STRWATCH.AI / OR / Portland

Is a short-term rental legal in Portland, OR?

HEAVILY REGULATED

Under Portland's accessory-rental rules, an accessory short-term rental is a rental for fewer than 30 consecutive days and requires a long-term resident who occupies the dwelling at least 270 days each year.

See permits and requirements

Sources checked10 open items listed below

The accessory-rental route requires a resident (owner or long-term renter) for 270 days/year, with guest stays during up to 95 days of absence. Renting an otherwise vacant residential unit year-round is not allowed under that route. On ADU sites the resident may occupy either dwelling; approved bedrooms may be in the other unit or a legal detached structure. Type A allows two rented bedrooms sitewide and five guests. The City describes Type B as up to five bedrooms/10 guests, but the code leaves resident-plus-guest limits to conditional-use approval. No single guest or primary-residence scalar covers every lodging category. Section 33.207.030 also allows Retail Sales and Service classification where zoning permits: an option in multi-dwelling/campus zones and for Type A in commercial/mixed-use, employment and industrial zones; three-plus-bedroom rentals in the latter zones use the commercial classification. Parcel-specific commercial eligibility remains unverified. Multi-dwelling structures, triplexes, fourplexes and cottage clusters are capped at one ASTR unit or 25% of units, whichever is greater.

