What It Actually Costs to Start a Short-Term Rental in Anacortes, WA

Thomas Garner
Aug 21
7 min read

Updated: 16 hours ago

Empty bathroom with clawfoot tub, Anacortes lodging, no people

Starting a legal short-term rental in Anacortes begins with a phone call, not a furniture order. Before you buy a single throw pillow, call Anacortes City Hall at 360-293-1900 and confirm two things: that your parcel sits inside city limits (not unincorporated Skagit County), and what the Anacortes Municipal Code currently requires under AMC 19.44.050. Requirements can shift year to year, so treat anything you read online, including this page, as a starting point to verify in 2026, not a substitute for the clerk's answer.

The numbers make the stakes clear. AirROI's trailing-twelve-month data, August 2025 through July 2026, puts the typical Anacortes listing at roughly $28,766 in annual revenue across 164 active rentals, with an average daily rate near $257 and 43.0 percent occupancy. Revenue per available night worked out to about $110, down 4.1 percent year over year, while active supply held essentially flat. That is a real market, but it is a market for hosts who have already cleared the compliance step, not for hosts borrowing someone else's permit story.

What Anacortes Actually Requires Before You List

Short-term rentals in Anacortes are addressed directly in the Anacortes Municipal Code, section 19.44.050. Rather than guessing at a fee from a listing aggregator or a host forum, call Building and Planning at City Hall and ask what the current 2026 requirements are for your specific property type and zone.

Fidalgo Island's mix of waterfront cottages, in-town craftsman homes, and properties near Cap Sante and the marina district means zoning answers can vary block to block. A single-family home near downtown may face different rules than a unit closer to the Guemes Channel waterfront, so don't assume a neighbor's approval covers your parcel.

Budget the time for this step before you budget the furniture. A permit review, a possible inspection, and a business license application typically take longer than ordering a sofa, so hosts who call first end up further ahead than hosts who furnish first and scramble to get compliant afterward.

Where to Call: Anacortes City Hall

Anacortes City Hall sits at 904 6th Street, Anacortes, WA 98221. Planning staff keep hours Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and short-term rental questions route through the same building and zoning desk. Call 360-293-1900 and ask specifically for the department handling STR compliance.

Before you call, gather three things: the property address, the parcel or tax map number, and the URL of the listing you plan to publish. Having those ready means the clerk can give you a direct answer on the first call instead of asking you to call back with information you didn't bring.

The Washington State Lodging Tax You Still Owe

A city-level answer does not close the loop on taxes. Washington State applies its own lodging and sales tax obligations to short-term rentals statewide, independent of whatever Anacortes requires locally. Confirming your city permit does not exempt you from registering for and collecting state tax.

Treat the city file and the state tax file as two separate obligations, both mandatory. A host who is square with City Hall but never registered with the Washington Department of Revenue is only halfway compliant, and guests should never be told a stay is tax-free because a third-party dashboard labeled the market low-regulation.

Confirm Your Parcel Is Inside Anacortes, Not the County

Anacortes shares Fidalgo Island geography with unincorporated Skagit County parcels nearby, and the two are not interchangeable for permitting purposes. Before you advertise, confirm your parcel actually sits inside Anacortes city limits rather than the surrounding county, since the rules, the permitting desk, and the fee schedule differ.

This matters even more if you're comparing notes with hosts in other coastal markets. Anacortes and towns like Wellfleet, Massachusetts get grouped together in marketing copy because both sit on a working waterfront, but they answer to entirely different local governments. Don't call the Wellfleet desk with an Anacortes address, and don't cite Wellfleet's numbers as if they describe your market.

Why an AirROI Keep Isn't a Permit

Market data platforms like AirROI are useful for revenue benchmarking, but their low-regulation or high-regulation labels are built from scraping active listings, not from reading the municipal code. A market can look loosely regulated on a dashboard and still have a specific code section, like AMC 19.44.050, governing exactly what you need to do.

