Washington State STR Rules in 2026 a Guide From the Outer Coast

Washington has no statewide short-term rental law. There is no state-level permit cap, no state-mandated occupancy limit, and no single agency that licenses vacation rentals the way, say, a real estate broker gets licensed. What Washington does have is a baseline every operator shares, no matter where they're located: a state business license and Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number from the Department of Revenue, retailing business and occupation (B&O) tax on gross lodging income, and the state's 6.5% retail sales tax on stays under 30 days. Everything past that baseline , whether you can operate at all, how many guests you can host, whether your permit survives a sale, whether new licenses are even being issued , is decided county by county and, inside city limits, sometimes city by city on top of the county.

That patchwork is the whole story of Washington's coastal and island STR markets. A license that's cheap and simple in one jurisdiction can sit atop a zoning map that quietly excludes half the housing stock. A county with no ordinance at all today can adopt one that reshapes an entire sub-area in a single public hearing. This guide walks the Outer Coast, the San Juans, Whidbey Island, and the Cascade Lake towns region by region, current as of mid-2026.

Long Beach Peninsula (Pacific County)

Pacific County's vacation rental rules started as a standalone ordinance , Ordinance No. 184B, adopted July 30, 2020 , that established a vacation rental license, a septic operation-and-maintenance inspection cycle, a public-notice/mailing requirement to neighbors within 300 feet, a property management plan, and occupancy and density limits. That ordinance has since been folded into the county's broader land-use code: on February 27, 2024, Pacific County adopted a consolidated Zoning Ordinance, No. 194, which repealed and merged Ordinances 184 (the original 2017 zoning code), 184B, and 184C (a September 8, 2020 amendment that separately banned new vacation rentals in the Restricted Residential R-1 district) into a single countywide zoning framework rather than a freestanding rental ordinance. The vacation-rental substance , license, inspections, occupancy cap, density/spacing standard , carried forward into Ordinance 194; what changed is the legal vehicle it lives in. (Note: county records reference an intermediate emergency moratorium ordinance, 184A, adopted February 25, 2020 and extended that July, but 184A itself was repealed by 184C in September 2020 and is not one of the ordinances 194 repealed , Ordinance 194's own recitals name 184, 184B, and 184C as the ordinances it consolidates.).

Inside Long Beach city limits, the city layers its own rules on top of the county framework. No town-level ordinance layers on top of the county's rules for Moclips, Pacific Beach, or Copalis Beach , a single, consistent framework rather than multiple layers to reconcile. The throughline across this stretch: an incorporated city with its own codified ordinance (South Bend), an incorporated city with no dedicated STR category and a genuine, confirmed ambiguity (Raymond), an unincorporated area under direct county rules (Tokeland/North Cove), and a second county entirely applying its existing framework (Grayland).

City code caps licensing at one vacation rental per parcel , a property owner can license the primary dwelling or an accessory unit, not both , and sets maximum occupancy at two overnight guests per bedroom plus two additional occupants, for a hard ceiling of 10 total guests (all ages two and up counted). Vacation rentals in the city's R2R (Two-Family Residential Restricted) and S2 (Shoreline Single-Family Residential) zoning districts must also sit at least 200 feet from the property lines of any other permitted vacation rental, which functions as a de facto density cap in those zones. On enforcement, the city runs what amounts to a three-strikes system: three authenticated ordinance violations tied to the same rental within a calendar year trigger license revocation and an one-year bar on reapplying. That's a real, documented enforcement mechanism specific to Long Beach, Washington , worth flagging because a widely circulated "cracking down on problem Airbnbs" narrative associated with a city named Long Beach actually traces to Long Beach, California, a much larger and unrelated city with its own council, its own 24/7 complaint hotline, and its own transient occupancy tax penalty structure. The two cities share a name and nothing else regulatory.

Ocean Shores & Westport (Grays Harbor County)

Grays Harbor County runs short-term rental permitting through a Smart Gov-based online portal, where hosts submit applications, pay fees, track permit status, and schedule inspections. The county's underlying framework dates to Ordinance No. 469, adopted March 22, 2022, which added a dedicated short-term rental section to the county zoning code; permits issued as conditional uses before that date under the prior code are grandfathered and don't require a new STR permit. Renewals are annual and must be filed at least 30 days before expiration.

