Baltimore, Maryland Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Baltimore, Maryland and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, though the path is narrower than it probably looks from the outside. Everything below covers Baltimore City specifically, the independent city on the Patapsco, not Baltimore County, which runs its own separate rules covered in our Baltimore County guide. The city still licenses short-term rentals, but since March 31, 2020 it has only handed out new licenses for a hosted unit: your own home, the place where you live and where you're present for the stay. If you pictured buying a vacant rowhouse purely as an investment and running it as a whole-unit Airbnb, that path closed years ago, and only a small, grandfathered pool of owners still gets to use it.

Layered on top of that is something most 2025-era write-ups never mention at all. Maryland passed its first statewide fire-safety mandate for short-term rentals this year, named for two Montgomery County sisters who died in a vacation-rental fire, and it reaches every short-term rental in the state, Baltimore included, once it takes effect on October 1, 2026. Between that new law and the city's own 2020 freeze on unhosted licenses, this is a genuinely different market than the one most existing guides still describe.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to run this properly in 2026: who can even apply for a license, what the $200 fee buys you, the tax layers that stack on top of a booking, how hard the city and state actually enforce any of it, and who to call once you get stuck on something. Every figure below comes from Baltimore City's own code and Maryland's own legislative records, checked in July 2026. If you're weighing a Baltimore rowhouse against a market where the whole unit can legally go on Airbnb, run the numbers through BNBCalc first.

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

Before you run any numbers, though, you need the actual legal picture, and that starts with a single ordinance that does almost all of the work. Ordinance 19-217, codified as Baltimore City Code Article 15, Subtitle 48, defines a "short-term residential rental" as the use of all or part of a dwelling unit, booked through a hosting platform, to put up a transient guest for a fee. A "transient guest" is anyone staying fewer than 90 consecutive days. Anything shorter than that falls under this subtitle. Anything 90 nights or longer is an ordinary tenancy instead, governed by landlord-tenant law rather than by Subtitle 48.

The subtitle splits every rental into two categories, and only one of them still takes new applicants. A hosted unit is the licensee's own home: they live there, and they stay on-site during the rental except during ordinary daytime or working hours. An unhosted unit is everything else, a whole property rented out with the owner absent. Baltimore accepted new unhosted applications only through a narrow grandfather window (bookings between August 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018, ownership secured by the end of 2018, and an application filed within 90 days of the subtitle taking effect), and that window has been closed for years. Every unhosted license operating today is a renewal of one issued back then. Nobody is getting a new one.

Eligibility for the license that's still open runs through three tests, and Baltimore's own licensing prerequisites and its own FAQ both spell them out the same way:

• It has to be your permanent residence. That means you live there at least 180 days a year, and you can document it with a driver's license, voter registration, or homestead tax credit designation. Each host gets one.
• It has to be deeded to a natural person, not a company. An LLC-owned rowhouse doesn't qualify, full stop, no matter who runs it day to day.
• It has to be free of code violations, and you need a Maryland sales and use tax number. Both get checked before a license is granted, and one of the fastest ways to stall an application is to skip the tax registration step and try to add it later.

Maryland itself doesn't dictate any of this. It's Baltimore's own ordinance doing the heavy lifting, with the state showing up mainly through tax law and, as of 2026, a brand-new fire-safety mandate covered later on. If you want the fuller state picture before you dig into city specifics, our statewide Maryland guide lays out how the pieces fit together across every county.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Baltimore, Maryland

Since that eligibility list rules out anyone who doesn't already live in the property, it's worth being honest about what kind of business is available here. This isn't the buy-a-second-property-and-run-it-as-a-nightly-rental model that works in plenty of other markets. What's left is turning your own home, or a spare room, a finished basement, or an accessory unit inside it, into part-time income, while you keep living there as your primary residence for at least 180 days a year.

You're also capped at one license per person. Hold a hosted license and you can't hold a second one, and the same goes for unhosted. The only overlap the city allows is a host who's renewing a grandfathered unhosted license also holding one hosted license on top of it, according to the FAQ's own answer on the point. Nobody gets two of either kind. That rules out scaling a small STR portfolio inside the city limits under your own name, which is a real constraint if you were picturing multiple units.

For anyone still set on an investment property that isn't your own home, Baltimore City just isn't the right vehicle, though the wider region still might be. Our Maryland rental-property guide walks through neighborhoods across the state built around exactly that kind of buy-to-rent math, and Baltimore County next door runs a genuinely different licensing scheme worth checking before you write off the metro area entirely.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Baltimore, Maryland

Assuming your property clears all of that and you're applying for a hosted license, the process itself is still fairly quick, at least compared to the eligibility check that comes before it. New applications run through the Short-Term Rental Registration Portal, where you'll enter the property address, the owner information as it appears on the deed, and your Maryland sales and use tax number. If you don't have that tax number yet, the same application lets you apply for one without leaving the page, then save a draft and come back to finish later.