Permits and requirements

Type A Accessory Short-Term Rental (ASTR) Permit $504 per two-year validation/permit cycle; $186 delinquent renewal; applicable reinspection $504 (July 10, 2026 schedule)
City of Portland, Portland Permitting & Development (PP&D)
Renewal: Every two years; renewal opens 60 days before expiry and requires renewed neighborhood notice
For renting up to 2 bedrooms to a maximum of 5 overnight guests; requires the resident to occupy the dwelling at least 270 days/year, mail/deliver a neighbor and neighborhood-association notification letter, and submit resident ID (Oregon driver's license/ID) and property-owner information to PP&D (PCC 33.207.040). A revoked Type A permit cannot be reissued for the dwelling for 2 years (PCC 33.207.040.D). Display the permit in the unit and its number in every listing. A new application is required if the resident is the permit holder and changes, if all owners change, or if bedrooms change outside renewal. The renewal guide allows written updates for resident changes under an owner/operator permit holder and partial ownership changes retaining an original owner. Fees are nonrefundable, including denial.
official source
Type B Accessory Short-Term Rental Conditional Use Review $10,686 Type II; $26,898 Type III existing or $36,126 Type III new; additional applicable reviews/inspections (July 10, 2026)
City of Portland, Portland Permitting & Development, Planning and Zoning Division
Renewal: No renewal required; approval is transferable with sale of the house, but is lost if ASTR operation stops for more than 3 consecutive years
For renting 3-5 bedrooms; same at least 270 day residency rule as Type A (PCC 33.207.050.A.1). Processed as a Type II land-use review, or Type III if the operator proposes commercial meetings/events (up to 24 per year may be approved outside single-dwelling zones where the Type B route is available). The schedule adds $4,257 if PBOT engineering review is required; the listed review totals are not an all-in project quote. Submit plans, a project description, approval-criteria narrative and house rules; approval must be recorded and all conditions satisfied. Renewal/lapse terms are described on the City's permit-maintenance page.
official source
Bedroom Safety Standards (smoke/CO detectors, sleeping-room code compliance) $309 Type B inspection verification for one-/two-dwelling structures; other inspection charges depend on category
City of Portland, Portland Permitting & Development
Renewal: Verified by PP&D for each bedroom at permit issuance (PCC 33.207.040.B.4 / .050.B.4)
Every rented bedroom must have met sleeping-room building-code requirements when created (exempt for bedrooms in multi-dwelling structures and triplexes), have a smoke detector interconnected with one in an adjacent hallway, and be on a floor with a functioning carbon monoxide alarm if the unit has a CO source. Certain older apartment buildings covered by the 1970 Uniform Building Code Chapter 13 are ineligible unless the Fire Marshal determines exitways are sprinkler-protected. Hazards found during inspection must be corrected before guests are admitted. The City webpage describes CO alarms more broadly than the code's no-CO-source exception; confirm applicability with the inspector.
official source
Transient Lodgings Tax Registration / Certificate of Authority Cost not verified
City of Portland Revenue Division
Renewal: Register within 15 calendar days of commencing business; the nontransferable Certificate of Authority must be returned on cessation, sale or transfer of the business at its listed location
Required of every ASTR operator even if all bookings run through a platform that remits tax directly; the certificate must be prominently displayed. For online rent transactions, guests must also be able to view it through a link during payment. Hosts normally file quarterly by the next month's last day unless directed monthly; listed-platform-only bookings have the City's stated filing exception. Closing or stopping all advertising/rentals requires notice to Revenue.
official source
Portland and Multnomah County business tax registration and annual return Cost not verified
City of Portland Revenue Division
Renewal: Register within 60 days; annual return/payment generally with federal/state returns (usually April 15); exemption claims still require supporting returns
Rental of residential real property is business activity. For tax year 2026, the City gross-receipts exemption is under $75,000 from all business activity; the City's nonexempt rate is 2.6% of adjusted net income. The County gross-receipts exemption is under $100,000; individuals whose only business is renting fewer than 10 residential dwelling units also have a County exemption. Applicability and tax due therefore depend on the host's total receipts, entity, unit count, deductions, and apportionment. The City gross-receipts threshold rises to $100,000 in 2027. Metro's separate 1% business income tax applies to nonexempt businesses operating within Metro with worldwide gross receipts over $5 million; sole proprietors and disregarded entities subject to Metro personal income tax are exempt from that business tax. Metro-exempt businesses need not file a Metro business return. Personal income taxes need separate review. Residential-rental registration is a separate program for qualifying units rented or offered for more than 30 consecutive days and subject to Oregon's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act; it is not an automatic fee on every short-term rental.
official source
Operating records and rental restrictions Cost not verified
Portland Permitting & Development
Renewal: Maintain records; provide requested platform transaction data within 30 days
Keep guest names, home addresses, phone numbers, stay dates and headcount. Advertising cannot imply capacity above approval. Type A prohibits commercial meetings and nonresident employees, except ordinary hired maintenance/cleaning. Type B may allow employees and, outside single-dwelling zones, up to 24 approved commercial meetings annually with attendance/date logs; residential appearance and future residential use must be preserved. Both types prohibit Type B home occupations. Tenants may be asked for the owner's written permission. For declared condominiums the City requires the owner's signature, not an HOA signature; private lease terms and association restrictions still apply and need separate review.
official source
Oregon lodging tax account and quarterly returns Cost not verified
Oregon Department of Revenue
Renewal: Quarterly; due the following month's last day, extended to the next business day for weekends/holidays
The party collecting lodging payment must collect/remit tax and file. Register through Revenue Online; filers must submit zero returns when applicable. DOR separately says no return is needed when all bookings are handled by an intermediary and the host will not handle bookings in the foreseeable future. Mandatory service charges are taxable. State exemptions include 30 consecutive days at the same facility and qualifying federal business travel. The fewer-than-30-rental-days annual facility exemption is unavailable for intermediary rentals. Local exemptions and returns are separate.
official source
Building approval for transient lodging Cost not verified
Portland Permitting & Development
Chapter 24.31 requires building approval to establish transient lodging and preserves separate zoning requirements. ENB 13.03 sets additional safety standards for qualifying low-rise townhouses and detached one-/two-family structures. Its scope excludes Chapter 33.207 ASTRs in the same structure as the permanent resident and qualifying detached owner-occupied lodging houses; other structures follow the Oregon Structural Specialty Code. Covered work generally requires sprinklers, with detailed conversion exceptions, plus emergency escape, door/landing, fire-separation, ceiling-height, smoke-alarm and CO requirements. A resident elsewhere on an ADU site does not establish the same-structure exception. Confirm the applicable construction route before relying on ASTR bedroom inspection alone; costs and property-specific work are not established here.
official source

