Chatham County, Georgia Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Chatham County, Georgia and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that short-term renting is legal right across the county, and Georgia has no state law that lets anyone take that away from you. The awkward part is timing, because on July 10, 2026 the county commission voted to stop accepting new short-term vacation rental applications in unincorporated Chatham County altogether. WTOC's report from that meeting puts the pause at 120 days, and Savannah Agenda's write-up of that week dates its expiry to November 7 unless commissioners lift it sooner.

That freeze only reaches the unincorporated county, mind you, and Chatham is a patchwork. Savannah, Tybee Island, Pooler, Garden City, Port Wentworth, Bloomingdale, Thunderbolt and Vernonburg all sit inside the county line, and since Georgia hands short-term rental authority to local government and nowhere else, each of them answers the question on its own terms. Two of them answer it more strictly than the county does. So Savannah caps non-owner-occupied rentals at 20% of the parcels in each ward of its downtown and Victorian historic districts, and most of those wards are already full. Then there's Tybee Island. The city stopped issuing new certificates in its main residential zones back in 2022, spent three years defending that in court, and won in August 2026.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: which ordinance covers your address, what a license costs and how long it lasts, the paperwork the county wants in the folder, the layers of tax stacked on a single night's stay, how hard any of it gets enforced, and who to call when something doesn't fit. Every figure below comes from Chatham County's own code, the county's application packet, the City of Savannah's pages or Georgia's Department of Revenue, checked in July 2026, and where a number is still moving I've said so. Assuming you're weighing Chatham against somewhere else to buy, run both through BNBCalc before you commit to either.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Chatham County

Working out which government you answer to is the first job, then, and for a good number of Chatham owners the answer is the county itself. Article XIII of the Chatham County Code regulates property "in unincorporated Chatham County that is leased, rented or otherwise traded for money for a short term rental of less than 30 consecutive days," and it took effect on July 1, 2020 after the commission adopted it that March. Assuming your parcel sits inside one of the county's cities instead, this chapter isn't your rulebook and that city's ordinance is. Plenty of unincorporated addresses read "Savannah, GA" in the post, so do check the parcel rather than the mail.

Unfortunately for anyone who was about to buy in the unincorporated county, that is exactly where the door is shut. New applications aren't being accepted or processed until the moratorium lapses, so a purchase that only pencils out at nightly rates is a purchase with no legal way to earn until November at the earliest. Renewals carry on as normal, and so do applications that were already in the queue before the vote, which means the existing licensed stock keeps trading while nothing new joins it. Keep in mind that a moratorium can be extended as easily as it was passed, and commissioners have been rewriting this ordinance since spring, so nobody can promise you the November date holds.

Even once the county reopens, two rules knock out a large slice of the people who ask about this, and the first of them is ownership. Section 16-1304 says flatly that "all applicants must have an ownership interest" and that "renters of real property are not eligible for short term rental license," so the arbitrage play of leasing a house and re-letting it nightly has no legal route here at all.

The second rule is capacity, and it's the one that decides what the property can earn. The county defines the occupancy rate as no more than two adults per bedroom plus two additional adults, which puts a three-bedroom house at eight adults and a two-bedroom at six, and a fire inspector signs off on that occupancy load before your certificate issues.

Then there's the insurance floor, which catches people who assumed a standard homeowner's policy would do. The county wants structural coverage at least equal to the value of the building or $300,000, whichever applies, and the declarations page has to name the unit as a rental property. Make sure you have that conversation with your insurer early, because a policy endorsement can take longer than the rest of the application put together.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Chatham County

Assuming your property clears those tests and you're able to apply once the county reopens, the license itself is still cheap by national standards. Chatham County charges $350 per establishment for a new short-term rental certificate and the same $350 to renew, according to the county's short-term rental certificate packet as of July 2026, and a separate certificate is needed for each rental unit you own. The Department of Building Safety & Regulatory Services issues it, and you'll also complete an occupation registration with the same office, priced off gross receipts on a schedule that starts at $82 to $89 for a business turning over up to $30,000 a year and includes a $75 administrative fee.

