Jamestown, Rhode Island Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Jamestown, Rhode Island and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and you can rent the whole house rather than a spare room. Jamestown sits on Conanicut Island in Newport County, and unlike a couple of Rhode Island towns that have spent the past two years defending their rules in court, it has never tried to shut short-term renting down. What it built instead was a licensing system, and the Town Council votes on your application by name, in public, once a year.

The catch is that you're dealing with two registrations rather than one, and with a deadline that arrives long before the season you're planning for. Rhode Island makes you register with the Department of Business Regulation, then Jamestown makes you register again with the Town Clerk, on or before October 1, for a license that runs the following January through December. Fees are now charged per bedroom, so what you pay depends on whether you live in town and whether you live in the house. And a staff proposal that's been sitting with the Council since April 2026 would move the whole thing into the zoning code and confine non-hosted rentals to four commercial districts, which is the sort of change that turns a going concern into a nonconforming use.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly in 2026: what the ordinance permits, what the town charges, the inspections and the two-hour response rule, the 14% of tax your guests pay, how seriously any of it gets enforced, and who to call when something stalls. Every figure below comes from Jamestown's or Rhode Island's own documents, checked in July 2026, and where a rule is still moving I've said so rather than pretending otherwise. Assuming the numbers matter as much as the rules do, run the property through BNBCalc before you pay anything.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Jamestown, Rhode Island?

Both of those registrations exist because Jamestown wrote its own chapter of ordinance rather than leaving the question to Rhode Island. That chapter is Chapter 14, Article V, Sections 14-80 through 14-93, adopted by the Town Council on August 22, 2022, with enforcement deliberately stayed until January 1, 2023 so that owners had a season to get compliant.

The Council then reopened it a year later, once a Short-Term Rental Working Group had spent a season taking comments. The agenda for the August 7, 2023 meeting carries a continued public hearing on amendments to Sections 14-80 through 14-94, proposed off the back of those sessions.

The definition itself is broad, and Section 14-82 of the ordinance adopted in 2022 spells it out: a short-term rental is any rental, lease or other arrangement to occupy a dwelling unit, or any part of one, for less than thirty consecutive days. Licensed hotels, motels, bed and breakfast homes and community residences sit outside that, while everything else taking a booking of 29 nights or fewer sits inside it, whether you list on Airbnb, on Vrbo, or through a local rental agent.

Where you can do it is narrower than you might expect, though. The town's own short-term rental FAQ, revised in June 2025, quotes Section 14-87(a) for the rule that you may only rent a dwelling unit or a part of one, which means accessory structures are out. Section 14-87(c) then closes the workarounds people try in a beach town, because no tent, storage unit, boat or recreational vehicle may be used or occupied on the property while it's rented.

One more exclusion never made it into the 2022 text, so it's easy to miss. Summarizing the current rules for the Council on April 20, 2026, Town Administrator Edward Mello confirmed that a property served by a cesspool can't be a short-term rental at all.

What Jamestown doesn't require matters as much as what it does, though, and this is where it parts company with the strict-city playbook. There's no owner-occupancy test to clear, no minimum-night floor above the state's 30-day line, no requirement that you live on the island, and no rule against renting the entire house. You'll pay more as a non-resident and you'll be looked at harder, yet the door is open.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Jamestown

That open door has a number attached to it, and the number is smaller than most people assume. Reporting to the Council on December 1, 2025, Mello put the 2026 season at 129 approved short-term rentals with another 10 pending, against a town of roughly 5,500 people. Of those 139 properties, 51 are owned by non-residents, 35 are owner-occupied, 24 are owned by a Jamestown resident who doesn't live in the rental, and 19 sit in the Commercial Downtown District. So the market you'd be entering is small, well documented, and its composition gets read out in a public meeting every year.

No cap applies today, though the ordinance keeps one in reserve. Section 14-93 lets the Town Council set limits on the total number of short-term rental units permitted in town, or by geographic area such as blocks, neighborhoods and districts. It can act on that once it finds disruption to the quiet enjoyment of a residential area, harm to the seasonal or affordable rental market, or impairment to the residential character of a particular area. Nobody has pulled that lever yet, and residents asking for it is a different thing from it happening, but do keep it in view if you're buying with a five-year horizon.

Your bedroom count is where the ordinance decides how big a business you have, and your floor plan doesn't get the final word on it. Section 14-87(b) caps occupancy at two persons per bedroom, and where the house runs on an on-site wastewater treatment system, occupancy can't exceed the number of bedrooms the OWTS design load supports. Where the septic records are missing or unclear, the property is deemed a two-bedroom dwelling, full stop.