As of July 2026, the license fee is $200 per dwelling unit, due at initial licensing and again at every renewal. You can pay online, or mail a check payable to "Director of Finance" to Property Registration, 417 E. Fayette St., Baltimore, MD 21202. Once the payment posts, which the city says can take five to ten business days for a mailed check, the license generates automatically and you'll get an email with the expiration date printed on it. Do check that date carefully, because licenses run biennially, two full years from issuance, not from whenever you first started hosting.

Renewal works the same way, just triggered by a claim code emailed to whatever address is on file rather than a fresh application. File it, along with the fee, at least 30 days before the current license expires. Don't let a license lapse and expect a smooth renewal afterward. It's meant to be a continuous two-year cycle, and letting it gap invites exactly the kind of scrutiny you'd rather avoid.

The city can also deny, suspend, or revoke a license for a material false statement, fraudulently obtaining or using the license, an uncured Building, Fire, Health, or Zoning Code violation that's sat unresolved for more than 120 days, or any other failure to comply with the subtitle. Normally you'd get 10 days' written notice and a chance to be heard before any of that happens. The one exception: if the Housing Commissioner, Fire Chief, Health Commissioner, or Police Commissioner decides the situation puts occupants or the public in imminent danger, the city can act first and skip the hearing.

Required Documents for Baltimore, Maryland Short-Term Rentals

Since a denied or returned application still costs you time even when it doesn't cost you the fee, it's worth gathering everything before you start the form rather than partway through it. Baltimore's own application instructions and its licensing FAQ point to the same short list:

• Proof the deed is in your name as an individual. The system generally auto-populates owner details once you enter the address, but you'll need to correct anything that's out of date yourself.
• Your Maryland sales and use tax number, or a completed application for one, since the portal lets you request it in the same session.
• Proof this is your permanent residence. A driver's license, voter registration, or homestead tax credit designation showing the same address works, per the definition Baltimore's own code uses for "permanent residence."
• A HUD-1 or settlement sheet, but only if the property changed hands recently and you had to update the auto-populated owner name during the application. Skip it if nothing changed.
• Proof of Article 13, Subtitle 4 registration, but only if you're renewing a grandfathered unhosted unit. That registration and license run separately from the short-term rental license itself and have to stay current alongside it.

Keep in mind the application locks once you submit it. Review every field before you hit confirm, because correcting a submitted application means contacting DHCD directly rather than editing it yourself.

Baltimore, Maryland Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and Baltimore stacks two separate layers on top of each other. Here's how they break down:

Tax	Rate	Collected by
Maryland state sales and use tax	6%	Comptroller of Maryland; larger booking platforms collect and remit it automatically
Baltimore City Hotel Room Tax	9.5%	Baltimore City Department of Finance; the code names hosting platforms directly as liable for facilitated bookings
Baltimore Tourism Improvement District assessment	2%	Assessed on "hotels" as narrowly defined; unclear it reaches a typical single-unit STR host

The state's 6% is the ordinary Maryland sales and use tax, extended to "accommodations," which is the state's own term for a transient guest's right to occupy a room or lodging. Booking platforms above a certain size, generally $100,000 in Maryland bookings or 200 or more transactions a year, are required to collect and remit it on a host's behalf as an "accommodations intermediary," and Airbnb and Vrbo both clear that bar many times over. You'd need to register with the Comptroller directly only if you're taking bookings outside a platform that already collects for you.

The city's piece is bigger and, unlike a lot of hotel taxes elsewhere, it's written to reach short-term rentals explicitly rather than by loose analogy. Baltimore's hotel room tax runs 9.5% on three separate categories of payment, all taxed the same: money paid to hotel operators, money paid to hosting platforms for booking a short-term residential rental, and money paid directly to a host for one. Whoever's subject to the tax has to collect it and remit it to the Director of Finance by the 25th of each month. Since the platform is named directly as the taxpayer for bookings it facilitates, that's most of what you'll ever handle, though a booking you take without going through a platform makes you the one responsible for collecting and filing it yourself.