The full picture

Under Portland's accessory-rental rules, an accessory short-term rental is a rental for fewer than 30 consecutive days and requires a long-term resident who occupies the dwelling at least 270 days each year. Type A permits cover no more than two bedrooms and five overnight guests; Type B conditional uses cover three to five bedrooms. The resident may be absent while guests stay for no more than 95 days per year. Commercial transient-lodging situations can follow different zoning rules, so the City is heavily regulated rather than categorically banned. City lodging tax is 6%, Multnomah County tax is 5.5% where applicable, the Portland Tourism Improvement District assessment is 3%, and Portland imposes a $4 nightly short-term-rental fee; Oregon lodging tax is 1.5% for stays ending through 2026, rising to 2.75% for stays ending January 1, 2027 or later. Approved occupancy and the applicable regulatory route depend on the property.

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Portland Transient Lodgings Tax 6% (5% General Fund + 1% Travel Portland/tourism promotion) Taxable lodging within Portland, including 30-day stays unless another exemption applies. Stays over 30 successive days and calendar-month arrangements qualify for the code's exemption; eligible extended stays receive refund/credit for earlier taxed nights. Not verified source
Multnomah County Transient Lodging Tax 5.5% Applicable taxable lodging in the Multnomah County portion of Portland; city and county taxes are remitted to Portland. County guidance exempts stays over 30 successive days or paid monthly; do not equate this with the state's 30-day threshold. Not verified source
Oregon State Transient Lodging Tax 1.5% for stays ending on or before December 31, 2026; 2.75% for stays ending January 1, 2027 or later Taxable Oregon accommodation and mandatory service charges. A stay reaching 30 consecutive days is wholly exempt. The increased rate applies to the entire qualifying stay, including prepaid bookings, based on checkout date; the additional 1.25% must be identified as a nature conservation fee. Not verified source
Portland Tourism Improvement District (TID) Assessment 3% Assessable lodging rents under Chapter 6.05, including the broad booking-agent definition and its specified exemptions. The 3% rate applies to stays after June 30, 2021, not merely reservations made after that date. Passing it to guests requires a separate Portland Tourism Assessment line. Not verified source
Portland Housing and Homelessness Fee (Nightly Fee on Short-Term Rentals) $4 per night per booking Each Portland STR occupancy of 1–30 nights; if it exceeds 30 continuous days, no nightly fee is due for any night and amounts collected must be refunded. Hotel rooms are excluded. Passing the fee to guests requires separately identifying the Portland Housing and Homelessness Fee. Not verified source
City of Portland Business License Tax 2.6% of adjusted net income when not exempt Business activity in Portland, including residential-property rental; 2026 gross-receipts exemption applies below $75,000 from all business activity Not verified source
Multnomah County Business Income Tax 2% of net business income when not exempt Business activity in Multnomah County; exemptions include gross receipts below $100,000 and qualifying individuals whose only business is renting fewer than 10 residential units Not verified source

