Beaverton Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Beaverton and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that Beaverton, sitting inside Washington County in the Portland metro, has no dedicated short-term rental ordinance on the books at all, so a whole home in an ordinary residential zone can go up on either platform without a permit, a cap, or an owner-occupancy fight. That puts it in a different world from Portland and Multnomah County next door, where a resident-host permit and a 270-day residency rule govern nearly everything.

That doesn't make it a free-for-all, mind you. Oregon has no law stopping a city from banning or capping short-term rentals through zoning, so Beaverton's light touch is a choice the city council has made rather than something state law forces on it, and it could tighten later the way Portland's did. For now, though, a host still owes the city's general business license, plus three separate layers of lodging tax that stack to roughly 14.5% of every booking, climbing to 15.75% once a new state surcharge takes effect on January 1, 2027.

So let's walk through what running a short-term rental in Beaverton actually involves in 2026: the business license, the paperwork behind it, the three tax layers and who collects them, how strictly any of it gets enforced, and who to call when a question doesn't have an obvious answer. I pulled every figure below from Beaverton's, Washington County's, and Oregon's own pages, checked through the end of July 2026, and said so plainly anywhere I couldn't confirm something rather than guessing. If you're comparing a Beaverton property against other Portland-area suburbs, run the numbers through BNBCalc first.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Beaverton,Oregon?

Before you run those numbers, it helps to know exactly what is and isn't regulated here, because "no ordinance" is not the same as "no rules." Two things govern a Beaverton short-term rental: whatever your property's zoning already allows for an ordinary dwelling, and Oregon's tax code layered on top. Neither treats a short-term rental as a special use.

I went through the Beaverton Development Code's own glossary, the index at Chapter 90 of the Development Code, looking for a defined term like "short-term rental," "vacation rental," or "transient lodging." None exists. "Hotel," "Motel," and "Hotel, Extended Stay" are all defined terms with their own section numbers, which tells you the city drew a line around commercial lodging decades ago and never bothered drawing a second one around a homeowner renting out a spare room or a whole house on Airbnb. Absent a specific use category, a short-term rental keeps whatever zoning designation the dwelling already has, which is why hosts across Beaverton's residential districts report operating with no special approval at all.

That's a real choice, not an oversight. Oregon has no statute that bars a city or county from banning, capping, or otherwise restricting short-term rentals through zoning or local licensing, our Oregon statewide guide covers that framework in full. The only thing frozen at the state level is the local tax rate itself. Under ORS 320.350, any local lodging tax adopted or increased since July 1, 2003 has to put at least 70% of that revenue toward tourism promotion or a tourism facility. That single rule explains a lot about how Washington County's cities fund things. Beaverton's own 4% lodging tax, adopted in 2016, is earmarked to help fund the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, which is exactly the kind of tourism facility the state law has in mind.

So Beaverton could, in theory, pass a permit requirement, a cap, or an owner-occupancy rule tomorrow, the way Portland and Multnomah County already have. It just hasn't. Keep that in mind if you're buying with a long hold in mind: the Portland guide and the Multnomah County guide both describe a much stricter regime that sits just a few miles east, so "no rules today" is a snapshot rather than a promise.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Beaverton

That local variation is exactly why the business case looks so different here than it does twenty minutes away in Portland. In Beaverton, there is genuinely a business to build. A whole-home listing, a duplex unit, a converted ADU, or a spare bedroom can all go on Airbnb or Vrbo without a use permit standing between you and your first guest. That's rare in the Portland metro, and it's worth taking seriously as an advantage rather than assuming it's too good to be true.

It's not entirely without friction, though. Beaverton still requires a general business license of anyone "engaging in any business" inside city limits, which a short-term rental counts as, and I'll walk through what that costs in the next section. A real BiggerPockets thread on Oregon short-term rentals is worth reading before you buy, too. An experienced host running properties on the Oregon coast describes lenders who won't count short-term rental income toward a mortgage until you can show two years of tax returns proving it. So the first year or two often gets financed as a second home, or with a private loan, rather than a standard investment mortgage. That's a statewide Oregon gotcha, not a Beaverton-specific one, but it applies here just as much as it does at the coast.

