Maryland Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Maryland and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that the state itself isn't the obstacle. Maryland has no statewide ban on short-term rentals, and lawmakers said as much in writing this year. The catch is that Maryland hands almost every real decision, whether you can rent at all, what licence you need, how the property gets inspected, to your county or to Baltimore City, so "Maryland allows it" and "your ZIP code allows it" can be two very different answers.

That local-control setup isn't an accident. Public Safety § 9-1106, added this year by Chapter 9 of 2026, says plainly that nothing in the state's new fire-safety law requires a county or Baltimore City to authorize short-term rentals, or stops one from piling its own rules on top. Two bills that would've carved out a narrower, statewide protection for hosts, HB 993 and its companion SB 666, both died in 2026 despite HB 993 clearing the House 102-31 in March. So counties still hold the leash, and they use it differently: Baltimore City, for one, stopped issuing new licences for unhosted rentals back in 2020, while plenty of other jurisdictions remain far more permissive.

So this guide sticks to what actually applies everywhere in Maryland: the state tax layers, the new fire-safety law that reaches every rental in the state starting October 1, 2026, and the general shape of what your county will ask of you. For the fee schedules and zoning specifics where you own property, the county guides linked throughout this piece go a lot deeper than a statewide overview ever could. Everything below comes from Maryland's own statutes and agency pages, checked in July 2026, and I've flagged the handful of things that are still moving. If you're deciding between a Maryland property and one somewhere else entirely, run the numbers on both through BNBCalc before you commit to either.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Maryland?

Running that comparison only tells half the story, though, because the rules themselves decide whether a Maryland property is even legal to operate the way you're picturing it.

Start with what Maryland's statutes call the thing you're building. Under Tax-General § 11-101, a short-term rental is the temporary use of a "short-term rental unit," meaning a residential dwelling or a portion of one, to house transient guests for money. That covers a single-family house, a multifamily building, an apartment, a condo, or a co-op, so it's not a loophole-friendly definition. Almost anything you'd list on Airbnb falls inside it.

What Maryland does not have is a single state licence that makes you legal everywhere. No statute creates a state STR permit, registry or inspection body, and Chapter 9 of 2026 confirms it by handing inspection duty to counties rather than to any state agency. You may run into commercial blogs claiming there's a statewide "Maryland Short-Term Rental Commission" that charges a $100 annual fee. I went looking for it in the Comptroller's publications, the Department of Legislative Services' bill files and the Annotated Code itself, and it appears nowhere. Treat that claim as false until someone can point to the law that created it.

Two things do reach every host in the state regardless of county, though, and both are recent.

The first is a genuine, if narrow, tax preemption. Local Government § 20-403(c), added by Chapter 638 of 2025, says state tax law "shall prevail to the extent of any conflict" with a local hotel-tax ordinance, meaning counties keep setting their own rates but administer them the state's way. It takes effect July 1, 2027, so it hasn't changed anything yet.

The second is the Jillian and Lindsay Wiener Short-Term Rental Fire Safety Act, Chapter 9 of 2026, and it's the bigger deal for anyone hosting today. It applies to any unit rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days, and starting October 1, 2026 it requires every host to post an evacuation diagram and a list of emergency phone numbers inside the unit, keep a working fire extinguisher on hand, and provide working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Where a unit needs more than one smoke alarm, they have to be interconnected so that one going off sets off all of them, unless the State Fire Marshal has approved an alternative. Any alarm gets replaced once it stops working, turns ten years old, or has no production date stamped on it at all. Booking services have their own duty too: they must notify every host of these requirements electronically and collect proof of compliance from them. None of that is optional, and none of it depends on which county you're in.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Maryland

That fire-safety law applies no matter where you buy, but almost everything else about getting started depends entirely on your specific address, so that's the first thing to nail down before you spend a dollar.

