New Yorks: What Independent Hosts Should Fix First

Jul 28

14 min read

Updated: Aug 27

If you host a short-term rental in New York State, the rules that govern you depend almost entirely on which side of a town line your property sits on. There is no single "New York short-term rental law" that tells you how many nights you can rent, whether you need to live on-site, or how big a fee to expect. Instead, the state has layered two new statewide requirements on top of a patchwork of village and town ordinances that range from genuinely open (Windham) to functionally closed to new hosts (Kingston, Woodstock). This guide walks through both statewide layers, then breaks down what's actually on the books, as of mid-2026, in the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the East End of Long Island, Central-Western New York, and the Adirondacks. Search "New York short-term rental permit rules by town" and you'll find plenty of general overviews; this one is built for hosts who need to know what applies specifically to their address.

The Two Statewide Layers Every Host Needs to Know

Before you get to local zoning, two pieces of state legislation now apply to every short-term rental listing in New York, regardless of which town, village, or county it's in. If you're evaluating a New York property for STR potential in 2026, the honest answer to "what are the rules" is: check the specific village or town first, then the county, then remember the two state-level layers apply everywhere regardless of what you find locally.

Layer one: platforms now collect and remit the state's 4% sales tax. In December 2024, Governor Hochul signed S.885C/A.4130C, and in February 2025 she signed a chapter amendment. Chapter 99 of the Laws of 2025 (S.820/A.5686), that filled in the implementation framework for counties. The tax provisions took effect March 1, 2025, and the requirement that booking platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo actually collect and remit the state's 4% sales tax directly kicked in on March 25, 2025. In practice, this means that if you list on a major platform, the 4% state sales tax is now withheld and remitted automatically, you don't file it yourself for platform bookings. You're still on the hook for any applicable local occupancy/bed taxes and for sales tax on any bookings you take directly, outside a platform.

Layer two: a statewide STR registry requirement tied to county registration. That same Chapter 99 package also created the framework for a statewide short-term rental registry system, administered through the counties. Under this law, counties have the authority to stand up a registry, and once a county's registry is active, platforms are required to verify a listing's county registry number before that listing can go live or continue operating. This is a meaningful shift: it moves enforcement upstream, to the platforms themselves, rather than relying purely on local code enforcement to catch unregistered units after the fact. Not every county has stood up a mandatory registry yet, and some, like Greene County, discussed below, have opted for a registration approach that is not (as of this writing) mandatory. Hosts should check with their specific county clerk or planning department to confirm whether registration is currently required, voluntary, or still pending rollout where their property sits.

With those two layers as the constant backdrop, here's how local rules stack on top of them, region by region. We found references to a 2025 amendment tied to the statewide framework's effective date of March 25, 2025, but could not independently confirm the specific content of a March 2025 amendment to Cooperstown's own local law from public sources during this review; Cooperstown hosts should confirm current permit terms with the Village Clerk directly, particularly given how actively this village has revised its STR rules over the past several years.

Hudson Valley

Rhinebeck (Village) is one of the most restrictive STR markets found anywhere in the state. To operate a short-term rental in the Village of Rhinebeck, the unit must be the owner's primary, owner-occupied residence, and the village caps the total number of STR permits at just 15 per year, typically awarded through a lottery process given the demand. Even a host who secures one of the 15 permits is limited to a maximum of 16 rental days per calendar year, this is not a market where you can run a full-time rental business; it's a narrow allowance for occasional room- or home-sharing by residents. Annual permits, safety inspections, and Planning Board sign-off are all part of the process.

Hudson (City), just across the river in Columbia County, tells a different story, not because its regulations are loose or strict, but because available data centers on demand rather than a specific permit cap. Short-term rentals in Hudson run at 35.4% occupancy according to market data, which reflects healthy, steady demand in a well-established weekend and second-home market. That's a demand metric, not a regulatory one, we could not confirm a specific numeric permit cap for the City of Hudson comparable to Rhinebeck's, so hosts should treat Hudson as an active market to verify directly with city code enforcement rather than assume it's either wide open or tightly capped.