Do check your own deed, HOA rules, or lease before you assume the city's silence means you're clear. A city with no ordinance still leaves private restrictions fully in force: an HOA can ban short-term rentals in its bylaws, and a landlord can prohibit subletting on Airbnb in a lease, regardless of what Beaverton itself allows. Neither of those is a city rule I can point you to, since they vary property by property, but they're the single most common way a technically-legal Beaverton rental turns into a real problem. If your search is widening to nearby suburbs, the Hillsboro guide covers the next city over in the same county, and its rules aren't identical to Beaverton's.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Beaverton

Assuming your property and your paperwork clear that private-restriction check, licensing itself is refreshingly simple. Beaverton has no dedicated short-term rental permit, inspection, or occupancy sign-off. What you do need is the same general business license every other business in the city carries, under Beaverton Municipal Code Chapter 7.01, which the city states plainly requires "anyone engaging in any business within the city limits... to pay a business license fee unless specifically exempt by state or federal statute."

Per Oregon's own Business Xpress License Directory listing for Beaverton, that license currently runs $100.00 a year, processed in about two to three weeks, through the city's Finance Division at 12725 SW Millikan Way, Beaverton, OR 97005. There's no examination, no required inspection, and no STR-specific document beyond the standard application. I looked for a separate "vacation rental license" the way Oregon's directory lists for a handful of coastal cities. Beaverton has none. The only comparable entry in the state's own directory belongs to the City of Yachats, a coastal town with a 125-unit cap and a multi-year waiting list, which only underlines how different Beaverton's approach is.

Required Documents for Beaverton Short Term Rentals

Since the license itself asks so little of you, the paperwork trail is still short. Three things get most hosts through the whole process:

• The business license application, filed through the city's online portal, covering your business name, mailing address, and ownership information for the $100 annual fee.
• A Washington County Transient Lodging Tax registration, a one-page registration form that opens your account for the county's 9% tax and Beaverton's 4% local tax, both of which the county administers together.
• An Oregon Department of Revenue tax account, opened through Revenue Online before your first booking, which covers the state's own transient lodging tax.

That's it. There's no floor plan, no proof of insurance, and no neighbor-notification requirement to dig up, unlike the document-heavy applications you'll find in cities that run a real permit program. Keep in mind the tax registrations exist independently of the business license, so don't assume paying for one covers the other.

Beaverton Short Term Rental Taxes

Getting registered is where the real obligations start, and there's still tax to work out once you are. Three separate governments each take a cut of a Beaverton short-term stay, and because Airbnb and Vrbo have their own arrangements with each layer, it's worth knowing exactly who collects what.

Tax	Rate	Collected by
Oregon transient lodging tax	1.5% (rising to 2.75% for stays on or after January 1, 2027)	Oregon Department of Revenue
Washington County transient lodging tax	9.0%	Washington County Finance Division
City of Beaverton lodging tax	4.0%	City of Beaverton, via the county's shared collection system

Add those together and, as of July 2026, a Beaverton host is currently collecting about 14.5% of the rent on top of the nightly rate, a figure I arrived at by simple addition rather than finding it stated whole on any single page. That climbs to 15.75% once Oregon's House Bill 4134 rate increase kicks in on January 1, 2027, so budget for the higher number if you're modeling revenue past that date.

Here's the part that actually saves hosts work: Airbnb collects most of this automatically. Washington County's own overview of its lodging tax program states that "Airbnb and Washington County have entered into a Voluntary Collection Agreement to collect and remit transient lodging taxes on behalf of hosts," and names both taxes it covers by rate: the county's 9.0% and the city's 4.0%. The same document states that Vrbo (through HomeAway) remits the county's tax to Washington County on the host's behalf too, though it doesn't specify whether that extends to the city's 4% the way Airbnb's agreement explicitly does, so don't assume it's identical without checking your own payout statements. Neither source I read confirmed which platform, if any, remits the state's 1.5% automatically, so treat that layer as something to verify yourself until you've seen it broken out on a statement.