Use the revenue data for what it's good for: understanding what a compliant Anacortes rental could plausibly earn. The August 2025 through July 2026 window shows the strongest months are August, June, and May, with January consistently the slowest for occupancy. Most guests book from Seattle first, then Portland, with a typical stay length around 5.6 nights booked roughly 70 days in advance. None of that data tells you what City Hall requires, so keep the two questions separate.

Don't Invent a Permit Fee Nobody Has Confirmed

At the time of this review, a dedicated short-term rental permit fee was not published on a primary City of Anacortes page. That is a gap to close by asking the clerk directly, not an invitation to guess a number and repeat it as fact.

When you do get a confirmed answer, from the person answering the phone at City Hall, write it down with the date you called and keep that note with your listing paperwork. Fee schedules get revisited, and a dated confirmation protects you if a requirement changes mid-year.

Call Before You Promise a 2026 Timeline

If you're telling a lender, a contractor, or a co-host that you'll be live by a certain date, confirm the 2026 requirements and current processing times with City Hall before you commit to that timeline. Planning department hours are Monday through Thursday, so build your call schedule around that window rather than assuming weekday availability.

Bring the same three items to this call as before: property address, parcel number, and the platform URL you intend to use. Ask specifically whether Building and Planning has any pending code updates that could affect your application, since municipal codes are revisited more often than most hosts expect.

What You Actually Spend Before Night One

The real pre-launch cost of an Anacortes short-term rental has three components: the compliance step (business license, any permit or inspection fee, and state tax registration), the property step (furnishing, safety equipment, and any code-required upgrades an inspection turns up), and the marketing step (photography, a listing on major platforms, and pricing set against real comparable data like the $257 average nightly rate this market has shown).

Sequencing matters more than the dollar total. Hosts who furnish first and permit later often end up paying twice: once for furniture that doesn't match what an inspection requires, and again to fix it. Hosts who call City Hall first, confirm the parcel, register for state tax, and only then furnish tend to open with fewer surprises and a faster path to their first booked night.

Keep your own paper trail throughout: the date you called, who you spoke with, the permit or license number once issued, and your state tax registration confirmation. That file matters more than any single revenue projection, including the $28,766 average this market has posted over the trailing twelve months, because a strong revenue year only counts if the stay behind it is legal.

Frequently Asked Questions

What code section governs short-term rentals in Anacortes?

Anacortes Municipal Code section 19.44.050. Review the current text directly with the city before publishing a listing.

What is the typical annual revenue for an Anacortes short-term rental?

AirROI's file (updated August 8, 2026, trailing twelve months) shows 164 listings at 43.5 percent occupancy, a $253 ADR, and $111 RevPAR.

How long does the permit process typically take?

A permit review, a possible inspection, and a business license application typically take real weeks to process — budget accordingly before your planned launch date.

What is a typical cleaning fee in this market?

The local file shows an average of $146 and a median of $86, with 95.1 percent of listings charging one.

Where should I confirm current permit fees?

Anacortes City Hall — this research pack does not contain a specific dollar fee amount, so confirm directly with the city rather than relying on a guessed figure.

Can I use a county or city-level visitor-spending total as my expected listing revenue?

No. Those figures measure total visitor spending across many businesses, not what a single short-term rental listing earns. Use the AirROI listing-level figure instead.

What should I do first when starting an Anacortes short-term rental?

Confirm the permit and licensing requirement before spending on furnishing or photography — this determines whether the project is viable before you commit money to it.

Should I furnish and insure the property before confirming my permit status?

Treat those costs as hedged until you have written confirmation of your permit status — sequencing spending this way avoids sinking money into a listing that can't legally operate.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Anacortes stay marketing fails when a San Juan costume corridor replaces what this driveway can keep overnight. Guests deserve the stay the gallery and house rules can actually hold.

We help independent hosts keep Anacortes positioning honest against the overnight they can deliver, with ferry and harbor facts the house cannot keep left on labeled lines. Decide what you can rewrite yourself this week, then hire only the gap that remains. Send the live listing if the about block still could sit on the wrong town.

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