Catskills

The Catskills region has the most fragmented set of rules in this guide, several towns worth exploring individually, because neighboring jurisdictions can differ enormously. Zoom out, and a few themes repeat across every region in this guide. Two nearby towns worth flagging even though they sit slightly outside the immediate Catskills cluster in local parlance: Woodstock and Kingston, both in Ulster County, have permit caps that are already full with active waitlists.

Village of Catskill (Greene County) requires a village STR permit plus a safety inspection. The permit fee structure has climbed steadily: as recently as 2021 the fee was $375 for an initial permit and $125 for renewal; the current fee schedule is $500 for an initial permit and $200 for renewal, per unit. There is no numeric cap on the total number of permits the village will issue. Occupancy in the village runs in roughly the low-to-mid 30% range according to AirDNA-style data, though estimates vary meaningfully by data source (one source put it at 46%, another closer to 32%), treat any single occupancy figure for Catskill as directional rather than exact.

Town of Catskill is a distinct municipality from the Village of Catskill, with its own ordinance: Local Law No. 1-2022, adopted by the Town Board in April 2022. We could confirm the law's original adoption and its general framework, permit required, mandatory Code Enforcement Officer inspection for compliance with town and state codes, but could not independently verify a specific March 2025 amendment to this local law from public sources during this review. Hosts and prospective hosts in the Town of Catskill should confirm current permit terms directly with the Town Clerk or Code Enforcement Office before assuming any amendment details.

Windham is the genuine outlier here: as of 2026, Windham has no STR permit requirement, no fee, and no cap, it remains one of the more open markets in the Catskills for exactly this reason. That openness wasn't guaranteed. In 2020, the town drafted a restrictive STR law that would have capped permits at 150 across Windham, Hensonville, and Maplecrest, and limited rentals to 100 days per year. A petition against the draft law gathered more than 1,400 signatures, and the town board withdrew the proposal before it reached a public hearing. Given that history, hosts should treat Windham's current openness as a live policy question rather than a permanent guarantee, a future board could revisit regulation, and "is Windham NY accepting new Airbnb permits" is worth periodically re-checking rather than assuming the 2020 outcome is locked in for good.

Town of Huntersits in between: Local Law No. 2 of 2023 took effect July 26, 2023, and requires an initial permit fee of $500 (renewal $250), a $1,000 compliance bond, and a fire/safety inspection. The law also sets a townwide cap of 250 total STR permits. Based on the data available during this review, it's unclear whether that 250-permit cap has actually been reached or is close to binding, unlike Kingston, where the cap is confirmed full, or Woodstock, where the waitlist is well-documented, Hunter's cap status is genuinely ambiguous in public sources as of this writing. Anyone considering a new STR in the Town of Hunter should call the Town of Hunter Building Inspector directly at to confirm current permit availability before assuming the cap is either open or closed.

Greene County, which includes the Village and Town of Catskill, Windham, and Hunter, has also stood up its own registry: a free, non-mandatory Customer Portal for STR registration, tied to the state framework created by S.820/A.5686. This is separate from, and currently less restrictive than, the mandatory statewide registry law described above; Greene County has not (as of this review) made registration through its portal a legal precondition for listing, which puts it in a different posture than counties that adopt mandatory registries under the new state framework.

Two nearby towns worth flagging even though they sit slightly outside the immediate Catskills cluster in local parlance: Woodstock and Kingston, both in Ulster County, have permit caps that are already full with active waitlists. Kingston's cap, set at 106 permits, equal to roughly 1% of the city's housing stock, has been reached, and the city is now assigning available slots by lottery among waitlisted applicants; there is no cap on Kingston's limited (under-30-day) or resident-occupied STR categories, only on full-time permits. Woodstock's cap on non-owner-occupied "investment" permits is similarly full, with a long-documented waitlist and no guarantee that a slot opens in any given year. The practical takeaway for both towns: a new host cannot currently obtain a full, non-owner-occupied STR permit in either municipality, the "Kingston Airbnb permit waitlist" is a real, active line, not a formality.