Stays of 30 consecutive days or more are exempt from all three layers, under ORS 320.308 at the state level and mirrored at the county level. Where a platform isn't collecting on your behalf, or you're booking directly, the county's own guidance says transient lodging tax returns are due by the 10th of the following month, so June's tax is owed by July 10.

Beaverton wide Short Term Rental Rules

Beyond the tax calendar, there isn't much of a citywide rulebook to memorize, and that's the theme running through this whole guide. No occupancy cap exists specifically for short-term rentals; the general building and fire code limits that already apply to any Beaverton dwelling apply here too, same as they would for a long-term tenant. No owner-occupancy requirement exists either, so an investment property you never set foot in is treated the same as your own home.

A few things are still worth keeping in mind, even without a formal ordinance to point to:

• Nuisance and noise rules apply to every residence, short-term guests included. A loud party at 1 a.m. is enforceable the same way it would be against a homeowner, through the city's general nuisance code rather than anything STR-specific.
• HOA and lease restrictions still stand. As covered above, the city's silence doesn't override a private agreement that bans short-term rentals.
• There's no cap on the number of short-term rentals in the city. Unlike Yachats' 125-unit waiting list or Portland's more restrictive framework, Beaverton doesn't limit how many listings can operate.

Watch out for one thing specifically: because none of this is codified as an STR ordinance, there's also no formal appeal process or clear STR-specific penalty schedule if a complaint does come in. Enforcement, where it happens, runs through the same general code-enforcement channel as any other residential nuisance complaint, which the next section covers.

Does Beaverton strictly enforce STR rules?” Is Beaverton Airbnb friendly?

Given there's no dedicated ordinance, there's also nothing specific to enforce, and that's really the honest answer to both questions at once. I could not find a Beaverton code-enforcement division, task force, or hotline built around short-term rentals the way Portland runs its Airbnb and Home-Sharing Enforcement program. What exists instead is the city's ordinary nuisance and code-enforcement process, the same one that handles a noisy long-term tenant or an unmowed lawn, and a short-term rental would only draw attention through that generic channel if a neighbor complained about noise, parking, or trash.

So yes, Beaverton is genuinely Airbnb friendly, and the evidence for that is what's absent rather than what's present. There's no permit backlog, no waiting list, and no public enforcement report listing STR citations the way New York City or Portland publish theirs. That absence cuts both ways, though. It also means there's no established process protecting a host if a neighbor dispute does escalate, since nothing in the code was written with short-term rentals specifically in mind. Keep that asymmetry in mind before assuming "no rules" means "no risk."

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Beaverton

Given how little stands between you and hosting here, the sequence below is short, though skipping a step still costs you time. Work through it in order and you'll have a compliant listing without much back and forth.

1. Check your zoning and any private restrictions first. Confirm your property's residential zone allows a dwelling use (nearly all of them do), then pull your HOA bylaws or lease and confirm nothing there prohibits short-term rentals.
2. Apply for the city business license. File through Beaverton's online portal for the $100 annual fee; expect roughly two to three weeks for approval.
3. Register with Washington County for the Transient Lodging Tax. This single registration opens your account for both the county's 9% tax and the city's 4% local tax.
4. Open a Transient Lodging Tax account with the Oregon Department of Revenue through Revenue Online, covering the state's 1.5% layer.
5. List on Airbnb and confirm the Voluntary Collection Agreement is active on your listing, so the platform is remitting the county and city taxes for you automatically.
6. If you're also listing on Vrbo, verify what it's remitting on your behalf, since its arrangement with the county doesn't clearly extend to Beaverton's local 4% the way Airbnb's does.
7. Diarize the July 2026 to January 2027 rate change. Update your pricing model once the state's tax rises from 1.5% to 2.75% on January 1, 2027.
8. Run the property through BNBCalc to see how the after-tax numbers compare against other Portland-metro suburbs before you commit.

Who to contact in Beaverton about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Once you're actually hosting, three offices cover almost every question that comes up, split cleanly by which government administers what.

