Rockport vs Gloucester STR Rules: Two Clerks, Two Caps

Rockport is a Select Board license, and gloucester is Ordinance 5-63. Those are two clerks, not one Cape Ann slogan. Inside the Town of Rockport, every owner who offers short-term paying guests needs a Select Board license that expires December 31. Inside the City of Gloucester, a stay of 30 days or less sits under Ordinance 5-63, and a Non-Primary file is 120 days under a 500-permit cap at about $300 a year. The Rockport extract still prints 199 listings, a $36,871 year, a $3,513 month, $406 ADR, and 40.8 percent occupancy. Those numbers are not a license.

Peak revenue month is August. The three strongest months on the Rockport cell are August, October, and September. The hole is January, February, and March, and october is a peak. March is a low, and february is the lowest revenue month. Occupancy is highest in August and lowest in January. Leftover summer-only village language is wrong on this file. None of that calendar writes a Select Board listings or a Gloucester 120-day file. A mailing address that says Cape Ann is not the test. Motif is Rockport, and good Harbor is Gloucester. The license number is the test.

This page is the clerk file, and it will not coach an unlicensed Rockport nightly. It will not file a Select Board license, sit Inspectional Services, or Keep a Gloucester Non-Primary over 120 days. We do not manage Rockport. If you need the marketplace path first, use the.market report. If you are buying, open theinvestment fileafter you survive this map. Thestartup stackprices paper without inventing furniture.

Two clerks, not one Cape Ann rule

The Town of Rockport and the City of Gloucester share a granite coast and split a legal product. Rockport's Select Board issues the calendar-year license, and gloucester's Inspectional Services desk runs Ordinance 5-63. Motif No. 1, Bearskin Neck, Halibut Point, and Front and Back Beach sit inside Rockport. Good Harbor Beach and the working harbor sit inside Gloucester. Do not dress Good Harbor as a Rockport bed. Do not treat a Cape Ann mailing line as the clerk. Two towns, and two phones. One map question before anyone writes a listing.

AirROI Low on either extract is a vendor label, not a listings. The Rockport pull prints 199 listings and a 0 percent licensed share. The Gloucester pull prints 268 listings and the same vendor field. Neither badge is a Select Board license, and neither badge is a 5-63 permit. Massachusetts tourism copy is a marketing desk, not a license desk.comparison filekeeps the two extracts apart. This rules page only needs the clerk split.

Do not blend the desks into one Cape Ann rule. A Rockport house cannot borrow a Gloucester 120-day Non-Primary file. A Gloucester house cannot borrow a Rockport Select Board listings that dies December 31. Confirm the parcel map before you quote a December 31 license on a lot that may sit in Gloucester, and before you quote a 120-day cap on a Bearskin Neck block. Two clerks. Two products. One leftover blend will fail the first clerk call.

Rockport is a Select Board license that dies December 31

Every owner who offers short-term paying guests in Rockport needs a Select Board license. The license is valid for a calendar year, and it expires December 31. Renew annually, and application can be filed any time. There is no day cap and no town-wide license cap on existing whole-home short-term rentals this week. $1 million in liability insurance is the statewide M.G.L. c.175 section 4F mandate, not a Rockport-only invention, and statewide registry still runs through Mass Tax Connect. This shop will not Keep listing copy that treats an unlicensed house as a legal village stay.

$36,871 is a host year on the extract. It is not income you may model on a lot the Select Board has not carded.finance filewill not dress an unlicensed lot as a DSCR story. If the parcel already holds a live 2026 listings, confirm it with the Select Board before you advertise. A live Airbnb published market year is not that paper. AirROI Low does not Keep the license. December 31 is the death date on the listings you already hold.

Voters in the April 2026 booklet were told the town would begin collecting a fee from short-term rental owners in July 2026, citing more than 360 units already registered with the Commonwealth and about $500,000 anticipated. Hedge the live fee dollar with the Select Board. Leave out unverified the rate, and confirm the posted license on the house. Ads should be able to survive a clerk call.startup fileprices that stack after the listings exists.

