For hosts
City guides for Airbnb hosts
What it actually takes to start and run a short-term rental in a given city: which licence your address can hold, what registration and taxes cost, when demand arrives, and the office to call when the form asks something you cannot answer.
12 markets · reviewed 2026-09-10
Travelling, not hosting? The area guides cover the same cities for visitors — what to see, eat and do.
Area guides for travellersThe rules
Licence types, who qualifies, and where short-term rental is not permitted at all.
The sequence
What to do in what order, from checking zoning to the first check-in.
The costs
Registration, taxes, insurance, furnishing and cleaning, in ranges you can budget against.
The resources
The offices that actually issue the permit, the licence and the tax number.
Pick your market
Each guide opens with the question that decides everything else: whether your address can be licensed at all.
Austin, Texas
Austin licenses short-term rentals and treats owner-occupied and investor properties very differently. Here is the sequence, the paperwork, and what it costs.
7 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideLisbon, Lisboa
Lisbon manages short-term rentals through AL registration and containment zones — and national policy has changed repeatedly. Verify before you buy.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideLondon, United Kingdom
Ninety nights a year is the hard ceiling for entire-home lets in Greater London — and your lease may set a lower one at zero.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideLos Angeles, California
LA generally allows short-term rental only in your primary residence — and Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Culver City each write their own rules.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideMiami, Florida
Florida licenses vacation rentals at state level, but whether you can operate is decided block by block — and Miami Beach fines hard.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 5 offices
Read the host guideNashville, Tennessee
Nashville has huge demand and one of the tightest permit regimes in the country. Whether you can host at all is an address-level question.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 3 offices
Read the host guideNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans rewrote its rules to favour owner-occupants. Whether you can host is mostly a question of whether you live there.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideNew York City, New York
NYC is the hardest major market in America. This guide is honest about what is actually legal — and what hosts do here instead.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideSan Diego, California
San Diego runs short-term rentals through a tiered licence system with a capped, lottery-allocated tier for whole-home coastal stays.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 3 offices
Read the host guideSavannah, Georgia
Savannah caps short-term rentals ward by ward in the Historic District — so eligibility is decided by which square you are near.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideScottsdale, Arizona
Arizona stops cities banning short-term rentals, so Scottsdale regulates conduct instead — licensing, insurance, and party-house penalties with teeth.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 3 offices
Read the host guideTokyo, Japan
Japan's minpaku law caps private-home rentals at 180 nights a year — and individual Tokyo wards narrow that further.
6 steps · 6 cost lines · 4 offices
Read the host guideGeneral information, not legal advice. Short-term rental rules change often and depend on your exact address. Every guide names the office to confirm with — confirm with them before you spend money.
Once you are licensed, stop answering the same questions
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