City of Beaverton, Finance Division (business license)

• Address: 12725 SW Millikan Way, Beaverton, OR 97005
• Phone: (503) 526-2268
• Email: [email protected]
• General city line: (503) 526-2222

Washington County, Transient Lodging Tax (county and city tax registration)

• Address: 155 N 1st Ave, Suite 270, Hillsboro, OR 97124-3072
• Phone: (503) 846-4448 (Jennifer Bowlin) or (503) 846-8812 (Amanda Bewersdorff)
• Email: [email protected]
• Fax: (503) 846-4464

Oregon Department of Revenue (state transient lodging tax)

• Transient Lodging Tax program page, including the Revenue Online registration link

For zoning questions specifically, the general city line above routes to Beaverton's Community Development Department, since I wasn't able to confirm a direct planning-line number from the city's own site. Do check with them before making any structural changes, like adding a second unit or converting a garage, since that's a building-code and zoning question separate from anything in this guide.

What do Airbnb hosts in Beaverton on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

Given how quiet Beaverton's regulatory story is, host sentiment online is fairly quiet too, and that itself is informative. I wasn't able to read Reddit directly; it blocks the kind of automated access this research relies on, so I won't pretend to summarize threads I never opened. What follows leans on BiggerPockets instead, which I could read directly, plus the general shape of the conversation among Oregon hosts.

There's remarkably little dedicated discussion of Beaverton specifically, which lines up with everything above. A market with no permit fight, no cap, and no enforcement headlines doesn't generate the kind of "watch out for this" threads that Portland or Multnomah County do. The Oregon-focused conversation that does exist skews toward the coast, where regulation and competition for permits are the real story. One BiggerPockets thread from an experienced Oregon coast host walks through the financing side of running short-term rentals in the state: winter income can run below the mortgage payment even on a strong property, and most lenders won't count STR income toward qualifying until you can show two years of tax returns. That's a statewide financing reality rather than anything Beaverton-specific, but it's the kind of practical detail that doesn't show up in an ordinance and is worth knowing before you buy.

If you're weighing a Beaverton purchase against other Portland-metro suburbs on the numbers rather than the regulations, BNBCalc Markets breaks the Portland market down at that level of detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Beaverton in 2026?

Yes. Beaverton has no dedicated short-term rental ordinance, permit, or occupancy cap as of 2026, so a whole home, a duplex unit, or a spare bedroom can all be listed on Airbnb or Vrbo in any residential zone. You still need the city's general business license and have to collect and remit three layers of lodging tax, but nothing in Beaverton's code singles out short-term rentals for extra approval the way many nearby cities do.

Do you need a permit or license for a short-term rental in Beaverton?

Not a dedicated one. Beaverton requires the same general business license every business in the city carries, under Beaverton Municipal Code Chapter 7.01, currently $100 a year through the city's Finance Division. There's no separate short-term rental permit, inspection, or occupancy sign-off, unlike coastal Oregon cities such as Yachats, which caps short-term rental licenses and runs a multi-year waiting list.

How much tax do Beaverton Airbnb hosts pay?

Three layers currently total about 14.5%: 1.5% to the State of Oregon, 9.0% to Washington County, and 4.0% to the City of Beaverton. That combined figure is my own addition of the three separately confirmed rates, not a single number quoted on any one page. It rises to roughly 15.75% for stays on or after January 1, 2027, once a new state tax component takes effect under House Bill 4134.

Does Airbnb collect and remit lodging taxes automatically in Beaverton?

For the county and city layers, yes. Washington County states directly that Airbnb has a Voluntary Collection Agreement covering both its own 9% tax and Beaverton's 4% local tax. Vrbo remits the county's tax on a host's behalf too, though it isn't confirmed whether that extends to the city's 4%. Neither platform's handling of Oregon's separate 1.5% state tax is confirmed, so check your payout statement rather than assuming it's covered.

Can a Beaverton HOA or landlord still block a short-term rental even though the city allows it?

Yes. Beaverton's lack of a citywide ordinance only means the city itself won't stop you. An HOA can still prohibit short-term rentals in its bylaws, and a landlord can still ban subletting on Airbnb through a lease, and both of those private restrictions remain fully enforceable regardless of what the city permits. Always check your deed, HOA documents, or lease before assuming the city's silence 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.