The 2% Baltimore Tourism Improvement District assessment is the one to treat carefully. It's charged on "assessed businesses," which the code defines as a "hotel" under the same narrow definition used elsewhere in the tax code: a building with sleeping accommodations for more than five people, open to the transient public. That's a real hotel or motel, not a typical single-unit Airbnb listing, and going through the code I couldn't find anything that pulls an ordinary STR host into that assessment the way the hotel room tax explicitly does. Don't assume you owe it just because you've seen the 17.5% combined figure quoted for Baltimore hotel stays elsewhere; that figure is describing a hotel room, not necessarily your listing.

Your rental income is also ordinary taxable income at the federal and state level, and the usual deductions apply: mortgage interest, depreciation, cleaning and supply costs, and a reasonable share of utilities if you're renting out part of a home you still live in. That last part is the fiddly bit, since you're apportioning a shared space rather than deducting a dedicated rental property outright. If you're trying to see whether a Baltimore room-share clears more than a listing in a market where the whole unit can legally rent out, BNBCalc Markets breaks that comparison down at the neighborhood level.

Maryland Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Baltimore's rules make a lot more sense once you see how little of this framework is written by the state itself. Maryland doesn't preempt local control here. Counties and Baltimore City each write their own licensing, zoning, and local tax rules, and the ones that apply to Baltimore are the ones covered above, not a separate statewide licensing regime.

Where the state does step in directly is tax and, as of this year, safety. The accommodations intermediary rule that makes Airbnb and Vrbo collect the 6% sales tax automatically is state law, not city law. And on April 14, 2026, Governor Wes Moore signed Chapter 9 of the 2026 Laws of Maryland, the Jillian and Lindsay Wiener Short-Term Rental Fire Safety Act, named for two Montgomery County sisters who died in a vacation-rental fire. Once it takes effect on October 1, 2026, every short-term rental unit in Maryland, city included, has to post an evacuation diagram and emergency phone numbers. It also needs a working fire extinguisher plus smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, interconnected if there's more than one, audible in every sleeping area, and replaced if they've stopped working, are over ten years old, or carry no production date at all. Booking services have to notify every host of the requirement and collect documentation that they've complied. By July 1, 2028, Baltimore City and every Maryland county have to write local inspection rules and report compliance numbers back to the State Fire Marshal, so expect an actual inspection regime to follow within the next couple of years, even though it isn't live yet.

One more thing is worth watching rather than planning around. A bill that would have stopped counties and cities from banning a short-term rental just because the operator is a tenant rather than the owner passed the House 102-31 in March 2026, then stalled in the Senate after a favorable committee report in April. As of my last check in July 2026, it hadn't gotten a final Senate vote before the session ended. Treat it as dead for now. It's the kind of bill that tends to come back, though, so it's worth keeping an eye on if you're weighing a lease-based STR strategy anywhere in the state.

If you're comparing Baltimore against the rest of the region, the rules genuinely differ county by county. Our guides to Anne Arundel County's short-term rental rules and Montgomery County's own short-term rental rules, the county the Wiener sisters called home, both cover markets with meaningfully different licensing setups than the one you just read through.

Does Baltimore, Maryland Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given a fire-safety law is about to add a whole new inspection layer, it's fair to ask how seriously the existing rules get enforced today. The honest answer is: seriously enough that skipping the license is a genuinely bad bet, even if Baltimore's mechanism looks less dramatic than cities that block bookings outright at checkout.

The enforcement runs through the platforms first. Under Baltimore's ordinance, a hosting platform can't advertise or facilitate bookings for a unit without first verifying the host's license with the Housing Commissioner, and once the city gives written notice that a unit can't lawfully operate, the platform has to pull the listing within three days. Platforms also have to keep records tying every Baltimore booking to a host name, license number, address, dates, and fee, which gives the city a real paper trail if it ever needs one.

Operating without a valid license, or otherwise violating the subtitle, is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $500 per offense, and each day the violation continues counts as a separate offense. It compounds fast on a listing that keeps taking bookings after the city has already flagged it. On top of the fine, the city can move to deny, suspend, or revoke the license itself, and if the situation looks dangerous enough, it can do that without waiting for a hearing first.

None of that is as aggressive as a city that blocks a transaction the moment a listing goes unlicensed. But mind you, the direction of travel here is toward more scrutiny, not less. The city already closed the door on new unhosted licenses in 2020, and the new statewide fire-safety law adds a mandatory inspection regime by 2028. A market that's tightening its rules year over year isn't one where quietly skipping the license gets easier with time.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Baltimore, Maryland

Assuming everything above still fits your situation, the order below matters, since the early steps decide whether the later ones are worth doing at all.