Watch the renewal date, because the ordinance argues with itself here. Section 16-1304 says a license runs until the next June 30 with no proration, while section 16-1305 says renew annually by July 1. The county's own packet then says certificates are "renewable annually by June 30th," and a further line in section 16-1305 says a renewed license is valid for one year from the date it's granted. The safe reading is the one everyone agrees on: get the renewal in before June 30 and don't test which sentence a hearing officer prefers.

A license here is also tied to you and to that one address. It's non-transferable, a new owner has to apply fresh rather than inherit yours, and every advertisement has to carry a valid license number and stay inside the scope of what you applied for. Once granted, you post the license inside the unit where guests can see it, plus a separate sign listing the parking rules, the occupancy rate, the noise restrictions and a local emergency contact who answers 24 hours. That contact isn't decorative either, since the packet requires the agent to appear on the premises within 24 hours of a call from the fire inspector or county staff.

Your records matter more than most people expect, since the ordinance makes you keep enough paperwork to show the taxes were collected and handed over, held until a year past expiration, or for three years before the current license's renewal date once you've renewed at least once. Chatham also reserves a right to audit "all financial and related records," in whatever form they're kept, which is a broader clause than the usual tax-return language.

The two big city regimes work differently, and the difference is availability rather than price. Savannah's short-term vacation rental regulations confine STVRs to a zoning overlay covering the Downtown, Victorian and Streetcar local historic districts, then cap non-owner-occupied parcels at 20% per ward inside the Downtown and Victorian districts, a rule that has run since September 29, 2017. The city publishes the list of wards already at cap, and as of its June 2026 page nearly every ward in both districts is on it, which leaves a waiting-list form rather than an application.

Price isn't the obstacle in Savannah, then. Availability is. The city's application page puts the new certificate fee at $400 and the annual renewal at $250, both non-refundable, with a Business Tax Certificate from the Revenue Department required before the STVR certificate issues. Occupancy, meanwhile, runs to four adults in a unit of two bedrooms or fewer, then two adults per bedroom once you're at three or more.

Tybee Island is stricter still. The city's short-term rentals page states that it "will not issue new STR certificates to properties located in R-1, R-1B or R-2 zoning districts," which is most of the island's residential land, and existing holders elsewhere renew in a window that ran January 1 to March 31 before being extended to May 31 for 2026. Be aware that a Tybee certificate you buy along with a house is not automatically yours to keep, so read the renewal conditions before you price the deal.

Required Documents for Chatham County Short-Term Rentals

Since that $350 buys you a review rather than a guaranteed yes, it's worth assembling the folder properly the first time. The county is blunt about this in its packet: an application won't be accepted at all unless every listed document is attached. Here's what unincorporated Chatham asks a new applicant to bring.

• The completed STR application, in full, including the property identification number and the details of every partner, officer or director if the owner isn't a natural person.
• A Life Safety Compliance Verification form, covering a 10-ABC portable fire extinguisher, garbage removal service, and a diagram and location for any swimming pool or hot tub that has to meet state enclosure requirements.
• The Regulation form, which becomes the sign you post on site with parking rules, occupancy load, noise restrictions and a 24-hour local emergency contact.
• A notarized HOA affidavit, either attesting that your homeowners association has approved the use or that no association approval is required. A county license doesn't override a covenant, and the affidavit exists to make sure you know it.
• Photo identification for every applicant, agent and representative.
• Proof of ownership, such as a deed or tax record, plus a current ad valorem tax receipt from the Chatham County Tax Commissioner showing property taxes paid in full.
• Proof of homeowner's insurance naming the owner, the rental address and the policy dates, and showing the property is used as a short-term rental.
• A current trash pick-up invoice and a current fire service invoice, since weekly waste collection in secured containers and a fire subscription both have to be maintained for the life of the license.
• A parking diagram, which is also what the county enforces against later.
• Proof of advertisement with a marketplace innkeeper for hotel/motel tax collection, or copies of the returns you file directly.
• Two notarized affidavits on first application only, one verifying immigration status for a county public benefit under O.C.G.A. § 50-36-1 and one on E-Verify compliance under O.C.G.A. § 36-60-6.

