Kirkland Short-Term Rentals: Registration Rules Rules (2026)

Kirkland short-term rental registration runs in parallel across three agencies. At the state level, RCW 64.37 requires all hosts to obtain a Washington business license through the Department of Revenue, register for sales and lodging tax, and complete the short-term rental registration questions during application. At the city level, Ordinance O-4755 requires a Kirkland business license obtained through the regional FileLocal portal (filelocal-wa.gov), which adds Kirkland endorsement and assigns the unique Unified Business Identifier (UBI) and city account number. The city endorsement fee is roughly 125 dollars plus gross receipts tiers, renewed annually. Operators are required under RCW 64.37.030 to include the local business license number in every advertisement or online listing and to provide the City with a 24/7 local emergency contact, a signed acknowledgment of short-term rental rules, and proof of liability insurance. Kirkland may contract with a compliance monitoring service that scrapes online listings to identify unregistered STRs and issues notices of violation starting at 500 dollars per unregistered listing. Operators must renew their registration annually and update contact information within 30 days of any change. Failure to register before first booking is a violation that may be cumulative across every night the unit operated without a license.