Berwyn, IL Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Section 879C.02 bars any person from conducting, keeping, managing or operating a short-term rental, or causing one to be run, without a license. The license is tied to a single rental: a license must be obtained for each short-term rental, and it is not transferable, so a host who buys a second property or sells the first cannot carry the paper along. Licenses are renewed annually on the same conditions as the original, and the fee must accompany the application.

The definitions in Section 879C.01 set the reach of the rule. A short-term rental is a residential dwelling unit rented out using a hosting platform for a short-term rental period, defined as 182 or lesser calendar days. The definition covers a single-family home in its entirety, an individual room in a single-family home, an accessory structure of a single-family home, townhomes, condominiums, rooming house dwelling units, and units inside buildings with two, three or four-plus residential units. A host is an owner, meaning a person holding title or co-title, so a tenant cannot apply on their own.

The fee schedule in Section 879C.04 depends on who lives where. A non-owner-occupied applicant who does not live in Berwyn pays $350 a year, a non-owner-occupied applicant who is a city resident pays $250, and an owner-occupied applicant pays $100.

Section 879C.03 adds a gate: no license is issued or renewed until the city has inspected the premises and approved it as compliant with the chapter. Section 879C.05(E) keeps the inspection open afterward, since every short-term rental stays subject to inspection by city representatives, including the Fire Department and the Building Department. The whole chapter came in through Ordinance 23-27, passed 12-12-2023. The taxation title of the code lists a separate Chapter 901, Short-Term Rental Tax, which is its own chapter apart from this license.