Four separate desks then sign the file before anything issues. The Zoning Administrator confirms the location is properly zoned for the use, a fire inspector sets the occupancy load, and the Tax Commissioner verifies your taxes are current while flagging any homestead or Stephen's Day exemption on the parcel. Then the Chatham County Police Department reviews the application for illegal activity at the property, looking back two years or to the day you bought it, whichever period is longer.

Chatham County Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming the folder clears and you manage to get a license in hand, there's still the tax stack to work through. Three separate charges attach to any single night, administered by two different governments, and the local one changes depending on which side of a city line you sit.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Hotel/motel excise tax, unincorporated Chatham County	6%	Chatham County Finance Department
Hotel/motel excise tax, City of Savannah	8%	City of Savannah Revenue Department
Local occupational room tax, Tybee Island	7%	City of Tybee Island Finance Department
State hotel-motel fee	$5.00 per night	Georgia Department of Revenue
State and local sales tax, Chatham County	7%	Georgia Department of Revenue

The county's own excise sits in Article IV of Chapter 16 at 6% of taxable lodging charges in unincorporated Chatham, and the county's hotel/motel and short-term rental return is due to the Finance Department by the 20th of the following month. Two details on that form are easy to miss, though, because operators who pay on time keep a 3% collection discount, while a return is due every month even when there's no tax to report. Quiet January, empty return. File it anyway, since skipping the month is how plenty of small hosts pick up a delinquency fee.

Savannah runs at 8% instead, and its local and state taxes page traces that rate to September 1, 2023, when the city moved to a different state authorization clause. Either way, the tax stops once a guest passes 30 consecutive days, because the county ordinance exempts accommodation "furnished for a period of more than thirty (30) consecutive days," alongside meeting rooms and Georgia officials traveling on official business.

Most hosts never touch any of this, and that's worth understanding rather than assuming. Since July 1, 2021 the county has made marketplace innkeepers responsible for collecting and remitting the tax on bookings they facilitate, which is why the application asks for proof of your contract with one. Airbnb and Vrbo both operate well past Georgia's $100,000 marketplace-innkeeper threshold in Rule 560-13-2-.01, so a host booking exclusively through them generally isn't filing anything. Take one direct booking outside a platform, though, and the duty comes straight back to you, along with the monthly return.

On top of the local excise sit two state charges. Georgia's state hotel-motel fee is a flat $5.00 for every night an accommodation is rented, and it stops once a guest reaches 31 consecutive nights. Sales tax runs at 4% statewide plus the local add-on, and the Department of Revenue's rate chart effective July 1, 2026 puts Chatham County's combined rate at 7%. Both are collected by the platform under the same marketplace-innkeeper rules, and both fall on you directly the moment they aren't.

Potential Tax Deductions

Your rental income is ordinary taxable income, and the deductions that go against it are federal rather than anything Chatham County administers. The usual candidates are mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities, cleaning and turnover costs, repairs, supplies, platform fees, and depreciation on the building and the furnishings. Several of the county's own requirements are deductible business expenses in their own right, incidentally, including the $350 certificate, the occupation registration, the fire subscription, the weekly trash service and the added insurance. Do check the personal-use rules with an accountant before you claim a full year, since a property you also stay in yourself gets apportioned, and the split is rarely as clean as a spreadsheet suggests.