Confirm two things before anything else: whether your county or Baltimore City permits short-term rentals in your zoning district at all, and whether it distinguishes between a hosted stay, where you're present, and an unhosted whole-home rental. That distinction matters more in Maryland than in most states, because several jurisdictions have quietly tightened around it. Baltimore City is the clearest example: since March 31, 2020, it has issued no new licences for unhosted units, only for hosted rentals where the property is your principal residence. Existing unhosted licences can still renew, but a new investor who buys a Baltimore rowhouse so they can run it as a whole-home Airbnb can't get licensed at all under current rules. That gate is real. Anyone weighing whether to buy in Baltimore versus elsewhere in the state should read that alongside our guide to Maryland rental property investment before assuming the numbers will pencil out the way they would in a more permissive county.

If your plan depends on renting out a property you lease rather than own, be aware there's currently no statewide protection for that arrangement. HB 993 would've barred a county from banning short-term rentals run by a lessee or sub-lessee outright, while still letting the county cap them at one unit per person, and it came close: it passed the House 102-31 before stalling in the Senate. Until something like it becomes law, your ability to sublet short-term depends entirely on your lease and your specific county's code, not on any statewide right.

Once you know your zoning and hosting model are workable, check your HOA or condo documents too, since plenty of Maryland communities restrict or ban short-term rentals privately even where the county allows them. Do make sure you read those bylaws before you buy or convert a property, because a licence from your county won't override a private covenant that says otherwise.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Maryland

Assuming your zoning and your lease or deed clear that first hurdle, licensing is where the state and local layers meet, and it's worth understanding both before you file anything.

There is genuinely no state-issued STR licence to apply for. The one state-level registration that does apply to most hosts is a sales and use tax licence from the Comptroller, required under Tax-General § 11-702 for anyone engaging in business as a retail vendor, which a host taking direct bookings counts as. No fee appears anywhere in Title 11, Subtitle 7, and there's no renewal cycle to remember: under § 11-706, the licence stays effective until you surrender it or the Comptroller revokes it for cause. Registration and filing both run through Maryland Tax Connect.

Local licensing is where the real variation lives, and Baltimore City's rules are a useful worked example precisely because they're stricter than most. A Baltimore City short-term rental is any rental of all or part of a home for under 90 nights, and to get licensed you need the property to be your principal residence, deeded in your own name rather than a company's, and clear of open code violations. Applications run through the city's online portal under the authority of Ordinance 19-217, and our Baltimore guide walks through that whole process step by step. Other Maryland counties set their own thresholds, fees and eligibility rules, and each does it separately. That's exactly why the Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Prince George's County, Montgomery County and Harford County guides exist as separate pieces rather than folded into this one.

Layered on top of all of that is the inspection regime Chapter 9 creates, and it arrives on a real deadline. By July 1, 2028, every county and Baltimore City that allows short-term rentals has to require an annual inspection against the new fire-safety standards, and it may charge a fee to cover the cost. It may also delegate the work to a qualified third party who meets the State Fire Marshal's standards and carries a nationally recognized fire-safety certification, though a jurisdiction that bans short-term rentals outright is exempt from building any of it. Since the deadline is still almost two years out, most counties have nothing built yet, so check with your specific county's licensing or fire marshal office for what exists today rather than assuming.

Required Documents for Maryland Short-Term Rentals

Since your county sets its own licensing paperwork on top of the state layer, the exact document list varies, but a handful of items show up almost everywhere and are worth gathering before you apply anywhere in Maryland.

• Your sales and use tax licence number, once you've registered through Maryland Tax Connect.
• Proof of your relationship to the property. Many counties, Baltimore City included, want to see that the unit is your principal residence and that the deed is in your name individually rather than an LLC's, plus confirmation there are no open code violations against the property.
• Your local STR licence application, filed with your specific county's or Baltimore City's housing or permitting office.
• An evacuation diagram and a posted list of emergency phone numbers, which the Wiener Act requires you to post and keep current in the unit throughout every stay, not merely file once at application.
• Proof of a working fire extinguisher and working, correctly installed smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, interconnected if your unit needs more than one, and dated so you can show none is over ten years old.
• HOA or condo association approval, if your community has one, since that private layer sits entirely outside county licensing.