Gloucester is Ordinance 5-63 and three tiers

The City of Gloucester defines a short-term rental as a stay of 30 days or less under Ordinance 5-63. City page images say the ordinance is effective April 1, 2025. Print that date, and the city runs three tiers. Primary, where the owner lives there, is about $100 a year and up to 365 rental days. Shared, where the owner is present six or more months, is about $150 a year and 180 days. Non-Primary, where the owner does not occupy, is $300 a year, 120 days, and a citywide cap of 500 non-primary permits. Confirm the live fee line with Inspectional Services.

One registered short-term rental per owner. The file wants a binder, a 24-hour contact, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and two egress doors. Those objects are the city's product, not a Rockport Select Board listings. A Gloucester harbor photograph is not a 5-63 permit. A published market year on the working harbor is not a 120-day file. Hedge the live issued-slot count, and Leave out unverified a three-hundred-issued number. AirROI Low on the Gloucester extract is still a vendor label.

Gloucester's extract prints a $40,924 year, $491 ADR, 38.3 percent occupancy, and 268 listings. Those figures are comparison only on this rules page. They do not transfer onto a Rockport lot, and they do not waive the 120-day cap. Peak three on that extract are August, October, and July. Lows are January, February, and March, and october is still a peak. March is still a low. None of that calendar writes a Non-Primary over 120 days. Print the city year as comparison only.

Non-Primary is 120 days under a 500-permit cap

A Gloucester Non-Primary file is $300 a year, 120 rental days, and a citywide cap of 500 non-primary permits. That is the first acquisition fact on a non-owner-occupied Gloucester lot. It is not a loophole. It is not a leftover summer-only year you can stretch by adding March. It is not a Rockport Select Board listings. This page will not coach a Non-Primary over 120 days. If the parcel cannot hold a Non-Primary slot, the nightly is not the path.

One registered short-term rental per owner still applies. A second door does not get a second Non-Primary by writing Cape Ann on the listing. The 500-cap is citywide, and hedge how many slots are live this week. Leave out unverified an issued count, and the.investment fileowns the purchase questions, and this rules page only needs the 120-day sentence. A sale is not a 5-63 permit, and a live calendar is not a 120-day file.

Primary and Shared tiers are different products. Primary can run up to 365 days if the owner lives there. Shared can run 180 days if the owner is present six or more months. Do not Keep a Non-Primary listing as if it inherited those day counts. Do not Keep a Rockport house as if it inherited the 120-day cap. Two clerks, and two day rules. One leftover blend will fail Inspectional Services and the Select Board on the same afternoon.

Seasonal Community passed; it is not a whole-home ban

April 11, 2026 Annual Town Meeting passed Article L, the Seasonal Communities designation, by voice. The same meeting passed Article M, a six-month minimum lease on accessory dwelling units, by voice. Print both as passed. Seasonal Community is a designation, not a ban on existing licensed whole-home short-term rentals. Article M is an ADU rule. It is not a thirty-day minimum on existing whole-home licenses. Do not treat the April 11 vote as a Motif shutdown.

TheSeasonal Community fileowns the clerk object, and this rules page only needs the refusal. Existing whole-home licenses are not ADUs. A six-month ADU lease does not rewrite the Select Board listings that dies December 31. A leftover brief that treated the vote as future is stale. The vote is on the clerk, and gloucester did not take this vote. Do not import Article L onto a 5-63 file. Keep the designation on the Rockport desk.

H.4141 leftover language about a statewide thirty-day minimum is pending, not law, and this page will not build a rate card on it. The live Rockport objects this week are the Select Board license, the December 31 death date, the April 11 designation, and the ADU six-month lease. Confirm each with the clerk before you Keep a listing that pretends the house can no longer take a licensed nightly. Print the vote as passed, then keep the existing listings.

Statewide 5.7 percent is not the whole stack

Massachusetts room occupancy excise is 5.7 percent statewide. Local option can add up to 6 percent if the town adopted it. A community impact fee can add up to 3 percent if adopted, for multi-property operators or owner-occupied two-to-three family short-term rentals. Confirm the live Rockport and Gloucester local and impact-fee lines with the Department of Revenue and the clerk. Leave out unverified a stacked total. Do not print a combined rate this page cannot lock.