Ocean Shores, within the county, is frequently cited as one of the state's lower-friction coastal markets on licensing costs alone: a $50 city business license, plus a separate $50 fire inspection fee where applicable, and a 5% local lodging tax on top of state sales tax. That licensing-cost figure is accurate, but it is not the full picture of whether a given house qualifies to operate at all, and the zoning picture is more restrictive than either a blanket-ban framing or a broad-permitted-districts framing suggests. Ocean Shores overhauled its entire short-term rental chapter in 2025 (Ordinance No. 1148, codified at OSMC Chapter 17.49). Under the current code, "a short-term rental is permitted only in B-1 and B-2 zones" (OSMC 17.49.030) , the city's two business/commercial zoning districts. STRs are not a permitted use in any of the city's residential zones (R-1 through R-9) under the current chapter; a property's eligibility turns on whether it sits in a B-1 or B-2 district, full stop, with narrow exceptions only for dwellings that already held a valid, lawful transient-rental permit before the current restrictions took effect (those are grandfathered as legal nonconforming uses). This is confirmed directly from the live OSMC text.

(codepublishing.com/WA/Ocean Shores/html/Ocean Shores17/Ocean Shores1749.html, current through Ord. 1148 § 1, 2025). The practical takeaway for an owner: license cost is low, but as of the 2025 rewrite, zoning eligibility is the binding constraint , a residential-zone property, even one that might have qualified under the older code's broader residential-district list, generally cannot obtain a new short-term rental permit unless it is grandfathered.

Westport, the other Grays Harbor beach town, runs its own municipal layer independent of Ocean Shores' rules: Westport Municipal Code Chapter 17.22 (Vacation Rental Dwellings) requires a $750 application fee, a 24/7-available local representative, proof of short-term rental insurance, a transient-accommodations inspection under the International Building Code, and written notice to every neighboring property owner within a 250-foot radius before a permit is issued. Like Long Beach, Westport caps licensing at one vacation rental per parcel, with an exception carved out for its mixed-use tourist commercial zones. Permits are renewed annually, at least 30 days before expiration.

San Juan Islands

San Juan County adopted island-by-island hard caps on vacation rental permits in May 2022, after a multi-year moratorium and public process. The caps: 337 permits on San Juan Island, 211 on Orcas Island, 135 on Lopez Island, and a combined 10 permits across the county's outer islands (Shaw and Waldron are excluded entirely, as both already prohibit vacation rentals under existing rules). That puts the countywide total at 693 permitted units. Existing compliant permits weren't revoked to hit the caps , the county instead closed new applications on any island already at or above its cap, and new permits only open through attrition (revocation, voluntary non-renewal, or abandonment) rather than on a fixed schedule. An owner on Orcas or Lopez today should assume that the practical waitlist, not the formal cap number, determines whether a new listing is possible.

Whidbey Island (Island County)

This is the fastest-moving regulatory picture in the state right now, but it has not yet landed where an earlier draft of this section said it had , and that distinction matters for anyone making a buying or listing decision today. For years, Island County had no countywide short-term rental ordinance at all , STRs operated in a gray zone, regulated only indirectly through general land-use and business-license rules. On June 23, 2026, the Island County Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted the county's 2045 Comprehensive Plan (Ordinance No. C-34-26) along with a companion package of Development Regulations amendments (Ordinance No. C-35-26), following a multi-year public process and a hearing that day. Both ordinances state they take effect on adoption and apply to new applications going forward, consistent with the county's standard practice for code amendments.