Once your county's annual inspection programme launches, expect one more document to join that list: a compliance certificate or receipt from whoever inspects the unit. Booking services are already required to collect that confirmation from hosts and pass along fire-safety notices electronically, so keep whatever documentation your inspector issues, because your platform may ask for it directly.

Maryland Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that paperwork and are able to open your calendar, there's still tax to work out, and Maryland genuinely stacks two separate layers that don't move together.

Maryland Sales and Use Tax

The state's own cut is a flat 6% sales and use tax on the accommodation, meaning the right to occupy a room or a rental unit as a transient guest, and it applies whether the sale comes from you directly, from a booking platform, or from any other vendor. Chapter 704 of 2019 made short-term rental platforms vendors under the law and turned a booking made through one into a taxable "sale" under § 11-403(a). In practice that means the platform collects the 6% on bookings it processes, and you're on the hook for it only on bookings you take directly, say from your own website or a repeat guest who pays you outside the app.

County Room Rental and Transient Taxes

Every Maryland county also levies its own hotel or transient rental tax under Local Government Title 20, Subtitle 4, and the rate is whatever the county sets by resolution, subject to caps that vary county to county under § 20-405. The cutoff for what counts as a taxable "transient charge" varies too: the default runs to four consecutive months, but it's 25 days in Carroll County, 30 in Garrett and Washington counties, and 90 in Frederick County. Some municipalities layer their own tax on top of the county's.

Here's the part that trips hosts up most: platform auto-collection isn't universal for this layer the way it is for the state's 6%. According to Airbnb's Maryland tax page, as of July 2026 the platform automatically collects local hotel tax in only a handful of jurisdictions:

County / city	Local hotel tax rate	Who collects it
Anne Arundel County	7.00%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Baltimore County	9.50%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Montgomery County	7.00%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Prince George's County	7.00%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Annapolis	7.00%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Baltimore City	9.50%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Worcester County	5.00%	Airbnb collects it automatically
Everywhere else in Maryland	Set by county resolution	Host remits it directly

Outside that list, you're responsible for collecting and paying county hotel tax yourself, which is a real gap since most of Maryland sits outside those seven jurisdictions. That's set to change. Starting July 1, 2027, Chapter 638 will make any booking platform that does more than $100,000 or 200 transactions in the state collect county hotel tax on every booking and hand it over to the Comptroller, who then sends it back out to the counties. Until that date arrives, though, check your own county's rate and payment schedule directly rather than assuming your platform already has it covered.

One more, smaller tax worth knowing about if your property has amenities: since July 1, 2024, hourly rental of a pool, tennis court or deck, separate from sleeping accommodations, is its own 6% taxable service under Technical Bulletin 46. It's a narrow rule, but it catches hosts who rent out a pool by the hour on top of the room itself.

Possible Tax Deductions and Write-Offs

Your rental income counts as ordinary taxable income both federally and in Maryland, but the expenses of running the property offset a good chunk of it. Mortgage interest, property tax, depreciation on the structure and furnishings, platform and booking fees, cleaning and maintenance, and a proportional share of utilities and insurance are all generally deductible, and the proportion matters a lot if you're renting a room inside a home you also live in rather than an entire separate unit. Keep in mind that the sales and county hotel taxes you collect aren't your money at all: you're just holding them for the state and county, so don't count them as revenue when you do your own tax math. None of this is a substitute for an actual CPA who knows Maryland's rules, especially once you're apportioning a shared residence, but it's the shape of what to expect.

Does Maryland Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given how much of this sits with counties rather than the state, "does Maryland enforce" isn't really one question. It's dozens of questions, not one, and the answer changes with your address.

