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

Do you own a place in Medford, Oregon and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is, you can. Medford, the seat of Jackson County in southern Oregon's Rogue Valley, allows short-term rentals across the city, as long as you get a business license first and your property sits in a zone the license was built for.

Here's the catch, though. Medford's Vacation/Short-Term Rental License is written for single-family residential zones, and the license agreement itself caps a booking at fourteen consecutive days. Cross that line and you've drifted into a different kind of tenancy the license doesn't cover. You'll also need someone reachable twenty-four hours a day while the property is rented, and you have to mail your neighbors a flyer with that person's contact information once a year.

So this guide walks through what the City of Medford actually requires in 2026: the license, the paperwork behind it, the taxes that stack on a booking, and how far Oregon's own rules stretch above the city. Every figure below comes from Medford's or Oregon's own pages, checked in July 2026, and where the record went quiet on something, I say so plainly rather than guess. If you're comparing a Medford property against other markets, run the numbers through BNBCalc first.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Medford

Before you run any numbers, it helps to know exactly what kind of business Medford permits. The city allows short-term rentals, but only through its Vacation/Short-Term Rental License, and that license agreement is written for single-family residential, or SFR, zones specifically. If your Medford property sits in a multi-family or commercial zone, the standard vacation-rental license isn't the tool built for it, so check with Planning (contact details below) before you assume it applies to you.

Ownership matters too, although I have to be upfront about a gap here. Several secondhand sources claim Medford bans short-term rentals in properties the operator doesn't live in. I couldn't trace that specific restriction to an official Medford page I was able to open myself, since the exact code section that spells out eligibility criteria sits behind a bot check I never got past. What I can confirm is narrower: the license requires a contact person reachable around the clock, and the entire program is scoped to SFR zones. Do check directly with Business Licensing on the owner-occupancy question before you buy a property banking on it.

What the license won't do is turn a Medford house into a full-time nightly rental running indefinitely. The agreement caps a stay at fourteen consecutive days, so anyone picturing weekend and week-long guest turnover is on the right track, but anyone picturing month-plus furnished stays needs a different regulatory lane entirely, since that falls outside what this particular license covers. Oregon's statewide rules sit above all of this, and they're worth understanding before you assume Medford's approach is typical of the state.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Medford

Since the license shapes everything else about the business, it's worth seeing exactly what it demands. The Building Director, or a designee, issues the Vacation/Short-Term Rental License once an applicant meets every condition in the license agreement, and those conditions are specific rather than aspirational.

You need a qualified contact person available by phone at all hours, seven days a week, including holidays, for as long as the property is occupied by paying guests. That can be you or someone you designate, and you're allowed to swap the contact with fourteen days' written notice to the city; a second contact is fine for emergencies or when the primary one is away.

Neighbor notice is its own requirement. You have to certify, once a year, that you've mailed or hand-delivered a flyer to every neighbor within a 250-foot radius, listing that contact's information, and you have to redo it if the contact changes mid-year. On top of that, you must certify that the city's Good Neighbor Guidelines will reach your guests, whether that's baked into the rental agreement, printed in a welcome booklet, or posted somewhere obvious in the unit. Signage tops out at six square feet and six feet tall, capped at two signs per parcel. That rule applies in Medford's SFR and multi-family residential zoning districts alike.

Get any of that wrong and the license can be revoked or denied outright: for a misrepresentation, for unlawful activity at the property, for missing some other required permit and failing to fix it within fifteen business days of notice, or because the site can't lawfully be used the way you're using it. A revocation or denial bars you from doing business in the city for a full year from the date it's discovered, which is a real cost if you've already furnished a place. You do get an appeal: file written notice with the City Recorder within ten business days, and from there you can escalate to the City Council.

As for what it costs, I couldn't find a single published "vacation rental license fee" figure on any city page I was able to open, since the license runs through Medford's general Business License program rather than a standalone fee line. As of July 2026, the 2025 Master Fee Schedule lists a $50 non-refundable application fee, plus an annual fee tiered by employee count that starts at $100 a year for an operation with zero to two employees, which covers most single-listing hosts. Confirm the exact total with Business Licensing when you apply, since neither figure is broken out specifically for vacation rentals on the fee schedule.

