Unincorporated Chatham County does not require a short-term rental to be the owner's primary residence, but only property owners (not renters) may hold a license. The City of Savannah, by contrast, caps non-owner-occupied rentals and requires owner-occupancy for its owner-occupied STVR category.
Section 16-1304(1)(d) limits licenses to applicants with an ownership interest; there is no owner-occupancy or primary-residence mandate for unincorporated county rentals. Savannah is stricter: in the Downtown and Victorian Historic Districts a 20% cap applies to non-owner-occupied parcels, and its owner-occupied STVR requires that the principal dwelling be the owner's primary and usual place of residence. Tybee Island bars new short-term rentals in its R-1, R-1-B and R-2 residential zones, treating existing ones as non-conforming uses. Check the specific city before assuming an investment rental is allowed.
Applying without an ownership interest, or misrepresenting eligibility, is grounds for denial or immediate revocation of the license (§16-1308).
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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Savannah, GA
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Savannah, GA
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See how Savannah's primary-residence-only rule rules stack up against other locations.
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