STRWATCH.AI 50/50 MARKETS · UPDATED 2026-07-18 · ALL CITIES
STRWATCH.AI / LA / New Orleans

Is a short-term rental legal in New Orleans, LA?

HEAVILY REGULATED

Short-term rentals (any rental of a dwelling unit for under 30 consecutive days) are legal in New Orleans only with two annual city permits: an STR owner permit for the unit plus a separate STR operator permit, and platforms may not take bookings for unpermitted units.

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Sources checked2026-07-168 open items listed below

Whole-home NSTR rental is allowed in residential districts, but a permitted operator (who may not be a guest) must physically reside in a bedroom on the lot of record during any guest stay (CZO 21.8.C.18; Code Secs. 26-619, 26-620(a)(1)(e)), so unhosted operation is effectively impossible outside commercial districts; CSTRs in commercial/mixed-use districts have no live-on-site requirement (structures with 10+ STR units need a designated permitted operator) but new CSTRs now require conditional-use approval (CZO 19.4.A.23, Ord. 30625 MCS, 5/7/2026). Owner primary residence is NOT required — the 2019 owner-residency rule was struck down in Hignell-Stark I (46 F.4th 317, 5th Cir. 2022), and the Fifth Circuit's 10/7/2025 opinion construes the current operator 'reside' requirement as presence only while guests are present, which it upheld against dormant Commerce Clause attack. NSTR max: 3 guest bedrooms, 2 guests/bedroom, 6 guests, one bedroom reserved for the operator; CSTR max: 5 guest bedrooms, 10 guests. Only one party of guests per unit; no rentals by the hour or for less than one night; rentals of 30+ consecutive days are not STRs. Density: one NSTR per lot and one per city square (small multi-family affordable developments exempt from the block cap); in residential and certain neighborhood-business districts the block cap is shared with bed-and-breakfasts. Bans: no STR or B&B in the Garden District (St. Charles Ave/Jackson Ave/Magazine St/Louisiana Ave, non-waivable, CZO 20.3.LLL.1.i); NSTR is not a listed permitted use in the Vieux Carré VCR/VCC/VCS districts (French Quarter) — of the VC districts only VCE appears in the CZO 21.8.C.18 permitted-district list. The Code's natural-persons-only ownership rule (26-617(a)) and one-dwelling-per-listing rule (26-618(a)(3)) were held unconstitutional on 10/7/2025 but remain in the published Code/CZO text.

What you need to operate

STR Owner Permit — Type N (Non-Commercial/NSTR) $500/year permit fee + $50 non-refundable application fee
City of New Orleans Dept. of Safety & Permits, Short Term Rental Administration
Renewal: annual (1 year); all issued NSTR licenses expire June 30 of the cycle year. 2026 cycle: renewal was due May 2, 2026, extended to June 18, 2026 — the June 30 date is license expiry, not the renewal deadline (city STR administration home page, verified 2026-07-20)
Code Sec. 26-616(c). One permit per person and per lot; one NSTR per city square awarded by quarterly lottery when contested (Sec. 26-617(g); lottery uses bingo-style draw, winners have 5 days to pay). Requires floor plan, evacuation plan, noise abatement plan (no noise-monitoring device required for NSTR), sanitation plan, owner attestation, proof of completed city STR course, and no outstanding city taxes/violations. Special exception from the block cap via CZO 21.8.C.18.r carries a $500 application fee (Sec. 26-616(e)); the IZD that suspended special exceptions (19.4.A.21) expired 4/29/2026. Business-entity/LLC ownership ban held unconstitutional 10/7/2025 but city lottery guidance still lists LLC-owned properties as ineligible.
official source
STR Operator Permit — Type N $150/year permit fee + $50 application fee; $25 operator card replacement
City of New Orleans Dept. of Safety & Permits, Short Term Rental Administration
Renewal: annual
Code Sec. 26-619. Every STR must have a designated permitted operator; for NSTRs the operator must prove residence on the premises (recorded ownership or lease + 2 matching-address documents), reside on-site during guest stays, be reachable by phone, and resolve neighbor/guest/city complaints within 1 hour. No person may operate more than one NSTR. Fifth Circuit upheld the operator permit and presence-during-stays requirement (construed as not requiring permanent residency) on 10/7/2025; the natural-person-only limit on operator permits was struck down.
official source
STR Owner Permit — Type C (Commercial/CSTR) $1,000/year permit fee + $50 application fee per permit
City of New Orleans Dept. of Safety & Permits, Short Term Rental Administration
Renewal: annual (renewal requires proof of favorable annual city fire inspection)
For units in commercial/mixed-use districts; up to 5 guest bedrooms/10 guests per unit; max 1 unit or 25% of units per lot/building (cap inapplicable in VCE, Canal St. frontage, EC, MC, LS, MI districts) per CZO 20.3.LLL.2. Noise monitoring device required since July 1, 2023; noise abatement, security/operation, and sanitation plans required. New CSTR applications were frozen June 8, 2023–Nov 5, 2025 under an IZD; new CSTRs now require conditional-use approval under the Transient Lodging IZD (CZO 19.4.A.23, Ord. 30625 MCS, adopted 5/7/2026; $1,500 IZD appeal fee).
official source
STR Operator Permit — Type C $1,000/year permit fee + $50 application fee
City of New Orleans Dept. of Safety & Permits, Short Term Rental Administration
Renewal: annual
Code Secs. 26-616(c)(2), 26-619, 26-620. CSTR operators need not reside on the property but must be available during all guest occupancy and resolve complaints within 1 hour; structures with 10+ STR dwelling units must have a designated permitted operator (CZO 20.3.LLL.2.f).
official source
STR Platform Permit $10,000/year
City of New Orleans Dept. of Safety & Permits
Renewal: annual
Code Secs. 26-615(b), 26-616(c)(3). No platform may facilitate a booking transaction in Orleans Parish without this permit. Safe harbor (Sec. 26-623): require owner+operator permit numbers at listing, block listings lacking valid permit data, remove improper listings within 7 days of city notice, and file monthly reports (listings, permit numbers, addresses, URLs, nights rented, rent amounts, taxes/fees remitted).
official source
Commercial general liability insurance Cost not verified
City of New Orleans (Code Sec. 26-618(a)(1))
Renewal: must be maintained at all times
Minimum $1,000,000 CGL per occurrence, combined single limit, for each dwelling unit used as an STR.
official source
Healthy Homes registration and STR training course Cost not verified
City of New Orleans (Short Term Rental Administration / Code Sec. 26-617)
Renewal: training completion required within each permit year; Healthy Homes Certificate of Compliance required at renewal
2026 NSTR renewals require a complete application, valid operator license, proof of completion of the city's STR course, Healthy Homes registration and Certificate of Compliance, settlement of all judgments/liens/fines, and closure of open building permits/violations; owners must respond to inspection requests within 72 hours.
official source