Short-term rentals were a genuinely contested topic throughout that process , Island County's own planning staff proposed, in an April 2025 workshop document, banning new short-term rentals inside the Freeland urban growth area and in several mixed-use rural nodes (Clinton, Ken's Korner, Bayview, Greenbank, Cornet Bay, and the Deception Pass area), citing occupancy-rate data showing Freeland running well below the countywide average (roughly 67% versus 86%) as a signal of how much year-round housing stock had shifted to short-term use. That specific geographic ban is not what the county actually adopted on June 23, 2026. A direct review of the adopted Development Regulations (Ordinance C-35-26, the 256-page code-amendment package) turns up no provision prohibiting short-term rentals in the Freeland UGA or in the named rural nodes , the only short-term-rental-specific restrictions in the adopted zoning code are narrow ones (short-term rentals are barred as an use within "rural affordable cluster" developments, and income-restricted accessory dwelling units built under the county's affordable-ADU program can't be used as short-term rentals). Instead, the adopted Housing Element of the Comprehensive Plan treats short-term rental regulation as a future goal, not a completed action: Policy H 1.6 commits the county to "implement policies and regulations and require registration of existing and future short-term rentals.. to reduce the impact of short-term rentals on long-term housing," and Policy H 1.6.1 directs the county to "consider restrictions on the number of housing units that may be used as short-term rentals" , forward-looking language that would not appear if the restriction had already been enacted in the same ordinance package. A separate county-level short-term rental permit/registration program was reported to be still under active development as of May 2026 and had not been adopted as an ordinance at the time of this pilot's research. Bottom line: the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations are real and were adopted June 23, 2026, but they set a policy direction toward future short-term rental regulation rather than an immediate ban on new short-term rentals in Freeland, Clinton, Ken's Korner, Bayview, Greenbank, Cornet Bay, or Deception Pass. Anyone evaluating a purchase or listing in these areas should treat new STR restrictions as likely to come, not already in force, and should confirm the current status directly with Island County Planning & Community Development before relying on either the "banned" or "unrestricted" framing. Because no such ban was found to exist in the adopted text, this piece does not cite an appeal deadline tied to it.

Separate from whatever permitting rules exist, Whidbey Island has a genuine physical ceiling on STR growth: most of the island, outside a handful of city and commercial cores, runs on private on-site septic systems rather than municipal sewer. Septic capacity and drainfield suitability are already documented constraints on new residential development countywide, and that constraint applies to short-term rental conversions and new builds exactly the same as it applies to full-time housing , a property without adequate septic capacity for its bedroom count doesn't get to operate as a five-bedroom rental just because the zoning technically allows it. On an island this reliant on private septic, that's not a regulatory workaround waiting to be closed; it's math that doesn't move regardless of what the county council decides about permits.

Leavenworth & Lake Chelan (Chelan County)

Chelan County's short-term rental framework is codified at County Code § 11.88.290 and caps the share of housing stock that can operate as a short-term rental at 6% in unincorporated residential zones, applied Zip-Code-by-Zip-Code (with Leavenworth's Zip Code 98826 further split into Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee, and Plain subareas, each capped separately at 6%) and by urban growth area. The Manson Urban Growth Area was originally capped higher, but the county lowered the Manson cap to match the general 6% standard in a 2025 code amendment adopted at the request of the Manson Community Council , so as of mid-2026, Manson and the rest of unincorporated Chelan County share the same 6% ceiling (the Peshastin Urban Growth Area, by contrast, is capped at 0%, effectively closed to new Tier 2/3 rentals). Tier 1 rentals , generally smaller-scale or owner-occupied categories under the code's tier structure , are exempted from the numeric cap; everything else counts against it. As of 2026, the Leavenworth zip code, along with the Lake Wenatchee and Plain areas, is over its cap: existing rentals were grandfathered in when the code passed, which pushed the actual count above the 6% ceiling, and the practical result is that these areas are closed to new STR permit applications except for a narrow carve-out at the Kahler Glen development, which sits outside the general cap structure. *Verify at draft: the specific "over-cap by roughly 70 units" figure circulating in secondary sources was not independently confirmed against Chelan County's own published short-term rental statistics page during this research pass , confirm current counts directly against the county's data before publishing a specific number.*.

Layered on top of the county cap, the City of Chelan runs its own separate municipal licensing program under Chapter 5.15 of the city code, in effect since January 1, 2020. Every short-term rental within Chelan city limits needs a city operating license , non-transferable, issued to the named property owner, and renewed annually, with applications due December 1st , independent of whatever the county requires outside city boundaries. A property within city limits is subject to the city's Chapter 5.15 process; a property in unincorporated Chelan County, including the Manson UGA, is subject to County Code § 11.88.290 instead.

One more mechanic worth knowing for anyone buying rather than building: Chelan County's code allows a legally nonconforming, already-permitted short-term rental to transfer its permit to a new owner exactly once, within a defined window measured from the code's original adoption date of September 27, 2021. For most of the county, that one-time transfer window runs five years from adoption , closing around September 27, 2026. Inside the Manson UGA specifically, the window was shorter: three years from adoption, which closed around September 27, 2024, and has already expired. After a jurisdiction's window closes, a sale terminates the permit, and the new owner has to apply fresh under whatever rules are current at that time, which, in capped and over-cap zones, may mean no new permit is available at all.

