Anacortes vs. Wellfleet STR Rules: Don't Call the Wrong Town Hall

Thomas Garner
7 days ago
9 min read

Updated: 9 hours ago

Empty rocky Fidalgo Island shoreline near Anacortes, no people

Anacortes and Wellfleet keep turning up next to each other in short-term rental spreadsheets, and it is easy to see why: both are small coastal towns with a short, intense summer season and a lot of second-home owners renting out a spare unit. But Anacortes sits on Fidalgo Island in northwest Washington, the ferry gateway to the San Juan Islands, and Wellfleet sits on the outer arm of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, three thousand miles away. They do not share a city hall, a zoning code, a tax form, or a permit fee. If your notes lump the two towns together, the desk clerk on the other end of the phone will notice before you finish your first sentence.

Everything below is sorted by hall. Anacortes facts and Anacortes numbers stay under Anacortes headings. Wellfleet numbers appear exactly once, labeled as Wellfleet's, so you have the contrast without the risk of citing one town's file to the other town's staff.

Anacortes City Hall: Who to Call and What Governs STRs

Anacortes City Hall is at 904 6th Street, Anacortes, WA 98221, phone 360-293-1900. The Planning Department keeps hours Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Short-term rentals are addressed in the Anacortes Municipal Code, section 19.44.050. A dedicated, published short-term rental permit fee was not confirmed on a primary city page during this review , do not quote a number the city has not posted, and do not assume the fee structure from another Puget Sound town carries over.

The department that handles land use questions is inside that same building; Cap Sante Park, the popular overlook above the marina, is a city amenity, not a city office, and nobody there can tell you whether your listing is zoned correctly. If a guest asks for a walk-in permit tour, or if a property manager tells you they already "checked with the city," confirm the year and the specific desk yourself before you repeat it to anyone else. Municipal codes get amended, and 2026 language may differ from what a manager remembers from a prior season.

Before you call, confirm the address actually sits inside Anacortes city limits rather than unincorporated Skagit County , the county has its own short-term rental rules, and a parcel just outside the city line is not the city's file to open.

What Anacortes Hosts Actually Earned This Year

Trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026, AirROI puts typical Anacortes listings at about $28,766 in annual revenue across 164 active rentals. Average nightly rate ran $257, occupancy sat at 43.0 percent, and revenue per available night was $110. Year over year, that revenue figure is down 4.1 percent, while active supply held essentially flat at 0.0 percent growth , more hosts are not flooding in, but the ones already operating are seeing softer returns than the prior twelve months.

The calendar has a clear shape: August, June, and May are the three strongest months, with August the single busiest and January consistently the slowest, carrying the weakest occupancy of the year. Guests book an average of 5.6 nights and reserve roughly 70 days ahead of arrival, and the largest share of bookings originates from Seattle, followed by Portland , both within a half-day's drive or a ferry ride of the island. Professionally managed listings make up about 22.0 percent of the active supply, meaning the large majority of Anacortes hosts are still running their own calendars.

Keep the Wellfleet number on its own line: AirROI's same trailing-twelve-month window puts typical Wellfleet listings at about $31,996 across 246 active rentals. That is a different town, a different state, and a different host year , cite $28,766 on 164 listings, August 2025 through July 2026, as Anacortes's number, and nothing else.

Wellfleet Runs a Separate Desk , Don't Cross the Files

Wellfleet, Massachusetts sits on the outer arm of Cape Cod, bordering the Cape Cod National Seashore and known locally for its oyster beds and its small harbor , a different coastline, a different regional economy, and a completely separate town hall from Anacortes. Its short-term rental rules, its permit fees, and its tax filings run through Wellfleet's own municipal offices, not through anything in Skagit County.

Typical Wellfleet listings earned about $31,996 last year from 246 active rentals , a higher revenue figure than Anacortes on a larger base of listings, which makes sense given Cape Cod's longer-established vacation rental market. Do not use that figure, or any Wellfleet permit detail, to argue a point with Anacortes City Hall, and do not ask a Wellfleet clerk to weigh in on an Anacortes driveway. If a listing aggregator or a scrape shows a Wellfleet address, write the Wellfleet phone number down on its own line so you are not tempted to dial it out of habit when the parcel in question is actually on Fidalgo Island.

Confirm the Parcel Before You Pick Up the Phone

The single most common way hosts waste a phone call is dialing before they have confirmed which jurisdiction actually covers the address. Pull the property's tax parcel record, check whether the address falls inside the Anacortes city limits or in unincorporated Skagit County, and note the parcel number before you call. City staff will ask for it, and having it ready turns a five-minute hold into a two-minute answer.

This matters more on Fidalgo Island than it might elsewhere, because the island includes both incorporated Anacortes and county land outside city boundaries, and the rules genuinely differ between the two. A manager's memory of "how it worked last year" is not the town file , only the desk that actually covers your parcel can confirm your current status, and 164 other listings operating nearby does not make that confirmation step optional for yours.

A Listing Scrape Is Not a Permit Office

Market data platforms like AirROI are built by scraping public listing pages , they are extremely useful for revenue benchmarking, seasonality, and occupancy trends, which is exactly how we are using the numbers throughout this post. They are not, however, a record of who holds a valid permit. A low-regulation Keep on a data dashboard reflects how many listings are publicly visible, not whether each one is correctly licensed with Anacortes City Hall. Do not treat a clean-looking market report as proof that your specific listing has cleared the town's process, and Leave out unverified a permit fee number just because one hasn't been published , call and ask directly instead.