The full picture

Short-term rentals (any rental of a dwelling unit for under 30 consecutive days) are legal in New Orleans only with two annual city permits: an STR owner permit for the unit plus a separate STR operator permit, and platforms may not take bookings for unpermitted units. Residential-area rentals are 'Non-Commercial STRs' (NSTR): capped at one permit per lot AND one per city square/block (contested squares are decided by a quarterly bingo-style lottery), limited to 3 guest bedrooms and 6 guests (one party only), and a permitted operator must physically reside in a bedroom on the lot whenever guests are present and resolve complaints within one hour — so a truly unhosted whole-home rental is not possible in residential districts. Commercial STRs (CSTR) in commercial/mixed-use districts allow up to 5 guest bedrooms/10 guests without a live-in operator, but as of the May 7, 2026 Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District every new CSTR needs a City Council conditional-use approval. STRs are banned outright in the Garden District and are not an allowed use in the French Quarter's Vieux Carré districts (the small VCE Bourbon Street entertainment district is the exception). On October 7, 2025 the Fifth Circuit (Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans) upheld the core scheme — including the operator-present-during-stays rule and density caps — but struck down the ban on business entities (LLCs) holding owner/operator permits and the one-dwelling-per-listing advertising rule; the city's published lottery guidance still tells LLC-owned properties they are ineligible, so watch for conforming amendments. Hosts owe city nightly fees ($5/night NSTR, $12/night CSTR), a 5% gross rentals tax, a 6.75% occupancy tax, a $0.50/night occupancy privilege tax, and 5% Louisiana state sales tax; violations run at least $500 per offense per day (adjudicated fines capped at $1,000 per violation), and revocation bars the property from STR use for five years.

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
NSTR Occupancy Fee (city nightly fee) $5 per night rented Non-commercial (residential) STRs Not verified source
CSTR Occupancy Fee (city nightly fee) $12 per night rented Commercial STRs Not verified source
Orleans Parish Gross Rentals Tax 5% Gross rent from STR stays (collected by City Dept. of Finance, Bureau of Revenue) Not verified source
Orleans Parish Occupancy Tax 6.75% STR occupancy (collected by City Dept. of Finance, Bureau of Revenue) Not verified source
Hotel Occupancy Privilege Tax $0.50 per night (establishments with 1-299 rooms; $1.00 for 300+) STR/hotel occupancy Not verified source
Louisiana state sales tax on accommodations 5% (effective Jan 1, 2025 through Dec 31, 2029) Sleeping rooms, hotel/motel rooms and similar accommodations, including residential short-term rentals (La. R.S. 47:301(6)) Not verified source