Olympic Peninsula Gateway: Port Townsend & Sequim

Port Townsend regulates short-term rentals through its zoning code rather than a standalone rental ordinance, requiring a Short-Term Rental Conditional Use Permit plus a city business license. The code splits STRs into two categories , "bed and breakfast inns" and "tourist homes" , both of which are allowed as conditional uses in residential zones and as outright permitted uses in the city's C-III commercial zone. Tourist homes are restricted to detached single-family residences (not duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes), guest rooms can't include full kitchens, and the code explicitly bars short-term rental use of accessory dwelling units. An inspection by both building and planning staff is required before a permit is issued, and the business license number has to appear on every listing and advertisement.

Sequim's picture is genuinely less settled, and this guide isn't going to paper over that. City documentation from 2022 described short-term rentals as functionally unregulated , treated as an ordinary residential use, with no dedicated STR permit or license required, so long as no separate commercial activity occurred on-site. More recent secondary sources describe a shift toward requiring a Conditional Use Permit in specific zoning districts (including certain residential zones, the downtown commercial core, and planned resort community zones), with ADUs, RVs, and travel trailers excluded from STR use. *Verify at draft: the two pictures don't fully reconcile from public search results, and this pilot could not confirm which framework is currently in force. Anyone evaluating a Sequim property should contact the City of Sequim Community Development Department directly rather than relying on either the older or newer secondary description; do not publish a specific Sequim permitting requirement without that direct confirmation.*.

Willapa Bay's Regulatory Patchwork: Raymond, South Bend, Tokeland & North Cove, and Grayland

The Willapa Bay stretch between Long Beach Peninsula and Ocean Shores/Westport surfaces one of the most fragmented regulatory pictures on the entire outer coast , four jurisdictions in about 40 miles, each handling short-term rentals differently. This section adds those confirmed findings to this guide. Raymond, also an incorporated city just three miles from South Bend, has no dedicated short-term-rental or vacation-rental use category anywhere in its code , confirmed directly from Raymond Municipal Code Chapter 15.44, the city's own Allowed and Restricted Uses Table, read across all six zoning districts.

South Bend is an incorporated city with its own confirmed, standalone ordinance: South Bend Municipal Code Chapter 15.20.180. It requires an annual vacation-rental license, state business registration, lodging-tax compliance, $1 million in liability insurance, a city life-safety inspection, an occupancy cap of two guests per bedroom plus two (ten maximum), minimum on-site parking, quiet hours from 10pm to 8am, and a 300-foot neighbor mailing notice before licensing. Because South Bend is incorporated, Pacific County's vacation-rental ordinance does not apply within city limits , SBMC 15.20.180 governs instead.

Raymond, also an incorporated city just three miles from South Bend, has no dedicated short-term-rental or vacation-rental use category anywhere in its code , confirmed directly from Raymond Municipal Code Chapter 15.44, the city's own Allowed and Restricted Uses Table, read across all six zoning districts. The only two lodging-adjacent categories in that table are "bed and breakfast establishment" (a Conditional Use Permit in the RS Medium Density Residential zone, where most houses sit) and "hotel/motel/hostel" (permitted only in commercial zones). Raymond's own definitions section, §15.44.030, defines several other specialized terms used elsewhere in the table but never defines "bed and breakfast establishment" , a genuine, confirmed ambiguity in the primary text itself, not simply an absence of rules. In practice, a residential-zone STR in Raymond most plausibly needs a Conditional Use Permit filed under that undefined heading, but whether a typical whole-home rental actually qualifies has not been confirmed and should be verified directly with Raymond City Hall () before any purchase or listing decision.

Tokeland and North Cove are unincorporated Pacific County communities, so the county's vacation-rental ordinance (Zoning Ordinance No. 194, formerly 184B) applies directly. Tokeland carries a Mixed-Use zoning designation (TMIX), and short-term rentals require a Special Use Permit under Subsection 21.N of county code; surrounding land is designated Rural Residential. A direct review of the adopted Development Regulations (Ordinance C-35-26, the 256-page code-amendment package) turns up no provision prohibiting short-term rentals in the Freeland UGA or in the named rural nodes , the only short-term-rental-specific restrictions in the adopted zoning code are narrow ones (short-term rentals are barred as an use within "rural affordable cluster" developments, and income-restricted accessory dwelling units built under the county's affordable-ADU program can't be used as.

