Rochester Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Rochester, Minnesota and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and the city built a proper legal route for it back in April 2022 instead of trying to zone the whole thing out of existence. Rochester sits in Olmsted County, it's the Mayo Clinic city, and its short-term rental rules live in the housing code rather than the zoning code, which is the first thing that catches people out. Nothing in Chapter 7-10 caps how many short-term rentals the city will register, either.

The catch is that whether you live there decides how much work this turns into. An owner-occupied single-family home only has to be registered, with no inspection at all. Everything else needs a short-term rental license, a passing rental inspection, and a zoning sign-off before the city issues anything. Then there's tax, which is where Rochester bites hardest: 15.125% comes off the top of every stay under 30 nights, and the largest slice of that, the city's own 7% lodging tax, doesn't appear on Airbnb's published list of Minnesota taxes it collects for you.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: which of the two paths your property sits on, what the city charges in 2026, the documents that have to land with the application, all four tax layers and who remits each one, how hard the city pushes, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from Rochester's own ordinances and fee schedule, Olmsted County, or the Minnesota Department of Revenue, checked in July 2026. Before you commit to any of it, run the property through BNBCalc first.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Rochester, Minnesota?

Whatever the spreadsheet says, the rules come first, and in Rochester two chapters of the housing code do almost all of the work. Separating them explains most of what confuses new hosts. Chapter 7-9, Rental Unit Registration, is the general rental license that every Rochester landlord needs. Chapter 7-10, Short Term Rental Hosting Platforms, is the overlay that sits on top of it. Both were added by Ordinance No. 4466, adopted April 18, 2022, and the code is codified through Ordinance No. 4580 of March 16, 2026.

A short-term rental in Rochester means a stay of less than 30 days, and the ordinance splits those into two species. A short term rental-owner occupied is a unit, or part of one, where at least one owner is on site during the rental period and the property is registered with the city. A short term rental-non-owner occupied is the same thing with nobody home, and it needs a short-term rental certificate rather than a registration. That line isn't a formality. It decides whether an inspector walks your property.

Section 7-10-2(a) puts it flatly: no person shall engage in the activity of a short-term rental in the city without obtaining a registration certificate, single-family owner-occupied rentals are registered only, and everything else must be registered and inspected. One quirk to know before you open the ordinance yourself: that subsection cross-references "chapter 7-8-1", which is the scope clause of the fire safety chapter. The section it means is 7-9-1. The same wrong reference turns up in section 7-3-6(8), so it's a slip carried through the 2022 recodification rather than a hidden requirement.

Now for the part nobody expects, which comes straight from the city's own property owners page. The whole overlay hinges on whether you use a booking platform. Rochester's worked example is a homeowner renting rooms in their own house without listing on a platform. The city's answer is that such a property "would not be regulated under this Short-Term Rental policy because it is still considered a single-family home." List the same rooms on Airbnb and you're inside the rules.

The same page is equally clear about what the STR policy does not cover, which contradicts a fair amount written about Rochester elsewhere:

• Parking is not covered. The city states it outright, using the example of a host with only two legal off-street spaces.
• Cleanliness and ADA accessibility complaints are not addressed under the STR policy either.
• There is no STR-specific noise or trash standard. Disorderly conduct at a rental gets handled through section 7-9-17 and the city's general nuisance provisions, which apply to every rental in Rochester.

What the ordinance does restrict is buildings. Short-term rentals in multi-family buildings of three or more units are prohibited as a primary use, because the city treats that as a hotel. Such a structure would need its building code classification changed from apartment to hotel or transient housing before it could operate. Keep that in mind if your plan involves a triplex.

Two units per building is the ceiling before a reclassification review starts.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Rochester

That fork between owner-occupied and everything else is where the paperwork and the money diverge, so work out which side you're on before you spend anything. The city publishes a property-type table in section 7-10-2(b) and repeats it in plain English on its own site, and the short version runs like this:

• Owner-occupied single-family home, one STR unit. Registration required, no rental inspection, no lodging license, no reclassification.
• Non-owner-occupied single-family home, one STR unit. Registration and a compliant inspection, plus an Olmsted County lodging license if the structure rents five or more beds.
• Duplex, triplex or four-plex. Two STR units maximum, registration and inspection for each, lodging license at five or more beds.
• Building with more than four units. Two STR units without reclassification. Ask for more and the city treats it as a change of occupancy, which pulls in State Accessibility rules requiring 2% accessible units, a lodging license, and a processing fee.
• Condominium unit. Two per building operate as short-term rentals without a building code reclassification. Any beyond that need one.

