Oneida, NY Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

3, added December 6, 2022 by Local Law No. 11-2022, defines a hosted short-term rental use as one where the owner lives and sleeps in the rented unit, or in another dwelling unit on the same or an adjacent tax parcel, throughout the renter's stay, with no more than two bedrooms rented at any one time. An unhosted short-term rental use is any rental that does not meet that on-site presence test. Subsection D caps every owner at two operating permits at any one time from the Department of Code Enforcement, and specifies that no more than one of those two permits may be for an unhosted use, so a single owner cannot hold two unhosted permits.

Subsection F treats unhosted rentals differently for assessment purposes: they are assessed as commercial properties, while hosted units are not. The host-presence distinction also drives the day-limit structure in Subsection G(2)(f): there is no cap at all on the number of days per year a hosted short-term rental may operate, while unhosted rentals are capped at 60 days per calendar year in R-1 and R-2 zones (and, absent a conditional use permit, in R-3, Commercial, Downtown Commercial and Light-Industrial zones), unless the rental predates the ordinance under a written agreement.

Every operating permit, hosted or unhosted, requires a Code Enforcement inspection covering fire, building and housing standards items such as posted 911 address numbers, working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and compliant off-street parking.