The July 2026 Rockport fee is a budget line from the voters booklet, not a leftover aggregator year and not a substitute for 5.7 percent. Hedge the dollar. $1 million in liability insurance is still the statewide mandate. Mass Tax Connect is still the statewide registry. Those objects sit on every legal listing after the Select Board or Inspectional Services has said the house can advertise. They do not replace the listings, and hedge the July fee. Print 5.7 percent as the state line.

$36,871 is a host year, and it is not the tax stack. Essex County's $1.2 billion is 2024 visitor spend, and it is not the tax stack either. Keep visitor dollars on the.tourism file, and keep the year on the extract. Keep 5.7 percent on the remittance, and the.finance filewill ask for the honest month, not a tax story you invented. Do not stack a number this page cannot lock.

a published market year is not a listings

A live Airbnb published market year inside Rockport is not a Select Board license. A published market year inside Gloucester is not a 5-63 permit. AirROI Low is not either object. The 0 percent licensed share on both extracts is a vendor field. It is not proof the town skipped the listings, and it is not proof the city skipped the 120-day file. Screenshot the Select Board or Inspectional Services page the week you buy. Open the license file. If the listings is missing, the nightly is not the path.

Thehow-to filewill not Keep village copy that advertises an unlicensed house as a legal Motif stay. Thevisitor guidewill not turn an unlicensed lot into a bed. Superhost share on the Rockport extract is already 67.3 percent. A 4.89 rating bar does not replace December 31. A 50.8 percent thirty-plus setting does not replace the clerk. Those are listing objects. The listings is a clerk object.

If a seller waves a live calendar as proof the Select Board is optional, treat that calendar as evidence of risk, not as a grandfather clause. Rockport does not print an exception for years on the platform. Gloucester does not print an exception for a harbor photograph. Confirm the parcel, and confirm the tier. Confirm the death date, and then Keep the listing. A published market year you can click is still not a listings you can renew. Open the paper before you open the calendar.

What we will not Keep

We will not coach an unlicensed Rockport nightly. We will not Keep a Gloucester Non-Primary over 120 days. We will not treat AirROI Low as a Select Board license or as a 5-63 permit. We will not blend two clerks into one Cape Ann rule. We will not treat April 11 as a whole-home ban. We will not treat Article M as a thirty-day floor on existing licensed houses. We will not invent the July 2026 fee dollar. We will not invent a stacked local-option total. We will not invent a three-hundred-issued Gloucester count.

We will not file the Select Board license, and we will not sit Inspectional Services. We will not structure the purchase. After the clerk has said the house can list, listing copy still has to survive a call.DIY fileowns what a self-managing host can keep. The30-night fileowns the listing gate, and this page only needs the refusal. A Motif walk is not a license. A Good Harbor photograph is not a 120-day file. A $36,871 year is not permission.

Keep the town the parcel sits in. Keep the death date or the day cap the clerk printed. Keep October as a peak and March as a low. Then stop. If the parcel is Rockport and the Select Board has not issued a listings, the nightly underwrite stops here. If the parcel is Gloucester Non-Primary and the 120-day file is missing or the 500-cap is closed, the nightly underwrite stops here. Two clerks, and two products, and one leftover blend is not a listing.

Related Reading

More Rockport and Cape Ann reading already live on Crest & Cove.

• 199 Listings and a $36,871 Year: Rockport MA Report

• How to Market a Rockport Stay, Not a Harbor Postcard

• Buying a Cape Ann House: The 120-Day File Comes First

• How to Market a Rockport Stay Across Peak-3 Months

• DIY vs Hire in Rockport: 21% PM and a Select Board listings

• Rockport Shoulder: August Peaks, February Is the Hole

• Rockport 30-Night Stays: 51% Already Gate the Dates

• Rockport vs Gloucester: Two Clerks, Two Watch Years

• Who Books Rockport Versus a Gloucester Harbor Stay

• Essex County $1.2B Visitor Spend Is Not Host Year 2026

• Complete Visitor's Guide to Rockport: Motif, Not a License

• What It Actually Costs to Start a Legal Rockport STR

• Financing a Rockport House: DSCR on a $3,513 Month

• Rockport Seasonal Community Passed: Not a Whole-Home Ban

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a license to list a short-term rental in Rockport?