Enforcement

PenaltiesCode Sec. 26-629 (Ord. 29381 MCS): fine of not less than $500 for each offense, with each day a violation exists a separate and distinct offense; the city's STR fee page states adjudicated fines are capped by state law at a maximum of $1,000 per violation cited. Permits are revocable privileges (Sec. 26-615(c)); revocation bars the permittee from reapplying for 5 years and, for mandatory-revocation violations, a hearing officer must record a 5-year prohibition on STR use of the property that runs against current and future owners (Sec. 26-628). Revocation is mandatory for listed violations (e.g., exceeding advertised or actual occupancy/bedroom limits, illegal-STR advertising, reception-facility use, discrimination) and for any three violations of specified sections within 12 months. The city may also suspend permits for life-safety building violations, cut electrical service, file property liens, and seek injunctions; the department can inspect on reasonable belief of violation and seek an administrative warrant if entry is refused for 72 hours. Neighbors within 300 feet have a private right of action to enjoin violations, with attorney's fees, and violations may be enjoined without showing irreparable injury (Sec. 26-630).
Platform liabilityPlatforms may not facilitate or conduct any booking transaction for an Orleans Parish STR without a $10,000/year platform permit (Secs. 26-615(b), 26-616(c)(3)). To keep safe-harbor protection (Sec. 26-623) a platform must require owner and operator permit numbers at the time of listing, refuse listings with missing/blank/non-conforming permit data, remove unpermitted or unauthorized listings within 7 days of written city notice, require city-issued ID numbers for other transient lodging (hotels, B&Bs) listed for under-30-day stays, and submit monthly reports covering every listing (permit numbers, addresses, URLs, nights rented, rent collected, taxes/fees remitted, cumulative booking tallies). Where a platform bears tax-collection responsibility under Sec. 26-622.1, it collects and remits STR taxes and fees, but platform non-collection does not relieve the owner (Sec. 26-618(a)(11)).
NotesThe Department of Safety & Permits maintains a public STR dashboard (applications, permits, delisted addresses, violations, weekly adjudication counts, and lots under the 5-year revocation bar) updated weekly (Sec. 26-624(j)). The department prioritizes adjudication of illegal-advertising and occupancy-limit violations. Appeal of a revocation must be filed within 30 days.

Pending changes

  • Conforming City Code/CZO amendments expected after the Fifth Circuit's Oct. 7, 2025 Hignell-Stark ruling struck the business-entity (LLC) ban on owner/operator permits (Equal Protection) and the one-dwelling-unit-per-listing advertising rule (First Amendment); city officials said they expect to amend the ordinance while preserving the rest. No conforming ordinance had been located as of verification, and the city's published lottery guidance still treats LLC-owned properties as ineligible; case remanded to E.D. La. (Nos. 2:19-cv-13773, 2:22-cv-2991) and plaintiffs' counsel indicated a rehearing request. — proposed, 2025-10-07 [news]
  • Transient Lodging Study: City Planning Commission recommendations for extensive permanent CZO updates to transient lodging (bedroom-count size classifications, 24/7 management requirements, further restrictions), public hearing set for Dec. 9, 2025. Pending the permanent rewrite, the council adopted the Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District (CZO 19.4.A.23, Ord. 30625 MCS, 5/7/2026), already effective, which makes all new CSTRs, B&Bs, hotels/motels, hostels, and timeshares conditional uses even where the base district permits them. — proposed, 2025-12-09 [news]

What we could not verify (8)

  • Nightly fee discrepancy: Ordinance 29381 Sec. 26-616(d) as adopted sets a $12/night owner-remitted fee for all STRs, but the city's current official fee page lists $5/night for NSTR and $12/night for CSTR; the amending ordinance reducing the NSTR nightly fee was not located — city fee page values used.
  • Post-ruling LLC practice: the Fifth Circuit invalidated the business-entity ban on owner/operator permits (10/7/2025), but the city's published lottery guidance (last cycle verified: Sept. 2025) still says LLC-owned properties are ineligible; whether Safety & Permits now accepts business-entity applications, and the status of any rehearing petition or remand orders in E.D. La. Nos. 2:19-cv-13773/2:22-cv-2991, could not be verified from official sources.
  • Whether Airbnb/Vrbo currently hold platform permits and actually collect/remit the city taxes and nightly fees under Sec. 26-622.1 (platform-by-platform collection practice) was not verified against an official source — collectedByPlatform left null throughout.
  • The Louisiana Stadium & Exposition District 4% hotel occupancy tax may also apply to Orleans Parish STR stays but was not verified against an official source and is omitted from the taxes list.
  • CSTR allowed-district list: CSTR use standards (CZO 20.3.LLL.2) and the new conditional-use requirement (19.4.A.23) were verified, but the district-by-district use tables (CZO Arts. 10-17) listing exactly where 'Short Term Rental, Commercial' is permitted were not individually extracted; the French Quarter prohibition was verified for NSTR via the CZO 21.8.C.18 permitted-district list (only VCE among Vieux Carré districts).
  • Text of the special-exception provision CZO 21.8.C.18.r (scope and criteria for exceeding the block cap after the 19.4.A.21 IZD expired 4/29/2026) renders inconsistently on czo.nola.gov and was verified only via the Code's $500 special-exception fee (Sec. 26-616(e)) and the city lottery rules page.
  • Franchise-level detail of the STR platform June 2025 booking-verification enforcement change referenced in industry guides was not confirmed on an official city page.
  • [object Object]

Sources

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STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, checked against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between the times we check it. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.