Effingham County, GA Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Effingham County's code does not carve out a separate short-term-rental chapter; it folds the practice into Chapter 70, Article VIII's hotel/lodging registration scheme. Sec. 70-221 defines "hotel" to include time-shares, condominiums, and apartment communities occupied by paying guests, and defines "public accommodation" as any room or lodging furnished by a person "licensed by or required to pay a business or occupation tax to the county" for regularly furnishing rooms for value, a description that reaches a house or condo listed on a short-term rental platform.

Sec. 70-225 requires every person "engaging or about to engage in business as an operator of a hotel" to immediately register with the county administrator on a prescribed form giving the business name and the location of the place(s) of business. The administrator then issues, without charge, a certificate of authority letting the operator collect the lodging tax from occupants; the code requires a separate registration for each place of business, so a host running units at more than one address must register each one.

This registration duty is distinct from, and a prerequisite to, the operator's tax-collection obligations under Sec. 70-223. The code sets no separate zoning-based short-term-rental permit, occupancy cap, or parking standard for these units in the unincorporated county; the registration and certificate of authority under Sec. 70-225 is the operative permitting mechanism found in the code.