New Haven, CT Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Unlike Hartford and several other Connecticut municipalities, New Haven's Code of Ordinances does not contain a dedicated short-term-rental chapter setting a numeric overnight-guest cap such as the often-cited 'two adults per bedroom plus two' formula. Operators are therefore subject to two existing layers of regulation. First, the New Haven Housing Code, codified at Title V of the Code of Ordinances, requires every sleeping room to contain at least seventy square feet of usable floor area for the first occupant and at least fifty additional square feet for each additional occupant, which functions as the de facto maximum overnight headcount per bedroom. Second, the use must be permitted in the underlying zoning district under the New Haven Zoning Ordinance; the City Plan Department applies the city's permissive-zoning model so that any use not expressly prohibited may be allowed, but operators should confirm permitted use before listing on Airbnb, Vrbo or similar platforms. New Haven's Residential Rental Business License under Chapter 17 Article XIV applies primarily to non-owner-occupied two- and three-family dwellings and to four-or-more-unit properties; single-family short-term rentals are exempt from that license. Connecticut General Statutes 12-407 imposes a fifteen-percent Room Occupancy Tax on stays of thirty days or fewer (eleven percent for bed-and-breakfast establishments), which the operator or platform must collect and remit to the Department of Revenue Services.