME Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

There is no Cumberland County ordinance distinguishing 'hosted' from 'unhosted' or 'whole-home' from 'shared-stay' STR operations, because there is no county STR code at all. The state of Maine does not impose host-presence requirements — neither 36 MRS § 1811 (lodging tax) nor 36 MRS § 1754-B (marketplace facilitator) makes any distinction based on host presence; the 9% lodging tax applies equally whether the host is on the premises, in a separate ADU on the same lot, or in another state. Within Cumberland County, the most detailed host-presence regime is in the City of Portland: Code Ch. 6 Art. IX defines an 'owner-occupied' (hosted) STR as one where the operator's principal residence is the same dwelling, and an 'non-owner-occupied' or 'unhosted' STR otherwise — and as noted in the primary-residence-only entry, Portland caps non-owner-occupied STRs at 400 citywide. South Portland's Code Ch. 14 Art. VIII similarly creates tiered host-presence categories. Most other Cumberland County towns (Bridgton, Brunswick, Casco, Naples, Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Harpswell, Long Island, North Yarmouth, Pownal, Raymond, Scarborough, Sebago, Standish, Westbrook, Windham, Yarmouth) impose either no host-presence rule at all or a simpler 'local 24-hour contact' requirement that allows remote hosting.