Required Documents for Medford Short-Term Rentals

That fee doesn't come back if you're denied, so it's worth assembling the paperwork properly the first time. Medford's own Vacation Rental page lists four items, and all four have to arrive together.

• The Medford business license application, filled out completely, marking "n/a" anywhere a question doesn't apply to your situation.
• A Fire Department affidavit certifying smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are installed correctly. Oregon law requires alarms on the ceiling or wall near every sleeping area, in each bedroom, and on every story of the dwelling, and any alarm ten years old or older has to be replaced with a battery-backup unit before you sign.
• The signed Vacation/Short-Term Rental License Agreement, the same document that spells out the contact-person and neighbor-notification conditions above.
• The printed Good Neighbor Guidelines, which you'll post inside the unit and hand to every guest.

You can submit the packet by email to [email protected], in person at the Lausmann Annex, or by mail. Once it's in, review takes about one to two business days, and the city follows up by email with a link to pay. Remember that the Good Neighbor Guidelines aren't just a formality: they cover noise and lights after 10 p.m., a cap of ten vehicle trips a day averaged over a five-day period, trash and recycling handling, and pet control, and your license depends on relaying them to guests, not just filing them away.

Medford Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through the paperwork and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and two separate governments want a share of every booking. The city and the state each run their own transient lodging tax, and because they're administered separately, the rates and the filing calendars don't line up.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Medford Transient Lodgings Tax	11% of the rent	City of Medford (host or platform)
Oregon Transient Lodging Tax, through Dec 31, 2026	1.5%	Oregon Department of Revenue (host or platform)
Oregon Transient Lodging Tax, from Jan 1, 2027	2.75%	Oregon Department of Revenue (host or platform)

The city's Transient Lodgings Tax, Medford Municipal Code 8.800 through 8.820, sits at 11% of the "rent," meaning the total retail price charged for occupancy minus taxes. That rate has held since August 1, 2020. Before that it was 9%.

Whoever collects the guest's payment, the host or the booking platform, is the "lodging tax collector" responsible for remitting it, and you have to register with the city's Chief Financial Officer within fifteen calendar days of starting the business. Filing is monthly, due the last day of the following month. A collector may keep 5% of the tax collected to cover the cost of collecting it. Miss a deadline and the penalties stack fast: 10% for the initial delinquency, another 15% if you're still unpaid thirty days later, another 25% on top of that for fraud or evasion, plus 1% interest per month on whatever's outstanding.

A few situations skip the city tax entirely. Medford exempts hospitals and licensed care facilities, stays funded by a government emergency-shelter contract, nonprofit youth and church camps, any stay of 27 or more consecutive days, and, notably, a private residence used by the general public for fewer than 30 days total per year. If your Medford rental sits under that last threshold, keep records showing it, since it's the exemption most likely to apply to a light-use host.

Here's something worth watching for directly: Airbnb's own Oregon occupancy-tax page still lists Medford's Transient Lodgings Tax as 9%, which is the rate that expired in 2020. The same page confirms Airbnb does collect and remit both the state's 1.5% tax and Medford's local tax automatically, so the mechanism works, but the number on that page looks stale against the current 11% ordinance rate. Don't assume the platform is collecting the correct amount on your behalf; keep an eye on your payout statements and check the math yourself, because if Airbnb is remitting at the old rate, the shortfall lands on you as the registered lodging tax collector, not on Airbnb.

The state layer runs on its own separate track, registered through the Oregon Department of Revenue rather than the city, and it's covered in full in the statewide section below.

Oregon Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That state layer is worth understanding on its own terms, since it applies whether you're in Medford, Bend, or anywhere else in Oregon. Oregon has no statewide law that bans or caps short-term rentals; zoning and local licensing authority stay with each city and county, which is exactly why Medford's SFR-zone rule and 14-day cap are Medford's own choices rather than something the state imposed.