Grayland sits in Grays Harbor County rather than Pacific County, meaning it falls under the same county ordinance (469/498, Smart Gov-administered) already covering Ocean Shores and Westport elsewhere in this guide , not the Pacific County framework at all. Grayland hosts should refer to the Ocean Shores/Westport regulatory section above; the requirements are identical. That means all three fall under the identical county framework already covering Ocean Shores and Westport: Ordinance 469/498, requiring Smart Gov portal registration, a minimum $1,000,000 liability insurance policy, building-code and fire-safety compliance, one additional off-street parking space beyond the dwelling's base requirement, a 24/7 local contact able to respond within 30 minutes, and operation only within zoning districts where short-term rentals are permitted.

The throughline across this stretch: an incorporated city with its own codified ordinance (South Bend), an incorporated city with no dedicated STR category and a genuine, confirmed ambiguity (Raymond), an unincorporated area under direct county rules (Tokeland/North Cove), and a second county entirely applying its existing framework (Grayland). Confirm the specific jurisdiction and zoning for any parcel in this stretch before assuming a single rule applies coast-wide.

Northern Beaches: Moclips, Pacific Beach & Copalis Beach (Grays Harbor County)

Moclips, Pacific Beach, and Copalis Beach , locally branded together with Ocean Shores and Ocean City as the 'Northern Beaches' , are all unincorporated Grays Harbor County communities with no municipal government of their own. That means all three fall under the identical county framework already covering Ocean Shores and Westport: Ordinance 469/498, requiring Smart Gov portal registration, a minimum $1,000,000 liability insurance policy, building-code and fire-safety compliance, one additional off-street parking space beyond the dwelling's base requirement, a 24/7 local contact able to respond within 30 minutes, and operation only within zoning districts where short-term rentals are permitted.

This is a simpler regulatory picture than the Willapa Bay batch immediately south, where the framework varies town to town. No town-level ordinance layers on top of the county's rules for Moclips, Pacific Beach, or Copalis Beach , a single, consistent framework rather than multiple layers to reconcile. It doesn't mean the compliance bar is low, only that it's more straightforward to research and comply with than a stacked county-plus-town system.

Two items remain unconfirmed for this Northern Beaches sub-cluster and should be verified directly with the county before relying on them: the exact county STR permit fee, and the precise local lodging tax rate (two conflicting figures , 8.9% general sales tax versus an unverified 11.90% 'total lodging tax rate' claim , surfaced during research; neither is published here as confirmed fact). Copalis Beach carries one additional practical consideration beyond the regulatory framework itself: much of the town runs on private wells with no full public water system, which can affect how a specific property is permitted and how reliably it can operate , a due-diligence factor distinct from, but relevant alongside, the county's STR ordinance.

the Crest & Cove intro·local SEO keywords that actually book·the five elements of a converting hero·how to compare STR marketing agencies·Asheville paddling spots worth the drive·Long Beach Peninsula against AirROI $34,834·Ocean Shores and Westport against AirROI pins·Destin against AirROI, not leftover year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a statewide law in Washington regulating Airbnbs and vacation rentals?

Washington has no statewide short-term rental permit system, occupancy cap, or licensing law. Every operator owes a state business license and UBI number, state B&O tax, and state sales tax regardless of location, but the rules governing whether you can operate, how many guests you can host, and whether your permit survives a sale are all set at the county or city level.

What is Pacific County's Ordinance 184B, and is it still in effect?

Ordinance 184B (adopted July 30, 2020) was Pacific County's standalone ordinance establishing the county's vacation rental license, septic inspection cycle, occupancy and density limits, and neighbor-notice requirements. Its substance has since been consolidated into the county's broader Zoning Ordinance, No. 194 (adopted February 27, 2024), which formally repealed and merged Ordinances 184, 184B, and 184C. The underlying vacation-rental rules carried forward; the standalone ordinance number no longer governs on its own.

How many guests can stay in a Long Beach, Washington vacation rental?

City code caps occupancy at two overnight guests per bedroom plus two additional occupants, for a maximum of 10 total guests, with everyone age two and older counting toward that limit. Licensing is capped at one vacation rental per parcel — an owner can license the primary dwelling or an accessory unit, but not both. That combination of a hard occupancy ceiling and a one-license-per-parcel rule is worth checking before assuming a property can host a large group.

Is Whidbey Island regulating Airbnb now?