Georgia Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

The reason those tax rates differ from one side of a city line to the other is the same reason the licensing rules do, which is that Georgia has essentially stayed out of this. There's no statewide preemption statute, no statewide short-term rental license, and no state registry. Zoning, permitting, occupancy caps and every registration requirement are set by the individual city or county, and the practical effect across 159 counties is enormous variation. Our Georgia statewide guide maps the overall picture, while the Athens-Clarke County guide and the Fulton County guide show how differently two other Georgia jurisdictions have answered the same question.

Even the tax rates come out of a state formula, since O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51 lets a local government levy up to 3% of lodging charges by simple ordinance and up to 8% only where it has adopted the right resolution and the General Assembly has passed a local Act authorizing the higher rate. So Chatham County at 6% and Savannah at 8% are two different points on that same ladder.

Then there's one genuinely new obligation that arrived this year, and it applies whether or not your city requires a permit. SB 570, the Georgia Human Trafficking Prevention Training Act, took effect on July 1, 2026. The enrolled bill text adds O.C.G.A. § 43-21-16 and reaches "every operator of a short-term rental property," which means completing an approved human-trafficking-awareness training within 60 days of starting to operate and once a year after that, adopting a policy for reporting suspected trafficking, complying with the posting requirement in O.C.G.A. § 16-5-47, and keeping training records for three years after you stop operating. Willful violations run $500, then $1,000, then $2,000. Don't forget this one, because it sits outside your county paperwork entirely and nothing in the Chatham application will remind you it exists.

There is one more piece of Georgia law worth knowing, and Chatham County happens to be where it got tested. O.C.G.A. § 36-74-30 says that a local government may not "require the registration of residential rental property" under the code enforcement board chapter, so a group of Tybee Island owners built a four-year lawsuit on the argument that short-term rentals are residential rental property and the island's permit scheme was therefore unlawful.

They lost. On August 6, 2026 a judge dismissed the case, reasoning that short-term rentals lack the "relatively continuous physical presence" that would make a property residential. That's a trial court rather than the last word, yet as things stand it leaves Georgia cities and counties free to keep licensing, and it's the reason the ordinance you're reading about is on firmer ground this year than it was last.

Does Chatham County Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

That ruling matters across Chatham because it removed the main legal argument against enforcing any of this, and enforcement in the county has been getting firmer rather than softer. The moratorium is the clearest signal of all, since a government that was relaxed about short-term rentals wouldn't stop taking applications while it rewrote the rules.

The county's enforcement machinery is complaint-driven and quicker than most. Three or more complaints to Building Safety or the County Manager about code, state law or ordinance violations that amount to "a danger to the peace or welfare of the community" trigger a compliance investigation, and the County Manager can suspend a license outright while it runs, for up to 30 days without a hearing. Chatham County Police forward any report from a short-term rental straight to Building Safety, so a single loud weekend can start that clock.

Revocation is the step past suspension, and it follows substantiated noise, drug or criminal complaints where arrests lead to convictions, unpaid hotel/motel or sales tax, occupancy breaches, parking violations, or any false statement on the application. A revoked property then gets no new license for 12 months. Appeals go in writing to the County Manager, whose decision is final, so there's no independent board to fall back on.

The fines themselves are modest, which cuts both ways. Operating without a license for more than a single night draws a citation, an immediate cease and desist order, and a fine of half the license fee, so $175 as the fee stands. Exceeding your parking allocation or breaching the noise ordinance costs not less than $100 each, and exceeding the occupancy rate not less than $150. Next to a weekend's revenue, that is not a deterrent. The county knows it too, which is why the lever that bites here is the license rather than the ticket.

Expect more of both. Marcus Lotson, assistant director of Building Safety & Regulatory Services, told WTOC in April 2026 that the county is committed to increasing enforcement alongside the police department. And the amendments under discussion at the time went further still, adding minimum distances between new licenses, lower occupancy for houses on septic than on sewer, and a posted outdoor notice at every rental.

