New Bedford, MA Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

New Bedford addresses short-term rentals in Chapter 9 (Comprehensive Zoning), Section 3000 (General Regulations), specifically Section 3400 of the Code of Ordinances. The ordinance treats an STR as a residential use carrying both a numeric guest cap and a structural limit on how many sleeping rooms may be offered: no more than nine people may rent the accommodation at any one time, and an operator may rent out no more than three bedrooms in the dwelling unit. The ordinance is owner-occupancy based - the host must live in the accommodation for at least nine months of the calendar year - which functionally restricts entire-home rentals when the operator is absent. As part of registration, the host must submit a property maintenance plan that includes a floor plan, the number of permitted overnight guests, parking arrangements, garbage disposal, tenant management, and a local point of contact for complaints. Layered on top of the local cap, every New Bedford STR operator must register with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue STR Registry under MGL c.64G and MGL c.62C, §67, and the unit must comply with the State Sanitary Code, 105 CMR 410, which sets minimum sleeping-room floor areas of 70 square feet for one occupant and 50 square feet for each additional occupant in a habitable room used for sleeping. Bedrooms must also satisfy 780 CMR (the Massachusetts State Building Code) emergency-egress and minimum-dimension standards. Where a New Bedford property would exceed three rented sleeping rooms or four or more unrelated lodgers, the lodging-house statute (MGL c.140, §§22-32) is triggered and a separate municipal lodging-house license is required.