Above two units, a second threshold catches larger projects. Under 25% of a building's units used as short-term rentals reads as an accessory use, permitted in zones that allow multi-family residential. At 25% or more the city calls it a change of use, and a proposed building crossing that line would only be approved in a zone that already allows transient use.

Zoning matters even though Rochester's Unified Development Code has no short-term rental category in it at all. The UDC was adopted on September 7, 2022 and took effect January 1, 2023, replacing a zoning ordinance that had stood since 1995, and the posted version is stamped January 2026. It matters anyway, because section 7-9-6 requires a certificate from the zoning administrator confirming your proposed use complies with city zoning, and that certificate has to accompany every application.

The UDC also defines any multifamily dwelling whose units are available for rental periods of one week or less as a hotel or motel, full stop.

Two other UDC uses are worth a look if the standard STR path doesn't fit your building. A Bed and Breakfast is allowed in the R-2, R-2x, R-3 and R-4 districts, on tight conditions. The proprietor must be the owner and occupant, the lot has to be at least 10,000 square feet, and the dwelling needs 1,500 square feet of habitable floor area. Guest rooms cap at three in R-2, or five where the lot runs 20,000 square feet or larger, and five in R-3 and R-4. Parking is one space plus one per guest room, and no guest may stay more than 14 consecutive days.

A Medical Stay Dwelling Unit is the other one, and it's Rochester-specific: accommodation furnished exclusively to patients, their families and caregivers for one week or more, requiring a lodging license from the state or from Olmsted County. In a Mayo Clinic town, that isn't a footnote.

One more thing that surprises out-of-state buyers. Under section 7-9-1(f), an owner who isn't a Minnesota resident must appoint a resident agent in the state to accept service of process. On top of that, an owner who doesn't live in Houston, Winona, Fillmore, Olmsted, Goodhue, Dodge, Mower or Wabasha County must also appoint a property manager who does live in one of those eight counties.

Both of them sign the application, and swapping either one later means applying for an amended certificate. Minnesota leaves this sort of thing to local government, which our Minnesota statewide short-term rental guide maps city by city.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Rochester

Once you've settled who owns the thing and who's signing for it, the registration itself is still a counter-and-inspection process rather than a slick online portal. Rochester's own instruction is to come into the Community Development office at 4001 W. River Parkway NW, Suite 100 to complete an application and schedule the required inspection, although the Rental Property Certificate Application can be started online. There's no separate STR form. The same one covers both paths.

The fees are far smaller than most write-ups suggest. From the city's 2026 Schedule of Fees and Charges, a rental property registration certificate costs $66 per building plus $20 per unit, up from $64 and $19 in 2025. So a single-family short-term rental is $86 a year as of July 2026, not the $525.30 per unit that circulates on commercial short-term rental blogs, and I couldn't find that figure in any City of Rochester document. Two other charges attach at the start. Planning and Zoning lists a $45 Rental Housing Certificate fee, which is the zoning side of the same application, and the Landlord Public Safety Seminar carries a $50 exam fee covering two attempts at the 70% pass mark.

That seminar is a real gate rather than a suggestion. Section 7-9-5(v) requires every landlord or property manager to complete it, or Phase I of a Crime Free Multi-Housing Program, before a certificate issues, and a Crime Free certificate from Olmsted County or elsewhere is accepted after review. The upside is that you only do it once, since the city treats the certification as valid for life across all your present and future rentals.

The rest of the mechanics are worth knowing before you plan a launch date:

• An application can sit pending for up to 90 days without full payment, but no inspection gets scheduled until every applicable fee is paid.
• Converting an existing dwelling to a use that needs a certificate requires the application 30 days before the conversion.
• After inspection, the property is scored, and that score puts the certificate on a one, two, three or four year inspection cycle. Renewal is annual either way.
• Miss the renewal and late fees stack at $30 up to 30 days past due, then $50 at 31 to 60 days and $50 again beyond that.
• A missed or same-day-cancelled inspection appointment costs $75, and re-inspections run $75 for one to four units, $100 for five to twelve, and $125 above that.
• Sell the property and you have 10 days to tell the director and the buyer has 30 days to apply for a transfer, at $20.
• Section 7-9-8 requires the certificate to be posted in a conspicuous place once it's issued.

