New York short-term rental laws combine a decades-old state statute with a strict New York City registration regime and a patchwork of local rules everywhere else. The short version: in most NYC apartment buildings, renting your whole unit for fewer than 30 days is illegal, and the only legal short-term rentals in the city require both registration with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement and the host being physically present during every stay. Outside the city, whether you need a permit depends entirely on your town, village, or county.
The 30-Day Rule
The foundation of the state’s rules is the Multiple Dwelling Law. Section 4 defines a “Class A” multiple dwelling as a building with three or more residential units occupied for “permanent residence purposes,” meaning occupancy by the same person or family for 30 consecutive days or more.1New York State Senate. New York Consolidated Laws, Multiple Dwelling Law – MDW 4 If you live in a typical New York City apartment building, renting your entire unit to visitors for less than 30 days violates state law.
The statute allows narrow exceptions. A permanent occupant can have unpaid house guests for shorter stays, and someone can stay in the apartment while the permanent occupant is temporarily away, as long as no money changes hands.1New York State Senate. New York Consolidated Laws, Multiple Dwelling Law – MDW 4 Section 121 of the same law also makes it illegal to advertise occupancy that would violate these rules.2New York State Senate. New York Multiple Dwelling Law 121 – Prohibiting Certain Advertisements
Single-family and two-family homes fall outside the Multiple Dwelling Law’s scope. That does not make them unregulated. They remain subject to local zoning ordinances, building codes, and any short-term rental rules the municipality has adopted. Co-op and condo buildings add another layer. Most co-op boards and many condo associations have subletting restrictions written into their governing documents, and these can prohibit short-term rentals regardless of what city or state law would otherwise permit. A city registration does not override your building’s proprietary lease or declaration.
NYC Registration Under Local Law 18
Local Law 18, in force since September 2023, requires anyone hosting a short-term rental in New York City to register with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement before listing on any platform.3NYC.gov. Office of Special Enforcement – Registration Law Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and similar platforms are prohibited from processing transactions for unregistered listings, and they must verify each listing against OSE’s electronic system before a booking clears.4NYC.gov. Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals That platform-side enforcement is what gives the law its bite.
Rentals of 30 consecutive days or more are exempt from the registration requirement, as are units in Class B multiple dwellings (licensed hotels and similar transient-use buildings the city has already approved for short stays).3NYC.gov. Office of Special Enforcement – Registration Law
Units That Cannot Be Registered
OSE will deny registration for several categories of housing:
- Rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, and units receiving certain tax benefits such as 421-a.5NYC311. Short-Term Rental Registration
- NYCHA public housing apartments.5NYC311. Short-Term Rental Registration
- Units with uncorrected Class 1 construction code violations, Class C housing maintenance violations, fire code violations, or vacate orders.6NYC Rules. 21-08 Denial of a Short-Term Rental Registration or Renewal
- Any unit in a building on OSE’s prohibited buildings list.6NYC Rules. 21-08 Denial of a Short-Term Rental Registration or Renewal
- Single-room occupancy units.5NYC311. Short-Term Rental Registration
If your unit falls into any of these categories, no application will get through and the platforms cannot legally take your bookings. Registration itself is done through the OSE online portal using a NYC.ID account, and requires proof of identity, two proofs of permanent occupancy from separate approved categories, and, for tenants, the relevant lease pages showing dates, address, and signatures.7NYC.gov. Tips for Hosting a Legal Short-Term Rental
What Registered Hosts Can and Cannot Do
Approval is only part of the picture. The operating rules are what make NYC hosting fundamentally different from short-term rentals elsewhere.
- The registered host must be physically present in the unit for the entire duration of every guest’s stay. Renting the whole apartment while you are away is not legal even with a registration.5NYC311. Short-Term Rental Registration
- No more than two paying guests at a time, regardless of unit size.
- Guests must have unobstructed access to the entire unit, including all exit routes. Interior doors cannot be locked to carve out separate spaces.
- Your unique registration number must appear on every advertisement and listing.4NYC.gov. Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals
- A diagram showing normal and emergency exit routes, plus the registration certificate, must be visibly posted inside the unit.4NYC.gov. Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals
- You must keep transaction records and provide them to OSE upon request.
The host-present and two-guest rules are what ended the “rent your whole place while you travel” model in New York City. What Local Law 18 actually authorizes looks closer to taking in a boarder than running a vacation rental.