What the state controls, it's beginning to take seriously. The Wiener Act's inspection mandate arrives by July 1, 2028, and it comes with a real feedback loop: the State Fire Marshal has to report back to the General Assembly by October 1, 2028 on what each county inspected and found. That's a meaningfully more structured enforcement path than Maryland has ever had for STR safety, even if it isn't live yet.

What counties control, some already enforce aggressively and others barely at all. Baltimore City is the sharper end: it hasn't licensed a new unhosted rental since 2020, and hosts on BiggerPockets describe the primary-residence rule as genuinely restrictive, if imperfectly policed. One Baltimore-based agent posting there said the requirement was "basically pushed by hotels," and that once a licence is issued, the city doesn't seem to be actively double-checking who's still complying. That's a useful, honest picture: strict on paper at the licensing gate, looser once you're through it. Other Maryland counties set entirely different bars, which is exactly why checking your own county's guide matters more than a statewide answer ever could.

The politics point toward tighter rules ahead rather than looser ones, too. HB 993 would've limited how far a county could go in banning lessee-run rentals, and it still died in the Senate in 2026 after clearing the House. Read that as a signal that the legislature isn't currently inclined to rein counties in, so assume your county can restrict further, not less, and check before you commit capital to a plan that depends on today's rules staying put.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Maryland

So let's walk through the order that saves you time and money, because doing these out of sequence tends to mean redoing paperwork or losing a non-refundable fee.

1. Confirm your county or Baltimore City allows short-term rentals on your specific property, and check whether it distinguishes hosted from unhosted rentals. This single step eliminates plans that no amount of paperwork will fix.
2. Register for a Maryland sales and use tax licence through Maryland Tax Connect. It's free to obtain and doesn't expire on a renewal cycle, so this is worth doing early.
3. Apply for your local STR licence or permit through your county's or Baltimore City's housing, permitting or zoning office, using the county guide that matches your property for the specific requirements.
4. Prepare the unit for the fire-safety law taking effect October 1, 2026: post an evacuation diagram and emergency numbers, install a working fire extinguisher, and put in working, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
5. Check your HOA, condo bylaws or lease before you list anything, since a private covenant or a landlord's terms can block a rental even where your county allows it.
6. List with a platform that collects Maryland's 6% state sales tax automatically, and confirm separately whether it also collects your specific county's hotel tax, since that's currently automatic in only seven jurisdictions statewide.
7. Set up remittance for county hotel tax yourself if your platform doesn't collect it, and file on your county's schedule rather than the state's.
8. Diarize your county's coming annual inspection requirement, arriving by July 1, 2028 at the latest, and keep whatever compliance certificate your inspector issues once the programme exists.

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

Whichever step you're stuck on, a small number of offices handle almost everything between them, split cleanly between state tax matters and local licensing and zoning.

State sales and use tax registration

The Comptroller of Maryland, Revenue Administration Division handles your sales and use tax licence, filing and Maryland Tax Connect account.

• Address: 60 West Street, Suite 102, Annapolis, MD 21401
• General correspondence: P.O. Box 549, Annapolis, MD 21411-0001
• Phone: 1-800-MDTAXES (1-800-638-2937)
• TTY: 1-800-735-2258 or 7-1-1
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Online: register and file through Maryland Tax Connect

Local licensing and zoning

Every county and Baltimore City runs its own permitting or housing office, and you'll need to reach the one covering your property directly rather than a state agency. As a worked example, Baltimore City hosts go through the Department of Housing and Community Development.

• Baltimore City DHCD: reachable at 311 from inside the city, or (443) 263-2220 from outside; general city offices at City Hall, 100 N. Holliday St, Baltimore, MD 21202, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Other counties: the Anne Arundel, Baltimore County, Prince George's, Montgomery and Harford county guides list each jurisdiction's own permitting office and phone number directly.

