Anacortes, WA Short-Term Rental Rules: What City Hall Actually Confirms

Thomas Garner
7 days ago
8 min read

Updated: 9 hours ago

Empty Deception Pass water and evergreen cliffs, no people

Anacortes sits on Fidalgo Island in Skagit County, the gateway to the San Juan Islands ferry terminal and a short drive from Deception Pass. That draw brings a steady flow of boaters, ferry travelers, and day-trippers headed to Cap Sante Park, and it's part of why short-term rental demand here holds up outside the big summer months. Before you list a single night, though, the paperwork question comes first: does the address actually sit inside Anacortes city limits, and what does the city's own code say about short-term rentals?

Short-term rentals are addressed under Anacortes Municipal Code (AMC) 19.44.050. City Hall is at 904 6th Street, Anacortes, WA 98221, and the Planning Department is reachable at 360-293-1900 during posted hours, Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. As of this pass, a dedicated STR permit fee was not confirmed on a primary city page , a gap that matters, since it's the detail hosts most often guess at instead of calling to confirm.

Confirm You're Inside Anacortes City Limits Before You Advertise

Start with the county tax parcel map, not a listing site's location pin. Parcel boundaries near Fidalgo Island's edges and along the county line can put an address just outside Anacortes proper even when the mailing address reads "Anacortes, WA." A property on the wrong side of that line answers to Skagit County's rules, not the city's, and that changes which office you call first.

Once you've confirmed the parcel sits inside city limits, AMC 19.44.050 is the section that governs short-term rentals here. Read it before you draft a listing description, not after a guest books. If anything in the code reads ambiguously for your property type, that's a call to Planning, not a guess filled in from a neighbor's experience.

Keep the confirmation on file. A screenshot of the parcel lookup and a note of who you spoke with at the city, with the date, is a five-minute habit that saves a much longer conversation if a complaint or an audit ever comes up. Read more in Anacortes Shoulder and Anacortes Remote Stays.

Call Anacortes City Hall, Not a Property Manager's Memory

City Hall sits at 904 6th Street, Anacortes, WA 98221. The Planning Department line is 360-293-1900, staffed Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. , note the compressed four-day week, which trips up hosts who call on a Friday expecting an answer. Building and zoning questions route through the same desk, so one call usually covers both a use question and a permit question.

A property manager's summer voicemail, a two-year-old forum post, or a "friend who hosts nearby" are not the town file. Rules change, and enforcement priorities shift year to year. If a manager or a booking platform's compliance page tells you something specific about Anacortes requirements, treat it as a lead to verify, not an answer to repeat to a guest or a lender.

Write down what the city tells you, with the date and the name of who you spoke with. That written record is worth more than the call itself if the rule is unclear or the answer changes by the time you close on a property. Read more in Anacortes Remote Stays and DIY vs Hire in Anacortes.

Washington State Lodging Tax Still Applies, Permit or Not

A market-data Keep like "low regulation" describes listing counts and scrape data, not the tax code. Washington State sales tax and any applicable local lodging tax apply to short-term rental income regardless of whether Anacortes has a dedicated STR permit process. File the tax obligation first, then worry about the marketing copy.

This is where hosts most often get tripped up: a booking platform may automatically collect some taxes on a host's behalf, but that collection does not substitute for confirming your own registration and filing obligations with the Washington Department of Revenue. Don't assume the platform's tax line covers everything the state expects from you as the operator.

With 164 active listings pulling in roughly $28,766 in typical annual revenue over the trailing twelve months (AirROI, August 2025 through July 2026), the tax exposure on Anacortes rentals is real money, not a rounding error. Treat the filing step as part of setup, alongside the parcel check and the city call, not a task to circle back to after the first season. Read more in DIY vs Hire in Anacortes and Who Books an Anacortes Rental.

A Listing Scrape Is Not the Town's Permit File

Booking platforms and third-party data tools pull address and category information from public listings, not from a municipal permit database. If a scrape shows no STR-specific fee for Anacortes, that reflects what's publicly indexed, not necessarily the complete current picture at City Hall. Register with the state for tax purposes and confirm with the city separately for use and permit purposes , those are two different files, and neither substitutes for the other.

A property manager's compliance file is also not the town's file. Managers track what they need to operate a portfolio efficiently, which is not always the same standard the city applies when a use question comes up. If a question ever turns into a dispute, the city's own record is what matters, not a manager's internal notes. Read more in Who Books an Anacortes Rental and Buying an Anacortes Rental.

Confirm the Parcel Before You File Anything

Bring three things to the conversation: the property address, the tax parcel map printout, and the exact URL of the listing you plan to publish. With 164 active listings already competing for guest attention in this market, skipping the confirmation step to save a phone call is not worth the risk to a listing that's already live.

The AirROI trailing-twelve-month data (August 2025 through July 2026) puts typical revenue at about $28,766 per listing, an average nightly rate of $257, and 43.0 percent occupancy , figures worth having in hand if a lender or a city staffer asks what kind of operation you're running. Revenue per available night landed at $110 over the same period.