Not yet, despite a widely discussed proposal. Island County adopted its 2045 Comprehensive Plan and companion Development Regulations on June 23, 2026, and short-term rentals were a major topic of public debate throughout that process. County planners had floated a ban on new short-term rentals in the Freeland urban growth area and several rural nodes — Clinton, Ken's Korner, Bayview, Greenbank, Cornet Bay, and Deception Pass — in an April 2025 proposal, but that specific ban did not make it into the ordinances the county actually adopted. Whidbey hosts should watch for future rulemaking rather than assume the issue is settled.

What is the San Juan Islands' short-term rental permit cap?

San Juan County caps total vacation rental permits at 337 on San Juan Island, 211 on Orcas Island, 135 on Lopez Island, and a combined 10 across its outer islands (Shaw and Waldron already prohibit vacation rentals outright), for a countywide ceiling of 693 permits. Islands at or above their cap are closed to new applications until permits free up through attrition.

Is Leavenworth open to new short-term rental permits in 2026?

The Leavenworth zip code, along with Lake Wenatchee and Plain, exceeded Chelan County's 6% housing-stock cap under County Code Section 11.88.290 once existing rentals were grandfathered in, and these areas are currently closed to new STR permits except for a narrow exception at the Kahler Glen development. The City of Chelan runs its own separate licensing system. The Manson Urban Growth Area was originally allowed a higher share but was brought down to the same 6% cap as the rest of the county in a 2025 amendment — confirm current Manson availability directly with the county before assuming a permit is open.

Do I need a Washington state vacation rental license to operate an Airbnb?

You need a Washington State Business License and a Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number from the Department of Revenue — these apply statewide, regardless of city or county. Beyond that state-level tax registration, there is no single 'state vacation rental license.' Local permits, licenses, and inspections are separate requirements layered on top by whichever city or county the property sits in.

Are short-term rentals allowed in residential zones in Ocean Shores?

No, as of the city's 2025 code rewrite (Ordinance 1148, codified at OSMC 17.49.030). Ocean Shores permits short-term rentals only in its B-1 and B-2 commercial zones — not in any residential zone, R-1 through R-9 — with narrow grandfathering for dwellings that already held a valid transient-rental permit before the restriction took effect. Licensing itself is inexpensive — a $50 business license plus a possible $50 fire inspection fee, on top of a separate STR application fee — but for a residential-zone property without a pre-existing permit, zoning eligibility is the binding constraint, not the cost.

About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators nationwide, including emerging corridors like Washington's Outer Coast and San Juan Islands. The Willapa Bay stretch between Long Beach Peninsula and Ocean Shores/Westport surfaces one of the most fragmented regulatory pictures on the entire outer coast , four jurisdictions in about 40 miles, each handling short-term rentals differently.

Related Reading

Keep reading on same-cluster Crest & Cove pages that stay on labeled local lines without costume-corridor copy.

• DIY vs Hire in WA-OR: Own the Listing Before You Hire

• How to Market a Short-Term Rental in Washington, NC

• Washington Outer Coast STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

• Nc Inner Banks STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

• Central Washington Festival Wine Country STR Market Report

• Grayland, WA STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

• Moclips Pacific Beach, WA STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

• Tokeland North Cove, WA STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

• Shannondale Washington Dc Weekend: How Hosts Should Sell the Drive

• Mcgaheysville Washington Dc Weekend: How Hosts Should Sell the Drive

• Washington-Oregon STR Marketing: Name the Overnight Guests Book

• Berkeley Springs Washington Weekend: How Hosts Should Sell the Drive

• Washington CT: No Invented Year, Named Town Pins Only

• Connecticut STR Registry: Clerks, Not Occupancy Ranking

• DIY vs. Hire in Many, LA: Why Independent Hosts Still Run Most Listings

Sources

Independently re-verified against primary sources during adversarial fact-check (July 2026). Corrections below supersede the drafting pass's own source notes. *Verify at draft: the specific "over-cap by roughly 70 units" figure circulating in secondary sources was not independently confirmed against Chelan County's own published short-term rental statistics page during this research pass , confirm current counts directly against the county's data before publishing a specific number.*.

• No statewide Washington STR law: reconfirmed current for 2026. Washington's 2026 legislative session (adjourned March 12, 2026) considered only local-taxation authorization bills (HB 2559/SB 5576, allowing cities/counties to levy a local STR excise tax), neither of which advanced; no statewide STR permitting, licensing, or preemption law exists. Cross-referenced against Washington Department of Revenue lodging-tax guidance (dor.wa.gov) and Washington State Standard/Geek Wire coverage of the 2026 session.