That clause gets used. A resident quoted it back at the Council during the November 3, 2025 licensing round, and the administration applied it on the spot. So make sure you can produce a current OWTS record before you model a four-bedroom listing, because without one you own a two-bedroom listing in the town's eyes.

One structure is off the table statewide, and it catches Rhode Island owners regularly. Since June 25, 2024, § 45-24-73(b)(8) of the state's zoning law has barred accessory dwelling units anywhere in Rhode Island from tourist or hosting-platform use. So the in-law apartment over the garage isn't a short-term rental, and no town permit can make it one.

Then there's the change that hasn't happened yet, which is the one I'd weigh hardest before buying. At that April 2026 meeting, staff put a full rewrite in front of the Council: move short-term rentals out of the building code and into the zoning code, define only two categories, hosted (the owner's primary residence) and non-hosted (everything else), allow hosted rentals in every zoning district, and allow non-hosted rentals only in the CW, CL, CD and DC districts.

The rest of that proposal is just as consequential for anyone buying to rent. Bedrooms would be capped at four, ADUs would be barred outright, registrations would stop transferring with the property, and existing short-term rentals would carry on as a nonconforming use only until the house is sold. Councilor Meagher called it a great starting point while flagging concerns of her own, and the Administrator asked the Council to sit with it, then bring it back on a future agenda. Nothing has been adopted yet. That was still the position at the July 20, 2026 Council meeting, whose packet is the most recent one the town has posted.

Since regulatory risk is what you're pricing here, it helps to see how neighboring towns handled the same pressure. The Portsmouth guide and the Tiverton guide cover the closest comparisons across the bay.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Jamestown

Assuming the property clears all of that and you're able to move forward, the town still wants three separate things from you rather than one. Section 14-83 requires a compliance certificate issued by the Building Official, a registration filed with the Registrar (which is the Town Clerk), and a license granted by the Licensing Authority (which is the Town Council itself), all before any short-term rental use occurs. Skipping straight to the listing is a violation of the chapter in its own right.

Timing is the part that catches new owners, because the calendar runs a year ahead of the season you're planning. Section 14-85 sets the filing date at on or before October 1, and a registration issued off that round is valid for the following January 1 through December 31. Register mid-year instead and your certificate runs only to December 31 of that same year, which is why the town was still approving 2025 licenses at that November meeting. The town's permits page shows the current window plainly, since 2027 registration opened through the OpenGov portal and closes on September 30, 2026.

Fees changed too, so if you're working from an older guide the numbers in it are wrong. The 2022 ordinance charged a flat $350 a year for a resident unit and $700 for everything else, whereas the June 2025 FAQ replaces that with a three-part charge in which the per-bedroom piece is capped at four bedrooms however many the house has. These are the figures as of July 2026.

Charge	Amount	Applies to
Annual application and registration fee	$125	Every short-term rental
Fire inspection	$30	Every short-term rental
Bedroom fee, Commercial Downtown District	$0 per bedroom	CD district only
Bedroom fee, owner-occupied	$50 per bedroom	Jamestown resident living in the property
Bedroom fee, resident owner not occupying	$100 per bedroom	Jamestown resident, rental isn't their home
Bedroom fee, non-resident owner	$200 per bedroom	Owner living off the island

Work it through and the spread is wide. A resident hosting three bedrooms in her own house pays $305, while an off-island owner of a four-bedroom pays $955, and a downtown listing pays $155 no matter how many bedrooms it has. Residency is doing the work there.

Whichever bracket you land in, the fees are due at submission and are non-refundable whether or not you're approved. So don't forget to settle any outstanding tax or water bill first, because the FAQ is explicit that a registration won't be issued to anyone who owes the town money.

A resident, for fee purposes, is a defined thing rather than a feeling. Section 14-82 wants the record owner to physically live in Jamestown for at least 183 days a year and to designate the property as their legal residence for a driver's license, voter registration or state ID. Neither a business entity nor a trust counts, so holding the house in an LLC lands you in the $200 bracket even if you sleep there most of the year.

