# STR Rules Check

> Short term rental regulations differ by city but not in structure: five levers do the work. Which one applies to you, and the one that decides it before the rest.

## Key facts

- New York City and Austin both define a short-term rental as a let of fewer than 30 consecutive days, which is the usual line across US jurisdictions.
- New York City permits short-term rentals only if the host is staying in the same unit or apartment as the guests, with a maximum of two paying guests at a time.
- New York City requires guests to have access to all parts of the dwelling unit: privacy locks are acceptable, but a lock excluding guests from a room defeats the common-household requirement.
- New York City cannot register rent-controlled, rent-stabilized or NYCHA apartments, entire units in one and two family homes, or units on the Prohibited Buildings List.
- Registration in New York City costs $145 plus a processing fee, is non-refundable, and the Office of Special Enforcement targets an initial determination within 3 business days.
- An Austin short-term rental licence is $836.30 new ($789 plus a $47.30 notification fee) and $385.30 to renew ($338 plus $47.30), valid for two years from issuance.
- From 1 July 2026, unlicensed Austin properties are subject to removal requests from booking platforms.
- Under IRS Topic 415, a dwelling used as a home and rented for fewer than 15 days generates no reportable rental income and no deductible rental expenses.

## Key pages

- [Short term rental regulations: which lever is pointed at you?](https://strrulescheck.com/): the main tool, answer above the fold.
- [Host presence rules: the lever no permit gets round](https://strrulescheck.com/host-presence-rules/): Where a city requires the host to be staying in the property, a whole-home let is not permitted at any price. What the requirement actually looks like.
- [Registration and licensing: fees, terms and what a permit attaches to](https://strrulescheck.com/registration-and-licensing/): The most tractable of the five levers. What Austin and New York City actually charge, and the question about transferability that changes what a buyer is buying.
- [Platform accountability: why the old rules stopped being optional](https://strrulescheck.com/platform-accountability/): The lever that turned short-term rental regulation from a risk into a gate. What it does, where it is in force, and the date Austin's version starts.
- [Short-term rental tax basics, and what a permit does not cover](https://strrulescheck.com/short-term-rental-tax-basics/): The federal fewer-than-15-days rule, the 14 day or 10 percent residence test, and why lodging tax is a separate registration from the permit.
- [The five levers US cities use on short-term rentals, 2026](https://strrulescheck.com/#data): original data table, updated 2026-08-15.
- [Full site content as markdown](https://strrulescheck.com/llms-full.txt)

## Data

- The five levers US cities use on short-term rentals, 2026. Methodology: The New York City rows are quoted from the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement's own guidance for prospective hosts and its registration law pages, read on 15 August 2026. The Austin rows are quoted from the City of Austin's short-term rentals department page, read the same day, including its published fee amounts and the 1 July 2026 platform date. The federal row is quoted from IRS Topic 415. Two cities is not a survey and this table does not claim to describe any other jurisdiction: they are here because they publish clearly and because between them they demonstrate two different primary levers. Deliberately absent: any per-city rule database. Maintaining one accurately across thousands of US jurisdictions is not something this site does, and serving a stale one would be worse than serving none, because a reader who checks a table and stops has been actively misled rather than merely unhelped. What the table gives instead is the order to check things in, which does not go stale. Every figure is quoted as published on the date shown and city rules change on their own schedules.
- Last updated: 2026-08-15. Every figure cites its source inline.
- Source: NYC Office of Special Enforcement, FAQ for prospective hosts: https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/faq/faq-for-prospective-hosts.page
- Source: NYC Office of Special Enforcement, the registration law: https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/registration-law/registration.page
- Source: NYC Office of Special Enforcement, tips for hosts: https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/registration-law/tips-for-hosts.page
- Source: City of Austin, short-term rentals: https://www.austintexas.gov/department/short-term-rentals
- Source: IRS Topic 415, renting residential and vacation property: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc415
- Source: IRS, tips on rental real estate income, deductions and recordkeeping: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/tips-on-rental-real-estate-income-deductions-and-recordkeeping

## Citation

Cite as: "The five levers US cities use on short-term rentals, 2026", STR Rules Check, https://strrulescheck.com/ (updated 2026-08-15).

## About

- STR Rules Check is an information site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the City of New York, the City of Austin, the Internal Revenue Service, any booking platform or any government body, and it is not a law firm, a tax adviser or a property manager. Nothing here is legal or tax advice on a particular property. This site deliberately does not hold a rule database by city: those change on hundreds of independent local calendars and a stale table actively misleads a reader who checks it and stops. Every figure quoted is taken from the official page cited beside it and read on the date at the top of this page. Local rules change, so treat this as the order to check things in rather than as the answer for your address.
- Operated by strrulescheck.com. Contact: contact@strrulescheck.com