Penalties
Operating an unregistered short-term rental carries a penalty of up to $5,000 or three times the revenue generated, whichever is less. Registered hosts who violate specific rules face tiered fines: failing to display the registration number on a listing runs from $100 for a first offense to $1,000 for a third, and failing to keep transaction records runs from $500 to $5,000 across three offenses. A false statement on an application is a flat $1,000 each time.4NYC.gov. Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals
Booking platforms that process transactions for unregistered listings face penalties of up to $1,500 per transaction or three times the fee collected, whichever is greater, plus up to $1,500 per unreported transaction if required reports are not filed.4NYC.gov. Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals
Building owners are not shielded when a tenant runs an illegal rental. Under NYC Administrative Code §28-210.3, owners who knowingly allow or fail to prevent illegal transient use can face fines of up to $1,000 per day, and claimed ignorance is not a defense if reasonable diligence would have surfaced the activity.
Short-Term Rentals Outside New York City
The rest of the state operates on a very different model. There is no statewide registration system, and each municipality decides for itself whether to regulate short-term rentals.8Dutchess County. Short-Term Rental Regulation The rules vary sharply from one town to the next:
- Buffalo requires annual registration, an STR certificate, and an annual inspection with renewal fee.
- Rhinebeck requires annual inspections, a permit, and Planning Board approval.
- Cooperstown requires annual inspection and registration, a floor plan, and a special use permit.
- Queensbury imposes no permit requirement.8Dutchess County. Short-Term Rental Regulation
A statewide change is coming at the county level. New York is requiring counties to create short-term rental registries. A county that wants to opt out must pass a local law by June 26, 2026. Counties that do not opt out will require hosts or booking services to register and can impose fines for failure to do so. Counties that opt out still receive sales tax revenue from short-term rentals but forgo occupancy tax revenue.8Dutchess County. Short-Term Rental Regulation If you rent in the Catskills, the Hudson Valley, the Finger Lakes, or the Hamptons, check both your municipality and your county for current requirements before you list.
Taxes
Short-term rental income triggers obligations at three levels. Federally, if you rent your home for 14 days or fewer per year and personally use it for more than 14 days, the rental income is excluded from gross income under IRC Section 280A(g). You do not report it, and you cannot deduct associated expenses.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 280A – Disallowance of Certain Expenses in Connection With Business Use of Home Cross that threshold and all rental income becomes taxable. Most regular NYC hosts report on Schedule E as passive rental income; hosts who provide hotel-style services such as daily cleaning, meals, or concierge service may need to report on Schedule C, which subjects the income to self-employment tax.
New York State imposes sales tax on short-term rental occupancy at the combined state and local rate for the jurisdiction.10NY Department of Taxation and Finance. Hotel and Short-Term Rental Unit Occupancy In New York City, hosts also face the hotel room occupancy tax, which adds a per-room daily surcharge of $0.50 to $2.00 depending on the nightly rate, plus a percentage-based tax.11NYC.gov. Business Hotel Room Occupancy Tax A $1.50 per unit per day state hotel unit fee also applies to rentals in New York City. Some platforms collect and remit certain taxes automatically, but the host remains responsible for making sure everything owed is paid. Verify which taxes your platform handles and which you must file yourself.
Insurance and Overstay Risk
Standard homeowners and renters policies typically exclude coverage when the home is used for business purposes. Taking payment from short-term guests often qualifies as a business activity, which means a guest injury or damage claim can be denied and, in some cases, an insurer may void the whole policy on discovering unreported hosting. Booking platforms offer host protection programs, but coverage and exclusions vary. A dedicated short-term rental policy is built for the specific risks: guest injuries, theft, intentional damage, and lost rental income if the property becomes unusable. Liability coverage of $1 million is the market standard.
A separate risk is the guest who will not leave. New York’s tenant protections are among the strongest in the country, and the line between guest and tenant can blur quickly. Once someone has established occupancy rights, changing the locks is not an option; you may be looking at a formal eviction, which in New York City can take months. The practical defenses are keeping stays well under 30 days, using written rental agreements with clear checkout dates, and refusing informal extensions that could support a claim of tenancy. The host-present rule provides some incidental protection inside the city, but hosts renting single-family or two-family homes elsewhere in the state, especially for longer stays, should treat this risk seriously.