Inspections come next, and there are two of them on a two-year cycle. The FAQ prices the Fire Marshal inspection at $30 and confirms that both the Building Official and Fire Marshal inspections stay valid for two years, provided each is done no later than that year's application filing. The Fire Marshal checks occupancy against Section 14-87 and looks for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors meeting the State Fire Code for the year your house was built, which is why the application asks for that year. Fail, fix, and you'll pay a re-inspection fee. Sample checklists are published, so it's worth reading yours before the appointment rather than after.

Then there are the standing conditions, which is where most of the day-to-day work sits:

• Occupancy runs at two persons per bedroom. Children under 12 don't count towards it, per the FAQ and the staff summary given to the Council in April 2026.
• A bedroom is a room of at least 70 square feet, no less than seven feet wide, with a window of at least 5.7 square feet and an interior way in and out. Closets, bathrooms and shared open spaces don't count, and your application has to match the Tax Assessor's property card.
• Parking under Section 14-87(c) is one off-street space per bedroom plus one more, each space 10 feet by 22 feet. Where the required spaces can't be provided, permitted occupancy drops to fit what's there. Mello told the Council in November 2025 that the ordinance carries no driveway requirement as such, so the argument is about counted spaces, not paving.
• A local representative under Section 14-90 must permanently reside in Rhode Island, or be a property manager with a physically staffed office in the state. You can name yourself only if you live in Rhode Island.
• The two-hour rule is the one people underestimate. Failure by the owner or the local representative to respond in person or by phone to the Jamestown Police Department or another town official, and to resolve the situation, within two hours is itself a violation of the chapter.
• Advertising has to state the maximum number of bedrooms, the maximum number of persons and the number of designated on-site parking spaces, and Section 14-88 requires the rental agreement to attach the registration and permit.

Your application doesn't go quietly into a drawer, either. Section 14-85 makes the Registrar advertise the list of filed applications at least two weeks before the Licensing Authority meets, and any person may then request a public hearing to contest a particular one. Where nobody objects, the Council can approve on its consent agenda. It may conditionally approve or deny only for just cause, and the ordinance ties that to complaints, regulatory contacts, misleading filings and ordinance violations.

Required Documents for Jamestown, Rhode Island Short-Term Rentals

Since none of those fees come back if the application stalls, it's worth getting the paperwork assembled before you open the portal. The FAQ lists what the town asks for, and the list is short but specific:

• Proof of domicile. A scanned driver's registration, voter registration, state identification card or another suitable form. This is what puts you in a fee bracket, so send the document that actually shows Jamestown.
• Your Rhode Island registration number. It runs in the format RE followed by five digits and then STR, and the town application won't accept a placeholder. Register with the state first.
• An OpenGov account, free, set up at the town's portal before you start.
• The year the house was built and the bedroom count, both taken from the Tax Assessor's property card through the town's GIS.
• The date of your last OWTS inspection, if the property is on septic rather than the public system. Ninety-five of the 2026 properties are on public water and 46 run an OWTS, so this applies to a real share of the island.
• Pool, jacuzzi and chimney details. A working chimney has to be cleaned and documented in good working order by a chimney sweep, and a pool or jacuzzi brings extra safety requirements.

Once you're licensed, two more documents live with the property rather than in the file. Section 14-89 wants the registration form and permit affixed inside the unit's primary access door, and it wants the Clerk's compilation of town rules posted in plain view, covering noise, dogs, parking, trash, recycling and water conservation.

Then, on top of that, Section 14-88 asks for a paper trail on your guests. Keep in mind that this means holding each renter's name, address and phone number, the rental dates and a copy of a state-issued ID, through the stay and for 90 days afterwards, then handing it over to town officials investigating an offense.

Jamestown Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start taking bookings, there's still tax to deal with, and Rhode Island changed the arithmetic on January 1, 2026. There's no Jamestown lodging tax as such, which is the easy half of the answer. The hard half is that the state layer went up.

Charge	Rate	Applies to	Collected by
State sales tax	7%	Every stay of 30 days or fewer	Host, or the platform as a registered room reseller
State hotel tax	5%	Rentals of a single room	Same
Whole-home short-term rental tax	5%	An entire dwelling rented in full	Same
Local hotel tax	2%	All stays, room or whole dwelling	State-collected, then distributed to the town

No stay pays both 5% charges. Rent a room and you're in the hotel tax; rent the whole house and you're in the whole-home tax, which the state budget for fiscal 2026 created and which took effect on January 1, 2026 alongside the local hotel tax doubling from 1% to 2%. Either way the combined bill lands at 14%, per the Division of Taxation's Notice 2025-09 and Advisory 2025-16. Watch out for the changeover rule while you're quoting 2025 bookings, because the tax follows the date of occupancy rather than the date of booking, so a stay reserved in 2025 for a night in 2026 pays the new rates.