Yes — every owner offering short-term paying guests in the Town of Rockport needs a Select Board license. The license runs on a calendar year and expires December 31, though an application can be filed at any time. A live listing on a booking platform, or a data provider's low-regulation label, is not the same thing as holding that license.

How is Gloucester's short-term rental system different from Rockport's?

Rockport requires a Select Board license that expires every December 31. Gloucester operates under Ordinance 5-63, effective April 1, 2025, with three tiers: Non-Primary at $300 a year with a 120-rental-day limit under a 500-permit citywide cap, Primary at roughly $100 with up to 365 days, and Shared at roughly $150 with 180 days. The two towns' systems shouldn't be blended into one Cape Ann rule.

Can a Gloucester Non-Primary short-term rental operate more than 120 days a year?

No. A Non-Primary permit is capped at 120 rental days under a citywide limit of 500 non-primary permits total. Primary and Shared tiers carry different day allowances specifically because the owner lives on-site or is present six or more months of the year, so a Non-Primary listing can't simply extend past 120 days by treating it as a loophole.

What taxes apply to a legal Rockport or Gloucester short-term rental?

Massachusetts' statewide room occupancy excise is 5.7 percent. A town can add a local option tax of up to 6 percent if adopted, and a community impact fee of up to 3 percent if adopted for certain operator types. Confirm the current, live combined rate for the specific town with the Department of Revenue or the town clerk before advertising a total.

Does an active listing on a booking platform count as proof of a valid Rockport license?

No. A live listing, or a data provider's low-regulation label, reflects marketplace activity, not the Select Board's own permit record. Confirm licensing status directly with the Select Board or Inspectional Services, since years of platform history alone don't function as a grandfather clause or substitute for the actual paperwork.

Is there a cap on the number of existing whole-home short-term rentals in Rockport?

No. Rockport has no day cap and no townwide numeric cap on existing whole-home short-term rentals — the operative limits are the Select Board license requirement and its December 31 expiration. That's different from Gloucester, where Non-Primary rentals face both a 120-day limit and a 500-permit citywide cap, so the two systems shouldn't be applied interchangeably.

What insurance and state registration does Massachusetts already require statewide?

One million dollars in liability insurance is a statewide mandate under M.G.L. c.175, section 4F, not a Rockport-specific requirement. Massachusetts also runs a statewide short-term rental registry through MassTaxConnect. Both apply on top of, not instead of, whatever local license Rockport or Gloucester requires.

Do short-term rental licenses automatically carry over when a property changes hands?

Generally, no — a license shouldn't be assumed to transfer with a property sale. Confirm directly with the town clerk or Select Board how a specific parcel's license status is handled before closing on a property with the expectation of continuing short-term rental operations under the seller's existing paperwork.

Does a 30-night minimum listing setting exempt a property from local licensing rules?

No. A 30-night minimum is a platform booking-window setting, not a substitute for the town's licensing requirement, and it doesn't change whether Rockport's Select Board license or Gloucester's Ordinance 5-63 permit applies. Neither town's rules carve out an exception for listings that photograph well or have years of platform history.

What new fee is Rockport expected to begin collecting around July 2026?

Town materials referenced in an April 2026 town meeting booklet told voters the town would begin collecting a fee from short-term rental owners starting around July 2026, citing more than 360 units already registered with the Commonwealth and roughly $500,000 in anticipated revenue. Confirm the current rate and effective date directly with the town before budgeting around it, since the specific figure wasn't independently verifiable on this pass.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Rockport's Select Board license and Gloucester's Ordinance 5-63 permit aren't the same rule blended into one caption — copy that treats them as interchangeable tells guests the wrong town's story.

We help Rockport and Gloucester hosts keep listing copy specific to their own town instead of a blended North Shore pitch.

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