What Oregon does run is the state Transient Lodging Tax, currently 1.5% of the total price charged for occupancy, filed quarterly through the Department of Revenue's Revenue Online system regardless of what you also owe the city. That rate is set to rise to a combined 2.75% for any stay occurring on or after January 1, 2027, under House Bill 4134 from the 2026 legislative session, which redirects the new 0.9% and 0.35% components to wildlife-conservation funding. If you're pricing out a Medford booking that spans the new year, budget for the higher rate on the 2027 portion of the stay.

One more piece of state law explains something that might otherwise look odd: how Medford's own city rate could rise from 9% to 11% back in 2020. Oregon generally froze local lodging tax rates at their July 1, 2003 level under ORS 320.350, but the statute carves out an exception for any increase where the net new revenue funds tourism promotion, tourism facilities, or general city and county services under a required 70/30 split. That's the mechanism Medford's council used, and it's worth knowing because it means a city's local rate can still move even decades after the freeze, as long as the increase follows that formula.

Elsewhere in Oregon, the picture varies a lot by jurisdiction. Places like Bend and Portland run their own licensing programs with their own zone rules and caps, and none of them mirror Medford's exactly, so don't assume what you learned about one Oregon city transfers cleanly to another.

Does Medford Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given how specific those city conditions are, it's fair to ask whether Medford checks them. I couldn't find a published count of active licenses, citations, or revocations on a city page I was able to open, so I won't repeat the specific enforcement statistics that circulate in secondhand write-ups, since I couldn't verify them myself against an official source.

What is confirmed is the mechanism the city has in place. Operating without the required license is a code violation under Medford Municipal Code 8.900, and every day the violation continues counts as a separate one. A revoked or denied license carries a full year's ban from doing business in the city, which is a meaningful deterrent for anyone who's already sunk money into furnishing a place. Delinquent taxes, fees, penalties, and interest are all collectible through a civil action if it comes to that.

In practice, enforcement here runs the way it does in most mid-sized cities: complaint-driven rather than proactive patrol. Medford's Code Enforcement division sits inside the Police Department, and it handles reports through a phone line and an online form. That's the channel a frustrated neighbor is most likely to use if your guests are loud, your parking spills onto the street, or your listing looks like it's running well past that fourteen-day cap. Keep in mind that the same Good Neighbor Guidelines you're required to post exist specifically to head off those complaints before they ever reach Code Enforcement.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Medford

Assuming your property clears the zoning and ownership questions above, the order you tackle these steps in matters, since the early ones determine whether the later ones are worth doing at all.

1. Confirm your zoning first. Call Planning to verify your property is in an SFR zone the license covers, before you spend anything on furnishing or applications.
2. Line up your twenty-four-hour contact. Decide whether that's you or someone you're designating, since it has to be in place before the city will issue the license.
3. Install and document your smoke and CO alarms. Get them placed per Oregon code, then have the Fire Department affidavit ready to submit alongside your application.
4. Print the Good Neighbor Guidelines and plan your neighbor notice. You'll need to certify both, and the neighbor flyer has to go out to everyone within 250 feet.
5. Submit the full packet. The business license application, the fire affidavit, the signed license agreement, and the printed guidelines, all together, by email, mail, or in person at the Lausmann Annex.
6. Pay once approved. Expect a review of about one to two business days, then a payment link by email.
7. Register for the city's Transient Lodgings Tax with the Chief Financial Officer within fifteen calendar days of starting to operate, and separately register for Oregon's Transient Lodging Tax through Revenue Online.
8. Post everything required inside the unit and hand the Good Neighbor Guidelines to every guest, not just the first one.
9. Diarize your renewal and your fourteen-day limit. The license is an annual business license at its core, and every booking needs to stay inside the consecutive-day cap the agreement sets.

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

Whichever step trips you up, Medford splits STR-related questions across a handful of departments, and knowing which one owns your question saves a lot of time on hold.