Two loose ends sit between the ordinance and the fee schedule. Section 7-10-3(b) says the annual fee for a short-term rental hosting platform license will be "as is listed in the fee schedule", yet I could find no such line in the 2026 schedule. That's a platform obligation rather than a host one, so it won't move your budget. The second one might: the codified fee table inside section 7-3-6 still shows $112 per building and $37 per unit, while the text a few paragraphs below it says $56 and $19. The adopted 2026 fee schedule is what the counter charges from, so do confirm the number when you apply.

Required Documents for Rochester Short Term Rentals

Since those fees only move you forward once the file is complete, it's worth getting the paperwork right the first time. Section 7-9-4 sets out what every application has to contain, and the list is short but specific:

• Owner details in full: name, residence address, telephone number, date of birth and signature. A partnership gives the same for its managing partner, a corporation for its chief operating officer, and a contract for deed names the vendee. You may substitute a certification authorizing your property manager to sign on your behalf.
• Agent details for anyone appointed to accept service of process or receive notices, with the same five fields and a signature.
• Property manager details for anyone actively involved in managing or maintaining the dwelling, again with a signature.
• The legal street address of the dwelling.
• A complete breakdown of the units offered for rent, classified by type, with the facilities included in each.
• Government photo identification showing full name and date of birth: a driver's license, state ID, military ID, or something else the director accepts.
• A signed acknowledgment that you've read Chapter 7-9, intend to follow it, and will reference the chapter in any written lease.

Two more documents ride alongside the form: the zoning administrator's certificate under section 7-9-6, and your Landlord Public Safety Seminar or Crime Free Multi-Housing certificate. Don't forget the guest register either. Section 7-9-5(l) requires a current record of everyone with a lawful right of occupancy plus their unit designation, kept available for review at all times, with the director told where it lives. Remember that it's a standing condition of the certificate, so a stale register is grounds for adverse action rather than a paperwork nag.

Two conditions trip people up well before the inspection. Section 7-9-5(m) blocks issuance if you have delinquent property taxes or assessments on the dwelling, or any delinquent obligation to the city without a payment arrangement. And section 7-9-5(k) requires you to let the city inspect, which is why the non-owner-occupied path always takes longer.

Rochester Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and Rochester stacks four separate charges onto every stay under 30 nights. Three governments impose them, yet only one collects them, which is the part most hosts get wrong.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Minnesota general sales tax	6.875%	Minnesota Department of Revenue
Rochester local sales tax	0.75%	Minnesota Department of Revenue
Olmsted County transit sales tax	0.50%	Minnesota Department of Revenue
Rochester lodging tax	7.00%	Minnesota Department of Revenue, on the sales and use tax return
Total on a stay under 30 nights	15.125%	Reported line by line on one return

The state piece is set by Minnesota Statutes section 297A.62, which imposes 6.5% plus a constitutional 0.375%, giving the familiar 6.875%. The two general local taxes come from Rochester City Code section 10-2-3, which sets the city rate at three-quarters of one percent, and from Olmsted County's two quarter-percent transit taxes adopted in 2013 and 2017. The Department of Revenue's own local sales and use tax rate guide for July through September 2026 confirms the combined general rate in Rochester at 8.125%, and it excludes special taxes like lodging.

Which brings us to the big one. Section 10-4-2 imposes a 7% lodging tax on rent charged for lodging, in force since January 1, 2014 under Ordinance No. 4127. Minnesota generally caps a city lodging tax at 3% under section 469.190, so Rochester's 7% runs on the older charter and special-law authority that the same statute preserves.

The Department of Revenue's notice on the increase tells operators to add 6.875% and 7% for a combined 13.875%, then add any other local taxes that apply. Add Rochester's 0.75% and Olmsted's 0.50% and you land at 15.125%.

The notice also settles where the lodging tax gets paid, and the answer isn't City Hall. All hotels and lodging facilities making sales in Rochester must register for Rochester lodging tax, and it's then reported on your Minnesota Sales and Use Tax return on its own line.

Chapter 10-4 itself still reads as a city-run tax, with monthly returns due 25 days after month end and an operator permit for each place of business. Its penalties are worth respecting: 10% for late payment, up to 25% for failure to file, 50% for willful evasion, and 8% annual interest. Running lodgings without the permit or refusing to remit is a misdemeanor under sections 10-4-15 and 10-4-18.