• Pacific County ordinance chain:corrected.Direct PDF text of the adopted Ordinance No. 194 (co.pacific.wa.us/ordres/Ord-194-Final-Zoning.pdf) states in its own recitals that it "REPEALS ORDINANCE NO. 184, ORDINANCE NO, and 184B AND ORDINANCE NO. 184C" , not 184, 184A, and 184B as an earlier draft of this piece stated. Ordinance 184A (Feb. 25, 2020) was a separate emergency moratorium, extended once, then itself repealed by 184C (Sept. 8, 2020) , it was never repealed by 194 because it no longer existed by 2024. Adoption date of Ordinance 194 is confirmed as February 27, 2024, via the county's own ordinance index (co.pacific.wa.us/ordres/index.htm, plain-text listing: "Ordinance No. 194 - Zoning (adopted 2/27/2024)"). Ordinance 184B's substantive vacation-rental text (300-ft density/notice radius in R-1/R-2/R-R, occupancy caps, septic O&M inspection, property management plan) was read directly from the source PDF (co.pacific.wa.us/ordres/ORD%20184B.pdf); Ordinance 184C's R-1 prohibition and repeal of 184A was read directly from co.pacific.wa.us/ordres/ORD%20184C.pdf.

• City of Long Beach, WA municipal code, §12-11-9: fetched directly (via Wayback Machine archive of codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/longbeachwa, snapshot dated Nov. 17, 2025, current through Ord. 1036, 8-19-2024, cross-checked against a direct live fetch).Two corrections to the drafting pass's own sourcing:(1) the 300-foot rental-to-rental spacing figure was wrong , the code text reads "a distance of greater than or equal to two hundred feet (200'), as measured from all property lines belonging to another permitted vacation rental," not 300 feet; (2) the zones are named "R2R" (Two-Family Residential Restricted District, confirmed via the code's own Title 12 zoning chapter) and "S2" (Shoreline Single-Family Residential) , not "R-2 and R-R" as stated. One-vacation-rental-per-parcel, the 2/bedroom-plus-2 occupancy cap (10-guest ceiling, age 2+ counted), and the three-strikes revocation rule (3 authenticated violations within one calendar year → revocation plus a one-year reapplication bar, codified at §12-11-9(20)(b)) were all confirmed verbatim against the same primary-source text. The "cracking down on problem Airbnbs" narrative genuinely traces to Long Beach, California and is correctly excluded from this piece.

• Grays Harbor County Smart Gov portal (co-graysharbor-wa.smartgovcommunity.com) and Ordinance No. 469, adopted March 22, 2022: not independently re-verified beyond the drafting pass's sourcing in this check; no contradicting information found.

• Ocean Shores zoning:materially corrected.Fetched OSMC Chapter 17.49 directly (codepublishing.com/WA/Ocean Shores/html/Ocean Shores17/Ocean Shores1749.html, current through Ordinance No. 1148 § 1, 2025). The live code reads, in full: "17.49.030 Permitted zoning. A short-term rental is permitted only in B-1 and B-2 zones." This is a 2025 wholesale rewrite of the chapter and supersedes both the original brief's "banned in R-1 through R-9" framing and the drafting pass's own "G-1, G-5, R-2, R-3, RR, LQ, C-2" list , neither is accurate under the current code. STRs are confined to the city's two commercial zones, with grandfathering only for dwellings that held a valid transient-rental permit before the restriction took effect. Licensing costs ($50 business license, possible $50 fire inspection, 5% lodging tax) were separately reconfirmed via secondary sources and were not contradicted.

• Westport Municipal Code Chapter 17.22 (Vacation Rental Dwellings): not independently re-verified beyond the drafting pass's sourcing in this check; no contradicting information found.

• San Juan County vacation rental caps (337 San Juan Island / 211 Orcas / 135 Lopez / 10 outer islands / 693 countywide): reconfirmed via San Juan County's own site (sanjuancountywa.gov) and contemporaneous local reporting (sanjuanupdate.com, sanjuanislander.com, salish-current.org). Adopted by a 3-0 council vote May 17, 2022; figures match exactly.