Savannah pushes harder still, though, and it starts with visibility. The city runs a vacation rental complaint portal alongside a 24/7 complaint hotline on 912-226-0320, and its short-term vacation rental chapter treats three code violations against a property in 12 consecutive months as more than a fine. Because at that point the city revokes pending certificates and rejects applications for that address for a further 12 months. Underneath that, the fine ladder runs $500, then $750, then $1,000 for a second and third violation inside a year, and the ordinance says those amounts may not be waived or reduced. Savannah's rental agent also gets two hours rather than 24 to appear on site once the city calls, so an out-of-town manager doesn't work there the way it might in the county.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Chatham County

Given how much of the above turns on a single fact about your address, the order of these steps matters more than it looks. The early ones tell you whether the later ones are worth paying for.

1. Find out which jurisdiction the parcel is in, before anything else. Unincorporated county, Savannah, Tybee Island and the smaller municipalities are four different rulebooks, and the county's ordinance only reaches unincorporated land.
2. Check whether that jurisdiction is open. Unincorporated Chatham isn't accepting new applications until the moratorium lifts, and most Savannah wards in the historic overlay districts are at their 20% cap and running a waiting list instead.
3. Confirm you can hold the license at all. Chatham requires an ownership interest, so tenants are out, and your ad valorem taxes need to be paid in full before an application will move.
4. Read your covenants, HOA rules or condominium declaration. The county makes you swear an affidavit either way, and a license never overrides a private restriction.
5. Line up insurance early. You need structural cover at the greater of building value or $300,000, with the declarations naming the unit as a rental property.
6. Set up the services the county checks: weekly trash collection in secured containers, a fire subscription, a 10-ABC extinguisher, and compliant enclosures on any pool or hot tub.
7. Name a local 24-hour contact who can be on the premises within a day of a call, and put that person's details on both the application and the posted sign.
8. Apply and pay the $350, with the notarized affidavits, the ownership proof, the tax receipt, the parking diagram and the service invoices attached.
9. Sort the tax side before your first guest. Confirm your platform is collecting the county's 6% as a marketplace innkeeper, and register with the Georgia Tax Center if you'll ever take a booking outside one.
10. Book the human-trafficking training within 60 days of starting to operate, then diarize the annual repeat and the June 30 license renewal in the same place.

Who to Contact in Chatham County about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, the office that owns your problem depends on the same jurisdiction split you started with. Knowing which one to call saves an irritating amount of time on hold.

Licensing in unincorporated Chatham County

The Chatham County Department of Building Safety & Regulatory Services issues short-term rental certificates and occupation registrations, and it's the first call about applications, renewals and the moratorium.

• Address: 1117 Eisenhower Drive, Suite D, Savannah, GA 31406
• Mailing: P.O. Box 8161, Savannah, GA 31412-8161
• Phone: 912-201-4300, fax 912-201-4301
• Occupational tax: 912-201-4302
• Online: buildingsafety.chathamcountyga.gov, where the counter closes at 4 p.m.

County hotel/motel tax

The Chatham County Finance Department takes the 6% excise return and the payment behind it.

• Phone: 912-652-7910
• Returns and payments: P.O. Box 9297, Savannah, GA 31412
• Office: 124 Bull Street, Suite 210, Savannah, GA 31401, main line 912-652-7175
• Form: the hotel/motel and short-term rental tax return, due by the 20th

Zoning questions

Zoning for both unincorporated Chatham County and the City of Savannah runs through the Chatham County - Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, not through either government's own staff.

• Address: 110 East State Street, Savannah, GA 31401
• Phone: 912-651-1440
• Hours: through September 7, 2026, Monday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Friday 8:00 a.m. to noon
• Online: thempc.org, which publishes the county zoning ordinance section by section

Savannah and Tybee Island

Savannah's STVR certificates are handled by Planning and Urban Design at 2 East Bay Street (P.O. Box 1027), Savannah, GA 31401, with complaints going to the 24/7 line on 912-226-0320 and hotel/motel tax to the city's Revenue Department. On Tybee Island, the city takes short-term rental questions at [email protected] or 912-472-5089 during the day, with 912-786-5600 after hours.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Chatham County on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those phone numbers get busy for a reason, and the mood among owners here has been noticeably tense through 2026. What follows is my read of the documented public record, the county workshops, the litigation and the news coverage, rather than any kind of survey, so do weigh it accordingly.