Enforcement

PenaltiesThe July 10, 2026 schedule sets ASTR citation tiers of $1,829, $5,475 and $9,122, with $9,122 for each additional offense. The City describes stacking up to five violation types ($34,670 at these tiers); older reports use earlier totals. ENB-13.01 permits separate daily violations and other remedies, including revocation. Pay within 15 calendar days of the citation or final review/hearing decision; otherwise fines double, become a property lien and incur an additional 10% lien charge. Request administrative review in writing within 15 calendar days of the citation, with the review fee; a further Code Hearings Office appeal is available. Separately, PCC 6.04.080.G sets $1,000 per transaction/fee violation per day for registry restrictions under 6.04.040.C/D. Lodging-tax delinquency begins at 10%, with further 15% continued-delinquency and 25% fraud penalties on the applicable accumulated balance, plus monthly compounded 1% interest.
Platform liabilityBooking agents and online travel companies must register with the Revenue Division and file monthly transient-lodgings tax and fee reports. Portland's current Revenue page specifically lists Airbnb, TripAdvisor, FlipKey, Vacasa, MisterBNB, Vrbo/HomeAway, and Loftium as booking agents that collect and remit transient-lodgings taxes; its booking-agent table marks only Airbnb as a 100% TID remitter, but the accompanying TID instructions concern hotel/motel bookings and must not be treated as proof of each platform's STR treatment. For reservations made exclusively through listed platforms, the host must register but need not file separate transient-lodgings reports; direct bookings and unlisted platforms leave filing and remittance with the host. Because collection status varies by platform and component, the tax-row collectedByPlatform scalars remain null. PCC 6.04.040.C/D restrict bookings, rent and ancillary-service fees for unregistered rentals, with a qualifying pass-through data-sharing agreement exception. Violations—not ordinary late tax payment—carry $1,000 per transaction/fee violation per day under 6.04.080.G.
NotesThe March 2026 Ombudsman report recommended warnings, reduced first-time fines and broader rule changes. Those recommendations are not themselves enacted rules; their later disposition remains unverified. Commercial Retail Sales and Service rentals also fall under ENB-13.01 and cannot operate before final use/occupancy inspection approval.

Proposals and updates on record

Statuses reflect the review date above. A listed date may have passed; check the linked source for the current status.

  • The March 4, 2026 Ombudsman report recommended a first-time warning, a lower first-time fine cap, proactive enforcement, reconsidered permit pricing and a hard 95-day booking cap even when the resident is present. These were recommendations, not adopted regulations in that report; subsequent disposition remains unverified. — Proposed, [official]
  • Oregon DOR announces lodging tax of 2.75% for stays ending January 1, 2027 or later (up from 1.5%). It applies to the entire stay even when booked/prepaid earlier; the additional 1.25% must be labeled a nature conservation fee. — Passed, not yet effective, [official]

What we could not verify (10)

  • Commercial lodging is a separate approval route, not a waiver of zoning or building requirements. Section 33.207.030 makes Retail Sales and Service classification mandatory for rentals of three or more bedrooms in commercial/mixed-use, employment and industrial zones; Type B conditional use is unavailable there. Confirm parcel-specific use, change-of-use and final inspection approvals.
  • No current official source reviewed established an ASTR-specific liability-insurance mandate.
  • A comprehensive Oregon state-preemption and current Portland ASTR litigation search was not completed.
  • Portland lists actual transient-lodgings remitters and a reporting exception for STR hosts using only listed platforms. Its separate 100%-TID tables discuss hotel/motel bookings; do not generalize those rows to every STR booking. All collectedByPlatform scalars remain null pending platform- and component-specific confirmation.
  • The unhosted and primary-residence fields must account for 95-day resident absences, ADUs and distinct commercial lodging routes; parcel-specific commercial approvals remain unverified. Guest counts depend on permit category and approval, so max_guests is null.
  • Confirm City/County tax boundaries for the address, and applicability of Metro income taxes, residential rental registration, minimum business taxes and other business surcharges; these are not a flat lodging-tax total.
  • City guest-limit/CO-alarm guidance differs in specificity from the code: Type B headcount is fixed through conditional-use review, and code exempts CO alarms where no CO source exists. Confirm approved capacity and inspection conditions.
  • The Ombudsman's March 2026 proposals are not enactments; their later disposition and any subsequent code/rule changes remain unverified.
  • Fee schedules establish listed review and inspection charges, not an all-in property quote; confirm review classification, additional bureau work and any later schedule change.
  • Chapter 24.31 and ENB 13.03 may impose building-permit and additional fire/life-safety requirements, especially where the permanent resident occupies a different structure. Confirm classification, conversion exceptions, construction scope and fees with PP&D; ASTR zoning approval alone does not settle these questions.

Sources

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /portland-or.md for AI tools and researchers.

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.