STR Rulebook
Cities / Boston, MA

Boston, MA short-term rental rules

Read from official city pages on 2026-10-23

Boston prices the licence by how much of the home you give up — $25 a year to rent a spare room while you are there, $200 to rent the whole unit. Either way the property has to be your primary residence for nine months of the year.

Can you run a short-term rental in Boston, MA?
Yes, with a licence — only in your primary residence, capped at 365 rental days a year.

1. Can you operate here?

Permit required
Yes[1]
Primary residence
Required — 9 of 12 months[1]Limited Share and Home Share units must be the owner-operator's primary residence. An Owner-Adjacent unit must sit in the same property as that primary residence.
Unit limit
One whole unit rented at a time[1]
Night limits
Up to 365 nights per year[1]Stays of 28 consecutive days or longer are outside the short-term rental definition and are not counted against the 365.
All 10 figures above are published by the city and linked to the page that states them. These are the figures the city publishes — not a determination that a particular property may operate. Zoning, building occupancy class, lease terms and HOA rules sit outside this page and can bar a rental that otherwise holds a licence.

2. What the licence takes

Licence
Short-term rental registration — Limited Share, Home Share or Owner-Adjacent[1]
Fee — new
Tiered by unit type[1]
TypeAnnual fee
Limited Share$25 per year
Home Share$200 per year
Owner-Adjacent$200 per year
Lodging houses and bed and breakfasts register without a fee.
Fee — renewal
Same annual fee[1]The city publishes one annual fee per unit type rather than a separate renewal rate.
Term
1 year, renewed annually[1]

3. What it costs

Occupancy tax
  • Massachusetts room occupancy excise[2]5.7%
  • Boston local option[2]6.5%
  • Convention center funding[2]2.75%
  • Community impact fee — short-term rentals only[2]up to 3%
Combined rate14.95% before any community impact fee
The Commonwealth publishes the components and the Boston local rate, but not a combined Boston figure — 14.95% here is the sum of those three components, not a number the state prints. The community impact fee is optional and the state page does not say whether Boston has adopted it, so it is listed as a separate item rather than added to the total.
If you operate without one
License suspended while a violation exists[1]The page states suspension rather than a fine schedule.

Other rules that apply

Occupancy caps

Limited Share: 3 guest bedrooms or 6 guests, whichever is fewer. Home Share: 5 bedrooms or 10 guests, whichever is fewer.[1]

Local contact

A local person must be able to respond in person within two hours of being notified of an issue.[1]

Business certificate

After the application is reviewed and paid, a business certificate must be obtained from the City Clerk's office.[1]

Abutter notice

Every residential dwelling within 300 feet must be notified within 30 days of the license being issued.[1]

Eligibility exclusions

A unit cannot be income-restricted, subject to affordability covenants, the subject of three or more qualifying violations in six months, or inside a designated Problem Property.[1]

Compare this city with the others: can you operate · occupancy tax · licence cost.

Sources, and the wording behind the key figures

Each bracketed number above points to the entry below. Where a sentence is quoted it is the city's own wording — the exact text the figure was read from. Figures whose sentence is not reproduced here still carry a bracketed reference — follow it to the source page for the exact wording.

  1. 1City of Boston — Inspectional Services, Short-Term Rentalsprimary
    There are three types of short-term rental units that may be offered up to 365 days per year.
    The fee for this type of unit is $25 per year. Occupancy is limited to three guest bedrooms or six guests, whichever is fewer.
    A short-term rental is the use of a residential unit for residential occupancy — for a period of fewer than 28 consecutive calendar days — for a fee.
    To be considered a primary residence, an owner needs to live in the property for at least nine months out of a 12-month period.
  2. 2Massachusetts Department of Revenue — Room occupancy exciseprimary
    The state's room occupancy excise tax rate is 5.7%. Note that while the statute provides for a 5% rate, an uncodified surtax adds .7% to that rate.
    In addition to the state excise, Massachusetts cities and towns are permitted to charge a local room occupancy excise tax up to 6% (6.5% for Boston).
    In the cities of Boston, Worcester, Cambridge, Springfield, West Springfield, and Chicopee, an additional 2.75% tax is charged for convention center funding.
    Beginning July 1, 2019, for short-term rentals only, cities and towns are permitted to charge an additional community impact fee up to 3%
If a figure above differs from the page it cites, the official page is correct and this page is out of date. Report it to [email protected].

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