How we verify short-term rental regulations
For every market we review, our AI goes to the official source. This could be the government’s published ordinance or the town’s site where that ordinance lives. Our AI scans these for the provisions that matter to short-term rental operators, and records what it finds with a link back to that source.
A market gets a label only once the scan is complete. Everything else stays. Not verified, because saying nothing beats guessing.
Every market is rechecked monthly. If the source can be read, the page displays a rechecked date, followed by the first full review beneath it. If not, the review date stands on its own rather than implying freshness we cannot support.
How each market is classified
Four labels cover every market on the map. Two things decide which one a market gets: whether we have reviewed it, and what we found when we did.
verified Restricted Banned
The city or county has its own short-term rental ordinance, such as permits, caps, or zoning limits.
We located a local ordinance on the government’s own site and confirmed it applies to short-term rentals.
verified Unregulated
No local short-term rental ordinance, but statewide lodging rules, taxes, and general zoning still apply.
We scanned for a local ordinance and found none, while the state maintains a lodging or tax framework that reaches this market.
verified No rules No statewide rules
No local ordinance and no statewide framework either, so short-term rentals face no specific rules here.
Rare, and set only when research confirms there is nothing at the local, county, or state level. It is never inferred automatically, and in practice it is almost never assigned.
not verified
We have not reviewed this market yet, or the available source material is too limited to make a call.
The market is in our directory but has not been through the review below, or its official source could not be scanned reliably.
How a market gets reviewed
Find the official source
We start from the city or county’s own website and locate the municipal code, ordinance, or short-term rental program page. Third party summaries and aggregator sites are not accepted as the source.
Scan the ordinance
Our AI works by scanning the published text for the provisions operators need: whether a permit or license is required, zoning limits, occupancy or night caps, primary residence requirements, and lodging tax obligations.
Record the findings with the source
Findings are written into the market’s entry with the source URL and the date, so every claim traces back to a document you can open. Later rechecks add their own date without changing that record.
Assign the label
The findings decide the label using the table above. If the scan cannot reach a usable official source, the market stays Not verified rather than being labeled on a guess.
Re-scan and refresh the record
Every market is rechecked monthly. A recheck confirms the source still says what we recorded; it does not overwrite the original review. Hence two dates: Rechecked, the most recent read, and Reviewed in full, the first complete reading. No status changes on an automated reading alone. A proposed change is tested against our conventions, then a person decides, and most do not survive that test.
What this is and isn't
- Not legal advice. This is a starting point for your research, not a substitute for your city’s planning department or an attorney.
- Not a compliance check. We do not evaluate whether your specific property qualifies, and we do not process permits or applications.
- Not exhaustive. We capture the provisions most operators need and link you to the full ordinance text for everything else.
- Not a prediction. Pending bills shown in the legislative feed are proposals, and most do not become law.
Our sources
Every verified market links to the exact page we scanned, so the original is always one click away.
Verified markets are rechecked monthly, and the date of the most recent recheck is shown on each market page. Markets we could not read that month show no recheck date.
Alongside that, we monitor active legislation through LegiScan, OpenStates, Congress.gov, and municipal agenda systems, so a bill or hearing that could change a market’s rules appears on the state page before the ordinance itself changes.
01Municipal and county code
Ordinance pages and short-term rental program pages published by the government itself. This is the primary source for every regulation label.
02LegiScan and OpenStates
State bill text, sponsors, committee action, and current status for the legislative feed on each state page.
03Congress.gov
Federal legislation that touches short-term rentals, travel, or lodging.
04Legistar and municipal agenda systems
Local council agendas, hearing notices, and items scheduled for a vote.
05State revenue and lodging tax agencies
Statewide obligations that apply in markets with no local ordinance of their own.
06News monitoring
Regional and trade coverage, used to flag markets worth re-checking early rather than as a source for any regulation label.
Help us keep this current
Rules move fast, and the people closest to a market see it first. If something looks wrong, tell us and we will recheck it.
Sometimes a recheck finds a classification was wrong rather than out of date. We fix it and say which. “The town changed its rules” and “we had this wrong” are different statements, and only one is about the town.
You should not have to track this alone
Rent Responsibly connects short-term rental hosts and managers with the local associations organizing in their own communities, and with the toolkits, data, and training that make the case where it counts.