1. Confirm the property is your permanent residence. You need to live there at least 180 days a year and be able to document it with a driver's license, voter registration, or homestead tax credit designation. If it doesn't clear this test, nothing else below applies.
2. Confirm the deed is in your name as an individual, not an LLC or other entity, and check for any open Building, Fire, Health, or Zoning Code violations before you apply.
3. Register for a Maryland sales and use tax number through the Comptroller's Maryland Tax Connect portal, if you don't already have one.
4. Apply through the Short-Term Rental Registration Portal, entering the property address and owner information, and attach a HUD-1 or settlement sheet only if the property changed hands recently.
5. Pay the $200 license fee, online or by mailed check, and remember that mailed payments can take five to ten business days to post before your license generates.
6. Post your license number in every listing and keep it current on any platform you use, since the platform has to verify it before advertising your unit at all.
7. Set up your emergency posting and record-keeping, including the required emergency contact information and a way to document each booking, per the city's operational rules.
8. Get ready for the new fire-safety requirements ahead of October 1, 2026: a posted evacuation diagram, emergency numbers, a working fire extinguisher, and working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that meet the state's technical specs.
9. Set up tax collection and filing. Confirm your booking platform is collecting the state's 6% sales tax on your behalf, and understand your own obligation to remit Baltimore's 9.5% hotel room tax on any booking that comes in outside a platform.
10. Diarize your renewal date. The license runs two years from issuance, and renewal paperwork is due at least 30 days before it expires.

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

Whichever step above you get stuck on, a small handful of offices handle almost everything between them.

Licensing, eligibility, and the application itself

The Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) administers Subtitle 48 and is the first call for anything about eligibility, the application itself, or a licensing dispute.

• Address: 417 E. Fayette Street, 14th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202
• Main phone: 443-984-5757
• Property Licensing and Registration line: 410-396-3575
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Apply or renew: the Short-Term Rental Registration Portal

City taxes

The Baltimore City Department of Finance, Bureau of Revenue Collections handles the Hotel Room Tax, including registration and monthly filing.

• Address: 200 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, MD 21202 (Abel Wolman Municipal Building)
• Phone: 410-396-3000
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

State sales tax and registration

The Comptroller of Maryland handles state sales and use tax registration and filing, separate from anything the city collects.

• Register or update an account: Maryland Tax Connect
• Mailing address: Revenue Administration Center, 110 Carroll Street, Annapolis, MD 21411-0001

Be aware that zoning and code status are DHCD questions too, not the Comptroller's. An uncured zoning violation is one of the grounds the city can use to deny or revoke a short-term rental license, so it pays to check that before you touch the tax side at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Baltimore City in 2026?

Yes, but only for your own primary residence. Baltimore City stopped issuing new licenses for unhosted, whole-unit rentals back in March 2020, so a new applicant can only get a hosted license, meaning the property is where you live at least 180 days a year. The license costs $200, runs for two years, and requires a Maryland sales and use tax number. Buying a second property purely to run as a nightly rental isn't an option for a new host here.

How much does a Baltimore short-term rental license cost?

The license fee is $200 per dwelling unit, due when you first apply and again at every two-year renewal. It's a biennial license, not annual, so budget for it once every two years rather than every twelve months. You'll also need to keep a Maryland sales and use tax number active, and a grandfathered unhosted unit carries a separate rental registration and license fee under the city's Article 13 rules on top of the $200.

What happens if you run an unlicensed short-term rental in Baltimore?

Operating without a valid license is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $500 per offense, and each day the violation continues counts as a separate offense, so it compounds fast. Booking platforms are also required to verify a listing's license before advertising it, and to remove any listing within three days of the city notifying them it can't lawfully operate. On top of that, the city can deny, suspend, or revoke the license itself, sometimes without a hearing first if it decides the situation is dangerous.

What taxes apply to a Baltimore Airbnb?

Two layers apply to most stays: Maryland's 6% state sales and use tax, generally collected automatically by larger booking platforms, and Baltimore City's 9.5% Hotel Room Tax, which the city's code applies directly to short-term rentals and to the hosting platforms that facilitate them. A separate 2% tourism assessment exists, but it's aimed at buildings that meet the code's narrower definition of a hotel, not typical single-unit Airbnb listings.

Does Maryland have a statewide law affecting Baltimore short-term rentals?

Yes, and it's brand new for 2026. The Jillian and Lindsay Wiener Short-Term Rental Fire Safety Act takes effect October 1, 2026, and requires every short-term rental in Maryland, Baltimore included, to post an evacuation diagram and emergency numbers and carry a working fire extinguisher plus smoke and carbon monoxide alarms meeting specific state standards. Baltimore City and every county then have until July 1, 2028 to write local inspection rules and report compliance back to the State Fire Marshal.

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