East End / Long Island

Greenport Village just went through a significant, and fairly public, policy reversal. A December 2025 code update kept the village's short-term rental rules from tightening further, the board had floated a two-week or 30-day minimum stay, and ultimately dropped that idea, keeping no minimum stay requirement at all. The tradeoff: beginning January 1, 2026, all STRs in the village must be owner-occupied or resident-occupied, and the permit fee for short-term rentals rose to $750 per year (versus $250 for a two-year long-term rental permit under the old fee schedule). So Greenport residents retain flexibility on rental length, but only within an owner-occupied framework, and at a meaningfully higher price than before.

Shelter Island takes the opposite approach on stay length: it's unlawful to rent a property in a residential zone for 14 days or less except under specific, narrow exceptions, and no property may be rented more than once in any 14-day period. A residential property that is the owner's primary residence gets slightly more flexibility, one rental per 7-day period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and one per 14-day period the rest of the year, but the baseline rule for non-primary residences is a strict 14-day minimum.

Southold and the broader North Fork generally mirror this pattern: a 14-day minimum stay is the norm across much of Southold Town, consistent with the East End's broader push to curb high-turnover weekend rentals in residential neighborhoods. This guide walks through both statewide layers, then breaks down what's actually on the books, as of mid-2026, in the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the East End of Long Island, Central-Western New York, and the Adirondacks.

Central-Western New York

Cooperstown (Otsego County) requires a special-use permit from the Village Board of Trustees or Zoning Board of Appeals for any STR, and new permits are restricted to owner-occupied properties only, a rule the village has had in place in some form since 2018, with updates noted as recently as 2024. We found references to a 2025 amendment tied to the statewide framework's effective date of March 25, 2025, but could not independently confirm the specific content of a March 2025 amendment to Cooperstown's own local law from public sources during this review; Cooperstown hosts should confirm current permit terms with the Village Clerk directly, particularly given how actively this village has revised its STR rules over the past several years.

Ellicottville (Cattaraugus County) adopted Local Law 1-2025 on February 19, 2025, effective approximately March 21, 2025. The law requires a mandatory annual Short-Term Rental Permit for anyone renting for fewer than 30 consecutive days, and penalties scale with the violation, fines in the general range of $1,000 and up per instance for unpermitted operation, with unpaid fines potentially added to the property's tax bill. Existing operators were given roughly 90 days from the effective date to secure a permit.

Adirondacks

Lake Placid / Town of North Elba run a joint STR law, effective January 2023, that splits permits into two tracks. Hosted permits, where the owner is on-site at least 184 nights per year, are capped at 48 total. Unhosted permits are also capped (the town lowered this cap after initial passage, and it currently sits meaningfully below the original proposal), and critically, unhosted permits are no longer being newly issued in most residential districts, they're only available in a handful of specifically zoned areas. Existing unhosted permit-holders can keep renewing, but those permits are explicitly non-transferable: if the property sells, the new owner cannot inherit the existing STR permit and must apply fresh, subject to current (much tighter) rules. That non-transferability clause is arguably the single most consequential detail for anyone buying an existing STR property in North Elba, the presence of a rental history does not guarantee you can continue renting after closing.

Old Forge / Town of Webb (Herkimer County) adopted its Short-Term Residential Rental Law in October 2022, with updates noted as recently as May 2025. The law requires a conditional-use permit for hosted arrangements (owner-occupied, room-only rentals to transient guests) and a standard rental permit, valid for 24 months and renewable, for any dwelling rented for more than 14 cumulative days per year and less than six consecutive months. This is a more moderate framework than North Elba's tiered-cap system: Webb requires permitting and code compliance, but does not appear to impose a townwide numeric ceiling on the total number of permits comparable to Hunter's 250 or Lake Placid's 48.

The Pattern Underneath the Patchwork

Zoom out, and a few themes repeat across every region in this guide. First, the direction of travel is almost uniformly toward more regulation, not less. Ellicottville, Cooperstown, Greenport, and the statewide tax/registry laws all landed within the same 12-to-18-month window between late 2024 and early 2026. Second, owner-occupancy requirements are becoming the default compromise position for towns trying to balance housing pressure against tourism revenue. Rhinebeck, Cooperstown, and now Greenport all use some version of "you can rent it if you also live in it" as their central mechanism. Third, permit caps that looked generous when first adopted (Kingston's 106, Hunter's 250) tend to fill faster than boards expect, which is why waitlist status is a moving target that's worth re-verifying every few months rather than trusting a number you read once. If you're evaluating a New York property for STR potential in 2026, the honest answer to "what are the rules" is: check the specific village or town first, then the county, then remember the two state-level layers apply everywhere regardless of what you find locally.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do New York's two new statewide short-term rental laws apply everywhere, regardless of local rules?