• Owners in this county organize, and sometimes they sue. The Tybee Alliance case ran four years and went to the heart of whether a Georgia city can license a rental at all. Losing it in August 2026 removed the argument that a lot of Chatham owners had been quietly relying on.
• The pushback in the unincorporated county is coming from neighbors, not investors. The commission postponed its ordinance vote in May 2026 after two community meetings, held a public workshop that June, and then paused new licenses entirely in July. Noise, parties, parking, density and septic capacity are the complaints that keep surfacing in the coverage of those meetings.
• Enforcement, not rulemaking, is the recurring host complaint. One resident told WTOC in April that the county has to enforce what's already on the books before adding more, and county staff answered by promising more enforcement rather than fewer rules. Expect the next ordinance to be tighter and better policed, not looser.
• The jurisdiction confusion is real and it costs people money. Savannah's ward caps, Tybee's zoning bar and the county's moratorium are three different obstacles that get discussed as though they were one "Savannah" rule, and buyers who don't separate them tend to find out after closing.

The broader lesson generalizes past Chatham entirely. When a place is rewriting its rules, what hurts an owner is almost never the fine schedule. It's the year when nobody can get a license at all, and that risk never shows up in a nightly rate. So underwrite the pause. And if you want to see how the rest of the state compares before you commit anywhere, the Georgia market is a sensible place to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Chatham County, Georgia in 2026?

Yes, though it depends entirely on which jurisdiction your property sits in. Unincorporated Chatham County licenses short-term rentals under Article XIII of its code, but stopped accepting new applications on July 10, 2026, with the pause scheduled to end on November 7. Existing licenses continue to renew normally. Savannah issues certificates only inside its historic overlay districts, subject to a 20% per-ward cap, and Tybee Island no longer issues new certificates in its main residential zones.

How much does a Chatham County short-term rental license cost?

Unincorporated Chatham County charges $350 per establishment for a new short-term vacation rental certificate and $350 again each year to renew, plus an occupation registration priced on gross receipts that starts at $82 to $89 in the lowest bracket. A separate certificate is required for each rental unit. Savannah charges $400 for a new certificate and $250 to renew, and requires a Business Tax Certificate before the STVR certificate issues.

What taxes do you pay on a short-term rental in Chatham County?

Unincorporated Chatham County levies a 6% hotel/motel excise tax, Savannah levies 8%, and Tybee Island levies a 7% occupational room tax. On top of that sit Georgia's $5.00 per night state hotel-motel fee and combined state and local sales tax of 7% in Chatham County. Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit all of these as marketplace innkeepers, so a host booking only through a platform usually files nothing. Direct bookings put the returns back on the host, due by the 20th of the following month.

Can renters or out-of-state owners get a Chatham County short-term rental license?

Renters cannot. Section 16-1304 of the Chatham County Code requires every applicant to hold an ownership interest and states that renters of real property are not eligible, which rules out rental arbitrage in the unincorporated county. Out-of-state owners can apply, since the ordinance requires ownership rather than residence, but you must name a local point of contact able to reach the property within 24 hours of a call from county staff or the fire inspector.

What happens if you run a short-term rental in Chatham County without a license?

Operating unlicensed for more than one night brings a citation, an immediate cease and desist order and a fine of half the license fee, currently $175. The bigger exposure is the licensing consequence rather than the ticket. Three or more substantiated complaints trigger a compliance investigation and can suspend a license for up to 30 days, revocation follows convictions, tax non-payment or a false statement, and a revoked address gets no new license for 12 months.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.