Olympia, WA Short-Term Rentals: Taxes & Fees (2026)

Section 4.40.010 opens by stating that, commencing January 1, 2026, the fee schedule applies. In the City of Olympia, Washington, the Short-Term Rental Permit is listed among the land use and planning applications at $116.42. The same schedule prints a Technology Fee, applicable to all planning applications, of 4.1 percent of planning fee, and a Resubmittal Fee of 50 percent of application fee starting with the second resubmittal after the initial application. A modification of an approved application costs 50 percent of standard fee plus any Examiner deposit. Other Appeal to Examiner is $1,518.81, and Appeals to Council, only if authorized, are $584.24.

The definition sits in OMC § 18.02.180. A Short-Term Rental is a lodging use, that is not a hotel or motel or bed and breakfast, in which a dwelling unit, or a portion thereof, is offered or provided to a guest by a short-term rental operator for a fee for fewer than thirty consecutive nights, with the same meaning as RCW 64.37.010(9). A Homestay rents rooms within a dwelling unit occupied by a property owner or long-term rental tenant, and a Vacation Rental rents an entire dwelling unit with no owner or long-term tenant residing there. The fee table prints one permit fee and does not split by type.

Lodging tax is a separate chapter. Section 3.40.010 levies a special excise tax of four percent (4%) on the sale of or charge made for the furnishing of lodging that is subject to tax under Chapter 82.08 RCW, including lodging by a hotel, rooming house, tourist court, motel, or trailer camp, and the granting of any similar license to use real property. Occupancy for a continuous period of one month or more is presumed to be a rental or lease, not a license. The chapter text does not name short-term rentals. Under § 3.40.030 the first two percent of the tax is deducted from the amount the seller would otherwise collect and pay to the Department of Revenue, and § 3.40.060 designates the Department of Revenue as the City's agent for collection. Proceeds go into a special fund for tourist promotion and tourism-related facilities under § 3.40.040.