Business Licensing (applications, fees, the license itself)

• Address: 200 S. Ivy Street, Lausmann Annex, 2nd Floor, Medford, OR 97501
• Phone: 541-774-2025
• Email: [email protected]

Planning Department (zoning eligibility, ADUs)

• Address: 200 S. Ivy Street, Lausmann Annex, 2nd Floor, Medford, OR 97501
• Phone: 541-774-2380
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Finance Department (Transient Lodgings Tax registration and filing)

• Address: City Hall, 3rd Floor, 411 W 8th Street, Medford, OR 97501
• Phone: 541-774-2030
• Email: [email protected]

Code Enforcement (complaints about an operating rental)

• Address: Police Headquarters, 219 S. Ivy St., Medford, OR 97501
• Phone: 541-774-2016

Medford Fire Department (the smoke and CO alarm affidavit)

• Address: 200 S. Ivy St. #180, Medford, OR 97501
• Phone: 541-774-2300

For anything statewide, including Oregon's Transient Lodging Tax registration, the Oregon Department of Revenue handles it separately from every city office listed above.

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

With those contacts in hand, it's worth knowing what other hosts run into before you're the one calling them. I couldn't find a Medford-specific BiggerPockets thread I could open and verify directly, so what follows is a read of the recurring shape of the questions people ask about a market like this one, not a summary of any single quoted thread.

The zoning question comes up constantly, and for good reason. A property that looks perfect for a nightly rental on paper can turn out to sit outside an SFR zone, or in a building type the license was never written for, and that's exactly the kind of thing an investor finds out only after making an offer. The pattern I'd watch out for, based on everything sourced above, is buyers assuming a license is a formality once they own the right kind of house, when the zoning question has to come first.

The fourteen-day cap is the other recurring friction point for anyone coming from a market with looser rules. Investors used to running a property as a rotating short-stay business sometimes discover that Medford's license wasn't built for that model at that intensity, and the honest answer for someone chasing high-turnover nightly bookings is that Medford's SFR-only, contact-person-required structure rewards a smaller, more hands-on operation over a scaled one. If that's not the business you're trying to run, it's worth checking how Bend or another Oregon market handles the same question before you commit to Medford specifically. And if the Rogue Valley's underlying numbers, occupancy, seasonality, nightly rates, are what drew you here, BNBCalc's Rogue Valley market data is worth pulling up before you go further, since the regulatory picture only matters once the property pencils out in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Medford, Oregon in 2026?

Yes, with conditions. Medford issues a Vacation/Short-Term Rental License for properties in single-family residential zones, and the license caps a stay at fourteen consecutive days. You'll need a contact person reachable around the clock while the property is occupied, an annual neighbor notification, a fire department safety affidavit, and a signed agreement to follow the city's Good Neighbor Guidelines. Properties outside SFR zones aren't covered by this particular license.

How much does a short-term rental license cost in Medford?

The city hasn't published a single standalone fee for the vacation rental license; it runs through Medford's general Business License program instead. The 2025 fee schedule lists a $50 non-refundable application fee plus an annual fee starting at $100 for an operation with zero to two employees, which covers most single-listing hosts. Confirm the exact total with Business Licensing at 541-774-2025 when you apply.

What taxes do you pay on a Medford short-term rental?

Two layers apply. Medford's own Transient Lodgings Tax is 11% of the rent charged, and Oregon's state Transient Lodging Tax is 1.5% now, rising to 2.75% for stays on or after January 1, 2027. Either the host or the booking platform can be the party responsible for collecting and remitting, depending on who collects the guest's payment. A handful of exemptions exist, including a private residence rented to the public fewer than 30 days a year.

Can you rent an entire Medford home for more than two weeks at a time?

Not under the standard Vacation/Short-Term Rental License, which caps a stay at fourteen consecutive days. A booking longer than that falls outside what this specific license covers, so anyone planning month-plus furnished stays needs to look at a different regulatory category rather than assuming the standard license applies.

What happens if you operate an unlicensed short-term rental in Medford?

It's treated as a code violation under Medford Municipal Code 8.900, with each day the violation continues counted separately. If an existing license is revoked or an application is denied for cause, the applicant is barred from doing business in the city for a full year from the date of discovery. Complaints typically reach the city through Code Enforcement, which investigates reports from neighbors rather than patrolling proactively.

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