Now, who actually hands the money over. The Department of Revenue's guidance on residential short-term rentals turns on who facilitates the booking. Use an accommodations intermediary for all your sales and the intermediary registers as a retailer and remits on the full sales price. Take bookings directly in the normal course of business and you register yourself. Do both and you're each responsible for your own share, with documentation to prove which was which. That page also kills a common assumption: the federal 14-day rule is an income tax exemption and does not apply to Minnesota sales tax.

So check your own numbers rather than trusting a default. Airbnb's Minnesota tax page lists the 6.875% state sales tax and "Local Sales and Special Taxes: 0.5% - 3.0%", and the only Minnesota city lodging tax it names is Duluth's 3% lodging excise. Rochester's 7% lodging tax isn't on that list, and 7% sits outside the stated band. Check that yourself. Watch out for it, because the gap between 8.125% and 15.125% is the whole margin on many listings.

Pull a payout breakdown, see exactly which lines your platform is remitting, and call the Department of Revenue before you assume the lodging tax is covered. And when you're weighing what a Rochester listing clears after 15.125% against markets with a lighter stack, BNBCalc Markets shows that gap at neighborhood level.

Minnesota wide Short Term Rental Rules

The Department of Revenue isn't the only part of state government with a claim on a Rochester short-term rental. The Minnesota Department of Health licenses lodging under Minnesota Statutes chapter 157, and its classification of vacation rentals is stricter than Rochester's ordinance table suggests. MDH's lodging page puts a vacation home rental in the hotel or motel category, at "one or more units" and "one night or more", whereas the city's chart only flags a lodging license once a structure rents five or more beds.

That gap is worth resolving for your specific property rather than guessing, because the two agencies aren't reading the same trigger. MDH delegates licensing in Olmsted County to Olmsted County Public Health Services. So make the call: 507-328-7500.

Their 2026 fee schedule prices a smoke-free hotel or motel lodging license at $182 base plus $5 per room, a smoking-allowed one at $252 plus $5 per room, and a lodging establishment license at $182 plus $5 per room. Plan review, if you're converting anything, runs a $500 deposit at $85 an hour. The state's own fee under section 157.16 is a $300 base plus $15 per unit up to $1,500, plus a $50 statewide hospitality fee and a $5 technology fee, so the county route is the cheaper of the two.

One state requirement applies to every Rochester rental regardless of which license you end up holding. Minnesota Statutes section 299F.51 requires a carbon monoxide alarm within ten feet of every room lawfully used for sleeping in a single-family or multifamily dwelling, and in each sleeping room of a hotel or lodging house. The owner provides and installs them and replaces any that are missing or inoperable before a new occupant moves in. A first violation draws a safety warning; a second is a petty misdemeanor.

Beyond licensing and tax, Minnesota leaves short-term rentals to local government. There's no statewide STR registry, no state permit, and no preemption statute telling cities what they may require, which is why the rules change completely as you cross a city line. Rochester's authority to write its own comes from its status as a home rule charter city, cited in section 7-9-20 alongside Minnesota Statutes section 410.33. The League of Minnesota Cities' 2026 legislative session overview records an adjournment on May 17 with no zoning preemption bills passed, so nothing changed above the city this year.

How different the picture gets from one Minnesota city to the next is the whole reason these guides exist. Duluth, for instance, charges its own 3% lodging excise tax that Airbnb does collect, so the platform question there has a different answer than it does in Rochester, and the Duluth short-term rental rules diverge from Rochester's on permitting as well. In the Twin Cities, the Hennepin County guide and the Ramsey County guide cover the Minneapolis and Saint Paul side of the state.

Does Rochester strictly enforce STR rules?

Rochester writes its own rules, then, and it enforces them with a mechanism that's easy to underestimate. Section 7-9-12 says that each day a property is rented without a valid registration certificate is a separate violation. That's not a one-time fine. It accrues daily, and that's exactly where an owner who "meant to get around to it" ends up badly exposed.

The money ladder sits in section 7-3-6(8), and it treats first-timers differently from people who should know better. A new owner with no other rental units gets a written warning, then a $250 notice of violation, then a $500 final notice. After that it's a referral to the city attorney for a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, 90 days in jail, or both. An owner who already holds rentals in Rochester skips the warning entirely and starts at $250. Read that second ladder carefully if you already own long-term rentals here and you're adding a short-term one.

Once a certificate is in hand, the pressure then shifts to keeping it. Section 7-9-14 lets the common council suspend a certificate for up to two years, revoke it for up to five, impose a civil fine of up to $1,000 for each violation, or put the holder on probation. Those hearings go first to the rental housing complaint board, which is the councilmember for the ward where the problem happened, the council president and the mayor. Getting back in afterwards costs $100 for the first unit plus $20 for each additional one.