Who hands the money over depends on how you take the booking, though the statute answers that cleanly enough. Under § 44-18-7.3(b)(4)(i), a hosting platform acting as a "room reseller" has to register with the tax administrator and then collect and remit sales, use and hotel taxes on what it processes. So the Division of Taxation's guidance follows from that, which is that renting exclusively through a registered platform leaves you no separate filing duty. Take a direct booking, though, or work through a channel that isn't registered, and the obligation lands back on you. So do check that any new channel is registered before you assume it's covering you.

There's a local wrinkle in where the money goes, and it's the reason the town cares about this at all. The whole-home tax gets split three ways, with 50% going to the state's Housing Resources and Homelessness account, 25% to the regional tourism district and 25% to the city or town where the property sits. The 2% local hotel tax comes back to the municipality as well, so a slice of what your guests pay does come home.

Every legal short-term rental on Conanicut Island is therefore a small revenue line for Jamestown. That's part of why the Council has regulated the sector rather than tried to end it.

Rhode Island Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Those taxes are collected by the state, and so is the registration that sits above your town license. Under § 42-63.1-14(b), any rental of 30 nights or fewer listed on a third-party hosting platform doing business in Rhode Island has to register with the Department of Business Regulation. The implementing rules at 230-RICR-30-20-4 then set the terms: $25 to register and $25 to renew, on a one-year term, one registration per rental unit.

Two details in there trip people up, though. Your listing has to display the registration number and its expiration date, and there are no exemptions at all for owner-occupied or seasonal properties. Ignore the requirement and § 42-63.1-14(i) charges $250 for the first 30 days, $500 from 31 to 60 days and $1,000 beyond that. It compounds quietly.

State law also limits what a town can do to you, although less than hosts tend to hope. Section 42-63.1-14(a) says that where a rental is offered through a platform that collects and remits the applicable sales and hotel taxes, a city or town can't prohibit the owner from offering the unit through that platform, or stop the platform from enabling the booking. Zoning, land use, life safety and local registration all survive that, which is why Jamestown's chapter is lawful while a flat advertising ban wouldn't be.

Where exactly that line falls is still being fought out in court. A Superior Court judge enjoined Narragansett in October 2024 over an ordinance that effectively banned platform advertising of stays under seven nights, yet a different judge upheld Exeter's ordinance in January 2025. Our Rhode Island statewide guide maps the whole framework, and the Narragansett guide covers the town at the center of that fight.

So two things are worth tracking through the rest of 2026, and both sit above Jamestown. Mello told the Council in April that three court cases remain pending in Rhode Island over municipal registration requirements and restrictions, with no indication of when they'll be decided or appealed. He also reported that the General Assembly's 2025 study committee on short-term rentals, before which he has testified twice, sat paused for more than nine months waiting on those rulings and has since reconvened without them. Jamestown is holding its own rewrite until both land, which tells you roughly how fast to expect movement, and it means a state-level answer could reset the local rules underneath you.

Does Jamestown Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Yes, though it does it in a way that's unusual enough to be worth describing properly, because the pressure doesn't arrive as a patrol. It arrives at the licensing meeting. Every application is advertised twice in the Jamestown Press, and at the November 3, 2025 meeting the Council took 122 properties on the consent agenda while a councilor read each host's name and address aloud and invited objections from the floor.

Two residents took the invitation. One objected that 36 of the properties were north of Eldred Avenue, while the other argued that plenty of municipalities bar short-term rentals in certain zoning districts and that the town should be mindful of limited water resources.

One application got pulled apart in public that night, which is the clearest picture of enforcement you'll find. A neighbor objected to application #65 at 87 Bow Street over an unrecorded septic system, proximity to a well, the absence of a driveway and setback compliance, and argued the house couldn't support the advertised bedroom count. The owner answered that it's advertised as a two-bedroom with a maximum of four occupants and has designated parking clear of the septic area.

The administration then ruled on the record: the property had been reviewed extensively the year before, it stays classified as a two-bedroom maximum without full septic information, the ordinance carries no driveway requirement, and the town verifies septic pump-out compliance. That's the level of scrutiny a contested listing gets, in front of an audience, once a year.