Yes. Layer one requires booking platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo to collect and remit the state's 4% sales tax, a requirement that took effect March 25, 2025 under Chapter 99 of the Laws of 2025. Layer two creates a statewide STR registry framework administered through the counties; once a county's registry is active, platforms must verify a listing's registry number before it can go live. Both apply on top of whatever local zoning or permit rules a specific village, town, or county has in place.

How restrictive is short-term rental permitting in the Village of Rhinebeck?

Very. The unit must be the owner's primary, owner-occupied residence, the village caps total STR permits at just 15 per year, typically awarded by lottery given demand, and even a host who secures a permit is limited to a maximum of 16 rental days per calendar year. It's one of the most restrictive markets covered in this guide.

Is Windham, NY still an open market for short-term rentals in 2026?

Yes, and deliberately so. Windham has no STR permit requirement, no fee, and no cap as of 2026. That openness followed a 2020 fight: the town drafted a restrictive law that would have capped permits at 150 across Windham, Hensonville, and Maplecrest and limited rentals to 100 days a year, but a petition gathering more than 1,400 signatures led the town board to withdraw it.

Are Woodstock and Kingston's short-term rental permits still available?

No, both are effectively closed to new entrants. Kingston's cap, set at 106 permits (roughly 1% of the city's housing stock), has been reached, and the city now assigns available slots by lottery among a waitlist. Woodstock's cap is similarly full with a well-documented waitlist. Both are in Ulster County, distinct from the Catskills towns covered elsewhere in this guide.

What changed for Greenport Village short-term rentals starting January 1, 2026?

A December 2025 code update kept the village from adopting a proposed two-week or 30-day minimum stay, so no minimum stay requirement applies. In exchange, beginning January 1, 2026, all Greenport STRs must be owner-occupied or resident-occupied, and the annual permit fee rose to $750.

How does Shelter Island's minimum-stay rule work?

It's unlawful to rent a residential-zone property for 14 days or less except under narrow exceptions, and no property may be rented more than once in any 14-day period. An owner's primary residence gets slightly more flexibility, one rental per 7-day period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and one per 14-day period the rest of the year, but the 14-day baseline applies to non-primary residences.

What permit structure applies in Ellicottville, NY?

Local Law 1-2025, adopted February 19, 2025 and effective around March 21, 2025, requires a mandatory annual Short-Term Rental Permit for anyone renting fewer than 30 consecutive days. Penalties scale with the violation, fines generally starting around $1,000 and up per instance for unpermitted operation, with unpaid fines potentially added to the property's tax bill. Existing operators were given roughly 90 days from the effective date to come into compliance.

How does Lake Placid / Town of North Elba split its short-term rental permits?

The joint law, effective January 2023, splits permits into two tracks. Hosted permits, where the owner is on-site at least 184 nights per year, are capped at 48 total. Unhosted permits are capped lower than the original proposal, and new unhosted permits are no longer being issued in most residential districts, they're only available in a handful of specific zones.

Is the Town of Catskill the same jurisdiction as the Village of Catskill?

No, they're distinct municipalities with separate ordinances. The Village of Catskill requires a village STR permit plus a safety inspection, with fees that climbed from $375/$125 in 2021 to a current $500 initial/$200 renewal schedule and no numeric cap on total permits. The Town of Catskill operates under its own Local Law No. 1-2022, requiring a permit and mandatory Code Enforcement Officer inspection.

What's the overall direction of New York's short-term rental regulation heading into 2026?

Toward more regulation, not less. Ellicottville, Cooperstown, Greenport, and the statewide tax and registry laws all landed within the same 12-to-18-month window between late 2024 and early 2026. Owner-occupancy requirements are becoming the default compromise many towns reach for, Rhinebeck, Cooperstown, and now Greenport all require it, when balancing housing pressure against tourism revenue.

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