Washington State Tax Is Not the Same File as Anacortes Zoning

Washington's statewide lodging tax applies to short-term rental income regardless of what the city zoning code says about your parcel , tax collection and zoning approval are handled by entirely separate offices asking entirely separate questions. Paying state tax does not mean your listing is zoned correctly, and having a zoning approval does not exempt you from collecting and remitting the tax. Bring both questions to the desk that owns each one rather than assuming one answer covers the other.

For context on the numbers involved: with average occupancy at 43.0 percent and revenue per available night at $110 across the trailing twelve months, a typical Anacortes host is generating meaningful taxable revenue even in a down year , one more reason to get both the tax registration and the zoning question answered early rather than after your first guest checks in.

What to Bring to the Desk

Show up , or call , with the property address, the tax parcel number, the platform listing URL, and a short written list of questions: whether the parcel is inside city limits, whether a dedicated STR permit fee exists for 2026, what AMC 19.44.050 requires for your specific unit type, and how state lodging tax registration works alongside any city process. Write down the name of whoever you spoke with and the date of the call.

That paper trail matters more than it seems like it should. Municipal hours and staff change, and a verbal answer from six months ago is not something you can point to later. A dated note with a name attached is the closest thing to a permit record you can create yourself before the city issues one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Anacortes and Wellfleet the same kind of short-term rental market?

No. Everything in this comparison is sorted by town: Anacortes facts and Anacortes numbers stay under Anacortes headings, and Wellfleet's numbers appear exactly once, clearly labeled as Wellfleet's. That structure gives the contrast between the two towns without the risk of citing one town's file to the other town's staff. A host or reader comparing the two towns can trust that any number under an Anacortes heading actually belongs to Anacortes, not a borrowed Wellfleet figure dressed up as local data.

What should Anacortes hosts confirm before calling City Hall?

Confirm the address actually sits inside Anacortes city limits rather than unincorporated Skagit County. The county has its own separate short-term rental rules, and a parcel just outside the city line is not the city's file to open, so this check comes before the call, not after. Skipping that confirmation and going straight to the city desk risks opening a file for a property the city has no jurisdiction over, wasting both the host's time and the planning department's.

What did Anacortes hosts actually earn this year, according to the data?

AirROI's trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026 puts typical Anacortes listings at about $28,766 in annual revenue across 164 active rentals. Average nightly rate ran $257, occupancy sat at 43.0 percent, and revenue per available night was $110. These figures should anchor any Anacortes-specific pricing or underwriting conversation rather than a regional estimate.

What's Wellfleet's comparable revenue figure, and should it be blended with Anacortes?

Wellfleet's same trailing-twelve-month window puts typical listings at about $31,996 across 246 active rentals, a different market run through a different desk. That figure should be kept on its own line for contrast, never blended into an Anacortes pricing or compliance conversation, since the two towns have separate regulatory histories. Citing it here only for contrast, never as an Anacortes substitute, keeps the comparison useful without risking a misapplied number in either market's file.

Why does a written record from the city matter more than a verbal answer?

Municipal hours and staff change, and a verbal answer from six months ago isn't something you can point to later if a dispute comes up. A dated note with the staff member's name attached is the closest thing to a permit record a host can create before the city issues one, and that paper trail matters more than it seems like it should.

Is a listing scrape a substitute for a permit office confirmation?

No. A listing scrape or public dashboard reflects visibility, not verified permit status. What to bring to the desk is the parcel address and any prior written confirmation, not a screenshot of an aggregator page, since only the city's own records establish compliance. Bringing documented confirmation, not a public listing count, is what actually demonstrates compliance status to the city or a buyer.

Does Washington state tax fall under the same file as Anacortes zoning?

No, they're separate files. Washington state lodging tax applies regardless of local zoning determinations, so confirming zoning and city-limit status with Anacortes Planning is a distinct step from registering for and remitting the state's tax obligation. Handling both separately, in the right order, keeps a host from missing either obligation. A host needs to handle both the state tax filing and the local zoning confirmation as two distinct action items, not assume clearing one automatically clears the other.

What number should Anacortes hosts call to confirm STR rules?

Call City Hall at 360-293-1900. That's the Anacortes Planning Department line, and the first question to confirm is whether the specific parcel sits inside city limits before advertising a stay or asking about permit fees. That's the first call to make before any other compliance or permit question gets asked. Having the parcel confirmation ready before dialing saves a second call and gets a definitive answer on the first attempt.

Why keep Anacortes and Wellfleet's numbers on separate lines even in a comparison post?

The two towns have different guest bases, geography, demand patterns, and permitting desks, so a blended average would misrepresent both markets. Keeping each town's figures clearly labeled lets a host see the contrast honestly without risking a misapplied number in either market's underwriting or compliance file. That discipline protects both the accuracy of any comparison content and the integrity of either town's own compliance and revenue file going forward.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

AirROI's low-regulation badge for Anacortes says how many listings are publicly visible, not whether any single one is permitted. A listing that leans on a dashboard label instead of a confirmed city-limits parcel check is guessing at its own status.

We help Anacortes hosts write compliance-facing listing copy that cites the confirmed parcel status, not a scraped dashboard label.

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