• Island County 2045 Comprehensive Plan / Development Regulations:materially corrected , this is the most consequential fix in this piece.The June 23, 2026 adoption date is confirmed directly from primary sources: the adopted Development Regulations ordinance (Ordinance No. C-35-26, PLG-003-26, "Updates to the Island County Code to Implement the Island County 2025 Comprehensive Plan," fetched from islandcountywa.gov/Document Center/View/15169) states "ADOPTED this 23rd day of June, 2026"; the Comprehensive Plan itself is a companion Ordinance No. C-34-26; and goskagit.com's contemporaneous news coverage ("After years of public input, Island County adopts updated comprehensive plan") independently confirms the June 23, 2026 unanimous adoption. However, a full-text search of the entire adopted 256-page Development Regulations document and the adopted Land Use element (islandcountywa.gov/Document Center/View/15584) foundno provision banning short-term rentals in the Freeland UGA or the named rural nodes (Clinton, Ken's Korner, Bayview, Greenbank, Cornet Bay, Deception Pass).The specific geographic ban was a Planning-staff proposal reported by the South Whidbey Record in April 2025 (southwhidbeyrecord.com/2025/04/04/county-proposes-to-restrict-airbnbs-in-freeland), including the Freeland-vs-countywide occupancy figures (66.7% vs. 85.7%) this piece cites , but that proposal does not appear in the ordinance the county actually passed. The adopted Housing Element (islandcountywa.gov/Document Center/View/15586, Goal 1, Policies H 1.6 and H 1.6.1) instead commits the county to developing STR registration and restrictions as a future action. A secondary source (househackseattle.com, citing conditions as of May 2026) independently corroborates that "Island County does not currently regulate Airbnbs" and that "a county-level STR permit program was under active development" , consistent with the primary-source finding that no ban has been enacted yet. The August 31, 2026 appeal-deadline claim from an earlier draft is removed entirely, since it was tied to a restriction this research could not confirm was ever adopted.

• Whidbey/Island County septic reliance as a genuine, documented physical constraint on rural development: not independently re-verified beyond the drafting pass's sourcing in this check; this claim is general infrastructure fact (not a specific ordinance citation) and no contradicting information was found.

• Chelan County Code § 11.88.290:corrected.Fetched the county's own current STR code text (co.chelan.wa.us/files/community-development/documents/STR/2025%20STR%20with%20newly%20adopted%20sections.pdf). The Manson Urban Growth Area cap is6%, not 9%, the county lowered it from a higher legacy figure to match the general countywide 6% cap in a 2025 amendment made at the request of the Manson Community Council (confirmed via co.chelan.wa.us news article on the code-update process). The general 6% cap (applied by Zip Code/subarea and by UGA) and the Tier 1 exemption were confirmed accurate in the same primary-source document. The one-time nonconforming-permit transfer window (5 years countywide, 3 years in Manson, measured from the September 27, 2021 effective date) was independently confirmed verbatim in the same source ("one time within five years, except three years within the Manson urban growth area, of the effective date of the ordinance codified in this section (September 27, 2021)").

• City of Chelan Chapter 5.15 short-term rental operating license: reconfirmed , adopted November 26, 2019, effective January 1, 2020, via cityofchelan.gov and library.municode.com.

• Port Townsend's Short-Term Rental Conditional Use Permit process: reconfirmed via the city's own code (codepublishing.com/WA/Port Townsend, Chapter 17.57) and city planning/FAQ pages (cityofpt.us). Confirmed: CUP required for both "Bed and Breakfast Inn" and "Tourist Home" categories; B&B inns allowed as a conditional use in residential zones and as a permitted use in the C-III zone; tourist homes restricted to detached single-family residences; ADUs may not be used as transient accommodations ("Neither the main nor accessory dwelling unit shall be used as a transient accommodation"); building/planning inspection required.

• Sequim's short-term rental framework:flag confirmed appropriate, not resolved.This independent pass also found genuinely conflicting descriptions , an older framework describing STRs as functionally unregulated versus newer secondary sources describing a Conditional Use Permit requirement in specific zones (RII, RIII, Downtown Commercial). No primary Sequim municipal code text could be directly confirmed during this pass to resolve the conflict. The hedge in the body text is appropriate and should remain; confirm directly with the City of Sequim before publishing a specific Sequim permitting claim.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Washington's STR rules shift county by county — Long Beach Peninsula, the San Juans, Whidbey, Chelan — and a single generic 'Washington rules' page misses the specific licensing office each town actually uses.

We write listing copy that matches whichever county your property sits in, not a one-size-fits-all Washington pitch. Reach out with your town name and we'll build copy around what's true there.

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