Tonawanda, NY Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Section 215-24.7 sets out a single set of standards covering both bed-and-breakfasts and short-term rentals in the Town of Tonawanda, and the licensing requirement comes first. Under § 215-24.7A, every bed-and-breakfast and short-term rental use must be duly licensed and registered as a business, and it is subject to the Hotel Occupancy Tax of Erie County, New York, meaning an operator has both a Town-level business registration obligation and a county-level tax collection obligation before renting rooms or a home to overnight guests. That licensing condition sits alongside the section's other requirements: the use must operate in an owner-occupied single-family dwelling or a detached accessory structure on the same lot, cannot exist on a nonconforming lot or in a nonconforming structure, can employ no more than two off-site, nonresidential employees reporting to work, and must meet the section's off-street parking and lighting standards.

Any merchandise sales on-site must remain incidental to the lodging use, and the property's residential character, including its structures, must be preserved, with nonresidential structural alterations or additions prohibited. Because the licensing and tax-registration requirement is listed first and applies without exception to every bed-and-breakfast or short-term rental in town, the Building Department and Town Clerk treat it as a threshold condition: an operator who has not registered the business and is not collecting the county hotel tax is not in compliance with § 215-24.7A regardless of how the physical property otherwise measures up under the rest of the section.