Walton County, GA Short-Term Rentals: Night Caps (2026)

Section 6-1-840 of the Land Development Ordinance permits short-term rentals only as a conditional use in the A and R3 zoning districts, and prohibits them in every other district except commercial areas where motels, hotels and inns are already allowed. For rentals operating under that conditional use, subsection B sets the tenancy limits: the maximum time period a short-term rental may be rented is seven days, and the maximum number of such seven-day rentals in a calendar year is fifty-two. The section also closes off a workaround, stating that no short-term rental may be rented more than once during the same seven-day period, and that seven-day rental periods shall not overlap, so an operator cannot stack multiple simultaneous bookings to exceed the effective cap.

The cap applies on top of the licensing structure the section imposes: every short-term rental needs an annual license issued as an occupational tax certificate, good for one calendar year only, non-renewing, non-transferable, and automatically terminated by a change in property ownership. An operator must reapply and pay the license fee, set by the Board of Commissioners, each year, and the fee cannot be pro-rated. The county reviews compliance with the tenancy cap, along with the section's other requirements, through inspection of the operator's books and records before granting or renewing a license.