Fire safety and the coming inspection programme

The Office of the State Fire Marshal administers the technical standards behind the Wiener Act, though the county-level inspection programmes it requires aren't due until July 1, 2028. Until your county's programme exists, your best contact is your county's or Baltimore City's own fire marshal or code enforcement office, not the state office, since local implementation is still being built out.

Tracking pending legislation

Bills like HB 993 move fast and sometimes come back the next session. The Maryland General Assembly's own bill tracker at mgaleg.maryland.gov is the place to check a bill's current status directly rather than relying on a news summary.

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

I wasn't able to read Reddit directly for this guide, its platform terms restrict the kind of automated access this research would need, so what follows is my read of a BiggerPockets thread I was able to open, not a survey of either forum.

In a BiggerPockets thread asking about Baltimore's primary-residence rule, a Baltimore-based agent confirmed the restriction is real and explained where it came from: he said it was "basically pushed by hotels," and that his own property kept operating only because it was grandfathered in from before the rule took hold. He also made a point worth sitting with if you're weighing risk against reward: once a licence is issued, he said, the city doesn't seem to be actively double-checking who's still complying. Strict at the gate, looser afterward, is a fair summary of how Baltimore's rules play out in practice, according to someone operating under them.

The same thread lands on the pivot plenty of Maryland investors end up making once they hit that gate: rentals of 90 days or longer, which sit outside short-term rental rules entirely and pull real demand from corporate relocations and traveling nurses. If your Maryland numbers only worked at nightly Airbnb rates, it's worth checking what the medium-term market in your specific county pays before writing the whole plan off. And if you're still comparing Maryland against other states entirely, BNBCalc's Maryland market data is a faster way to see what a given county is producing than piecing it together from forum posts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Maryland in 2026?

Yes, in most of the state, though the exact rules depend entirely on your county or on Baltimore City rather than on any state license. Maryland itself imposes no statewide STR permit, so you'll register for a free Maryland sales and use tax licence at the state level and then apply for whatever licence your specific county or Baltimore City requires locally. Some jurisdictions, Baltimore City among them, restrict or ban new unhosted rentals, so confirm local eligibility before assuming a state "yes" means a local one too.

Does Maryland require a statewide short-term rental license?

No. There's no state-issued STR permit, registry or licence anywhere in Maryland law. The one state-level registration most hosts need is a sales and use tax licence from the Comptroller, which is free to obtain, doesn't expire on a renewal schedule, and is registered through Maryland Tax Connect. Actual licensing, whether you need a permit at all and what it costs, happens entirely at the county or Baltimore City level.

What taxes do Maryland short-term rental hosts have to pay?

Two layers, generally. The state charges a flat 6% sales and use tax on the rental, which booking platforms usually collect automatically. Your county also levies its own hotel or transient rental tax, and the rate and rules vary widely, from around 5% to 9.5% depending on where you are. Platforms currently auto-collect that county tax in only seven Maryland jurisdictions, so check whether yours is one of them or whether you need to remit it yourself.

What does Maryland's new fire safety law require of short-term rental hosts?

Starting October 1, 2026, the Jillian and Lindsay Wiener Short-Term Rental Fire Safety Act requires every short-term rental host in Maryland to post an evacuation diagram and emergency phone numbers inside the unit, keep a working fire extinguisher on hand, and provide working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Where a unit needs more than one smoke alarm, they must be interconnected. Alarms have to be replaced once they stop working, turn ten years old, or carry no production date. By July 1, 2028, your county must also start inspecting units for compliance annually.

Can a landlord ban short-term rentals in Maryland even where the county allows them?

Yes. HOA and condo bylaws, and individual lease terms if you're renting rather than owning, sit entirely outside county and state STR rules, and a county licence doesn't override either one. Nothing statewide currently protects a tenant's right to sublet short-term either, since the 2026 bill that would've limited local bans on lessee-run rentals died in the Senate. Always check your specific building's rules and, if you rent, your lease, before assuming a county-level yes settles the question.

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