Guest behavior has its own track. Section 7-9-17 makes you responsible for taking appropriate action against occupants whose conduct makes the premises disorderly, and it runs on a rolling 12-month window. A first incident brings a mailed notice. A second within 12 months requires a written report to police within five days detailing what you've done about it. A third within 12 months of two prior notices can suspend or revoke the license for that unit, and the fine under section 7-9-18(d)(3) reaches one month's rent per violation.

Note that these determinations run on the preponderance of the evidence, so no criminal charge is needed and an acquittal doesn't bar the license action. Calls you make to the police, mercifully, don't count against you.

Enforcement history follows you too. Section 7-9-5(q) bars issuance to anyone holding an interest in two or more certificates revoked or suspended in the past five years, and section 7-9-5(r) bars anyone with four unregistered-rental violations in the past two years. Complaints reach the city through Rochester 311, the same channel a neighbor uses. And on the tax side, refusing to remit or operating without a lodging permit are misdemeanors in their own right.

What I can't give you is a number. Rochester publishes no dataset of registered short-term rentals, no count of licenses issued, and no enforcement tally I could locate on any official page, and the city's 311 knowledge base blocks automated access, so nobody should quote you a compliance rate here. What's on the record is the machinery, and it's unusually well built for a city this size.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Rochester?

Given how those penalties ladder up, the order below still matters more than it looks, because the early steps tell you whether the later ones are worth paying for.

1. Decide which path you're on. Will an owner be on site during every stay? That single answer determines registration versus license, and inspection versus none.
2. Check the building type against the table. One unit in a single-family home is straightforward. A triplex, a condo, or anything above two STR units in a larger building pulls in reclassification, accessibility rules, or a change-of-use review.
3. Read your condo or HOA documents if they apply. Rochester notes that many condominium associations regulate short-term rentals themselves, and the city won't override a private covenant.
4. Get the zoning sign-off. Section 7-9-6 requires a zoning administrator's certificate with every application, and Planning and Zoning's Rental Housing Certificate fee is $45, so start it early.
5. Complete the public safety requirement. Watch the six-part Landlord Public Safety Seminar, sit the exam with the $50 fee, and clear 70%. Or submit a Crime Free Multi-Housing Phase I certificate for review.
6. Sort out your agent and manager if you're out of area. Non-residents need a Minnesota resident agent, and owners outside the eight-county region need a property manager living inside it. Both sign.
7. File the Rental Property Certificate Application and pay. $66 per building plus $20 per unit for 2026. Nothing gets inspected until the fees clear.
8. Book the inspection unless you're an owner-occupied single-family registration, and work the city's pre-inspection checklist first.
9. Register for tax before your first guest. Set up Minnesota sales and use tax, add the Rochester Lodging line to your account, and confirm in writing which of those lines your booking platform is remitting.
10. Post the certificate, start the guest register, and put the renewal in your calendar. Certificates renew annually even on a four-year inspection cycle, and late fees begin at day one.

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

You'll get stuck on one of those steps, and three offices handle nearly all of it between them. Knowing which one owns your question saves an irritating amount of time.

Registration, licensing, inspections and zoning

City of Rochester Community Development administers Chapters 7-9 and 7-10, issues the zoning certificate, and runs the rental inspections.

• Address: 4001 West River Parkway NW, Suite 100, Rochester, MN 55901
• Phone: Rochester 311 at 507-328-2311
• Housing inspections direct: 507-328-2600
• Email: [email protected]
• Apply: the Rental Property Certificate Application, or in person at the Suite 100 counter

The city doesn't post counter hours for Community Development on its contact page, its department pages, or its rental housing pages, so I'd call 311 before driving over. City Hall itself is at 201 4th Street SE, Rochester, MN 55904, on the same line.

Lodging licenses and health inspections

Olmsted County Public Health Services holds the Minnesota Department of Health delegation, so this is the office that decides whether your property needs a hotel, motel or lodging establishment license on top of the city's certificate.

• Address: 2100 Campus Drive Southeast, Suite 100, Rochester, MN 55904
• Phone: 507-328-7500, fax 507-328-7501
• General email: [email protected]
• Licensing and billing: [email protected]
• Plan review: [email protected]

Sales tax and the Rochester lodging tax

The Minnesota Department of Revenue administers all four tax layers, including the city's 7% lodging tax, and it's where you register the Rochester Lodging line on your account.