Confirm the current year's requirements before you promise a check-in date to a guest. Rules and staffing at small-city planning departments can shift from one summer to the next, so last year's answer is a starting point, not a guarantee for this one. Read more in Buying an Anacortes Rental and Anacortes Tourism Data.

Don't Invent a Town Permit Fee

It's tempting to assume Anacortes charges a dedicated STR permit fee because a neighboring town does, or because a data scrape simply left that field blank. Neither is evidence. As of this pass, a dedicated STR permit fee was not confirmed on a primary Anacortes city page , which means the honest answer is "confirm directly," not a guessed dollar figure.

Call the Planning Department, ask the direct question, and write down the 2026 answer with a date attached. Don't treat an old voicemail, a manager's summer-season answer, or a market-data badge as a stand-in for what the city itself tells you when you ask. Read more in Anacortes Tourism Data and Complete Visitor's Guide to Anacortes, Washington.

Anacortes Is a Different Market Than Wellfleet , Keep the Numbers Separate

If you're comparing notes with a host or manager operating in Wellfleet, keep the two markets on separate lines. Wellfleet's trailing-twelve-month figures run about $31,996 across 246 listings , a different city, a different permitting desk, and a different regulatory history. Don't apply an Anacortes answer to a Wellfleet property or vice versa; each town's clerk answers only for its own jurisdiction.

For Anacortes specifically: typical revenue was about $28,766 across 164 listings, occupancy sat at 43.0 percent, and year-over-year revenue moved -4.1 percent while active supply held roughly flat. August, June, and May were the three strongest months, with January the clear seasonal low. Most guests came from Seattle first, then Portland, booking an average 5.6-night stay about 70 days in advance. Read more in What It Costs to Start a Legal Anacortes STR Stay and Financing an Anacortes Rental Without a Wellfleet Year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who do Anacortes hosts call to confirm short-term rental rules?

The Anacortes Planning Department is reached at 360-293-1900, located at City Hall, 904 6th Street, Anacortes, WA 98221, staffed Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Building and zoning questions route through the same desk, so it's the single call to confirm current requirements before advertising.

Is there a confirmed Anacortes STR permit fee?

As of this pass, a dedicated short-term rental permit fee was not confirmed on a primary Anacortes city page. The right move is to call Planning directly, ask, and write down the current year's answer rather than guessing from a neighboring town's fee schedule, since fee structures and staffing at small-city planning departments can shift year to year.

Why does it matter whether a parcel is inside Anacortes city limits?

A Fidalgo Island parcel near the county line can carry an 'Anacortes, WA' mailing address while actually falling under Skagit County's separate short-term rental rules. Confirming the parcel is genuinely inside city limits before advertising, rather than assuming from the mailing address, avoids opening a permit conversation with the wrong jurisdiction entirely.

Does Washington state lodging tax apply even without a confirmed permit?

Yes. With 164 active listings pulling in roughly $28,766 in typical annual revenue over the trailing twelve months, the tax exposure on Anacortes rentals is real money, not a rounding error, and lodging tax obligations exist independent of whether a permit fee has been finalized.

What should a host keep on file after calling City Hall?

Write down what the city tells you, including the date and the name of who you spoke with. A screenshot of the parcel lookup plus that written record is a five-minute habit that saves a much longer conversation if a complaint or an audit ever comes up, since a verbal answer months later isn't something you can point back to.

Should hosts confirm requirements every year, or is one call enough?

Confirm the current year's requirements before promising a check-in date to any guest. Rules and staffing at small-city planning departments can shift from one summer to the next, so last year's answer is a starting point, not a guarantee for this one.

Can Anacortes hosts use a listing scrape as proof of permit status?

No. A listing scrape or dashboard label reflects how many listings are publicly visible, not whether any single one is actually permitted. Confirming status directly with the city's own parcel and permit records is the only way to know a listing's real compliance standing.

Should Anacortes hosts use Wellfleet's rules or figures as a reference?

No. Wellfleet's trailing-twelve-month figures run about $31,996 across 246 listings, a different city with a different permitting desk and a different regulatory history. Keep those numbers on their own line rather than importing them into an Anacortes compliance or pricing conversation.

What's the fastest way to avoid a wasted call to the wrong desk?

Confirm the parcel is inside Anacortes city limits first, then call the Planning Department directly at 360-293-1900 with that confirmation in hand. Skipping the parcel check risks opening a file with a city desk that doesn't actually have jurisdiction over that specific property.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Anacortes' STR code lives in AMC 19.44.050, and a Fidalgo Island parcel near the county line can read 'Anacortes, WA' on the mailing address while actually falling under Skagit County rules instead.

We help Anacortes hosts write listing copy around Cap Sante Park, the ferry terminal, and Deception Pass proximity once city-limit status is confirmed. Send your listing to crestcove.co/audit or (256) 998-7502.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.