• Sales and Use Tax Division: 651-296-6181, or 1-800-657-3777 toll-free
• Email: [email protected]
• Register a local tax by phone: 651-282-5225
• Mail: Minnesota Revenue, Sales and Use Tax Division, Mail Station 6330, St. Paul, MN 55146-6330

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

Those three phone numbers will settle any factual question you have. What they won't tell you is how other Rochester hosts feel about all of it, and I owe you a caveat before I try. Reddit blocks the kind of automated access this research runs on, and the BiggerPockets forum index didn't render its thread titles either, so what follows is my read of the recurring themes rather than a survey, and no thread is being quoted. Weigh it accordingly, and go read the forums yourself if sentiment is going to drive the decision.

• The registration-versus-license split is what people get wrong most often. Hosts who assume "Rochester requires a license" and budget for an inspection often didn't need one, because they live in the property. Hosts who assume a second home works like their own house find an inspector on the calendar and a zoning certificate to chase.
• The tax question is the loudest one, and rightly so. A 15.125% stack is high by national standards, and because the largest component isn't on Airbnb's published Minnesota collection list, hosts end up arguing about whether the platform covers it. That argument has a definite answer, and it lives in your payout breakdown rather than in a forum thread.
• Mayo Clinic pushes a lot of operators past 30 nights entirely. Patients, caregivers, traveling nurses and rotating medical staff often need weeks or months, and a stay of 30 days or more sits outside the short-term rental definition altogether. Rochester's own Medical Stay Dwelling Unit category shows the city treats that demand as its own thing.
• Condo owners get blocked by their association rather than by the city. Rochester allows two short-term rental units per condominium building without reclassification, yet the city notes association rules keep the actual count "very low in Rochester". No city approval fixes a private covenant.
• Nobody sensible argues the rules are unenforceable. Daily-accruing violations and a ladder that starts at $250 for existing landlords aren't the kind of thing you price in and ignore.

For how a comparable Minnesota suburb handles the same questions under a different rulebook, the Plymouth short-term rental guide and the Brooklyn Park short-term rental guide are the useful comparisons.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a license to run an Airbnb in Rochester, Minnesota?

It depends on whether you live in the property. Under Rochester City Code Chapter 7-10, an owner-occupied single-family short-term rental only has to be registered with the city, with no rental inspection required. A non-owner-occupied short-term rental needs a short-term rental license plus a compliant inspection, and Community Development reviews the application against both the Rental Housing Code and the zoning ordinance. Either way, a registration certificate is mandatory before you take a booking.

How much does a Rochester short-term rental registration cost in 2026?

The City of Rochester's 2026 Schedule of Fees and Charges sets the rental property registration certificate at $66 per building plus $20 per unit, so a single-family short-term rental is $86 a year. Two one-off charges usually apply at the start: a $45 Rental Housing Certificate fee on the Planning and Zoning schedule, and a $50 exam fee for the Landlord Public Safety Seminar. Renewal is annual, and late fees start at $30.

What taxes do you pay on a short-term rental in Rochester, Minnesota?

Four layers apply to any stay under 30 nights, totaling 15.125%. They are Minnesota's 6.875% general sales tax, Rochester's 0.75% local sales tax, Olmsted County's 0.50% transit sales tax, and Rochester's 7% lodging tax. The Minnesota Department of Revenue collects all four, and the lodging tax is reported on its own line of your Minnesota Sales and Use Tax return. Stays of 30 days or more fall outside the lodging tax.

Does Airbnb collect the Rochester lodging tax for hosts?

Airbnb's Minnesota tax page lists the 6.875% Minnesota sales tax and local sales and special taxes of 0.5% to 3.0%, and the only Minnesota city lodging tax it names is Duluth's 3% lodging excise. Rochester's 7% lodging tax does not appear on that list, and 7% sits outside the stated range. Check your own payout breakdown line by line and confirm your registration status with the Minnesota Department of Revenue rather than assuming coverage.

What happens if you rent your Rochester property short-term without registering?

Every day the property is rented without a valid registration certificate counts as a separate violation under section 7-9-12. Penalties escalate from a written warning to $250, then $500, then a referral to the city attorney for a misdemeanor carrying up to a $1,000 fine, 90 days in jail, or both. An owner who already holds rentals in Rochester gets no warning step and starts at $250. Repeat violations also block future applications.

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