Day to day, enforcement belongs to the Zoning Enforcement Officer, whom Section 14-91 authorizes to implement, investigate, enforce and prosecute the chapter. Violations go out as a Violation Citation and Summons and are adjudicated in District Court, and the penalties borrow the general schedule at Section 1-15 of the town code. That means $250 for a first offense and $500 for a second and each subsequent one, with every day counting as a distinct and separate violation.

For an unregistered rental the FAQ walks through the sequence, starting with a violation letter carrying the $250 penalty, then a second letter at $500, then a final letter and a referral to District Court at $500 with the daily multiplier running. Be aware that the daily accrual is the part that hurts, since a summer of quiet non-compliance never resolves into a single fine.

Losing the license is the other lever, and it doesn't need a court. The Zoning Enforcement Officer can refer a license to the Council sitting as Licensing Authority for a show-cause hearing, where it can revoke, suspend, or take whatever action it judges appropriate. Since the same body votes your renewal through every autumn, a season of complaints costs you in a way no fine schedule captures.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Jamestown

Given how much of that turns on facts about the house rather than your intentions, the order below matters more than it looks. The early steps tell you whether the later ones are worth paying for.

1. Settle the bedroom count before anything else. Pull the Tax Assessor's property card through the town GIS, and find your OWTS records if you're on septic. Missing records means a two-bedroom maximum under Section 14-87(b), and a cesspool means no short-term rental at all.
2. Check the structure qualifies. It has to be a dwelling unit or a portion of one. Accessory structures are out under Section 14-87(a), and ADUs are out statewide under § 45-24-73(b)(8).
3. Count your parking. One off-street space per bedroom plus one, at 10 by 22 feet each. Short of that, the town reduces your permitted occupancy to match.
4. Register with the Rhode Island DBR and pay the $25. You'll need the RE#####-STR number before the town application will go anywhere.
5. Clear any town debts. Outstanding taxes or water bills will block the registration outright.
6. Line up a local representative who lives in Rhode Island or manages property from a staffed Rhode Island office, and who can answer a police call and fix the problem inside two hours.
7. Apply through the OpenGov portal on or before October 1, paying the $125 plus the $30 fire inspection plus your per-bedroom fee. For the 2027 season that window closes on September 30, 2026.
8. Take the inspections seriously. The Fire Marshal is checking detectors against the code for your build year and confirming occupancy. A failure costs you a re-inspection fee and time you may not have.
9. Post the paperwork on day one. Registration and permit inside the primary access door, the town's rules compilation in plain view, bedroom count and parking spaces in every advertisement, renter details held through the stay plus 90 days.
10. Diary the Council meeting your application lands on. Objections get heard there, and answering one in person beats reading about it in the minutes.

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

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, Town Hall at 93 Narragansett Avenue handles nearly all of it, and knowing which desk owns your question saves real time. The staff directory lists the people below, and the general Town Hall line is 401-423-7200.

Registration, licensing and the application itself

The Town Clerk is the Registrar under the ordinance, takes the registration, advertises the list and puts your application in front of the Council.

• Town Clerk: Roberta J. Fagan, 401-423-9800, [email protected]
• Deputy Town Clerk: Keith Ford, 401-423-9801, [email protected]
• Address: 93 Narragansett Avenue, 1st floor, Jamestown, RI 02835
• Fax: 401-423-7230
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., per the town's directory listing
• Apply online: through the permits and licenses page

Inspections, compliance certificates and enforcement

The Building & Code Enforcement Office issues the compliance certificate, and its official is also the Zoning Enforcement Officer who prosecutes violations of the chapter.

• Building & Code Enforcement Official: Alan Gouveia, 401-423-9803, [email protected]
• Complaints about a short-term rental go to that same number, per the town FAQ

Zoning questions and the proposed rewrite

Since the pending proposal would move short-term rentals into the zoning code, zoning is the office to ask about districts and permitted uses.

• Director of Planning & Zoning: Nancy Letendre, 401-423-7209, [email protected]
• Town Administrator: Edward Mello, 401-423-9805, [email protected], who has been briefing the Council on the review

Anything urgent, and the state layers

• Emergencies: 911
• A loud party at 2 a.m. or anything needing an officer now: Jamestown Police, 401-423-1212
• State registration: Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, under § 42-63.1-14 and 230-RICR-30-20-4
• Lodging tax: Rhode Island Division of Taxation, whose current short-term rental rates are set out in Notice 2025-09

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

Those offices hear from hosts constantly, and honestly the town's own record is a better guide to local sentiment than any forum I could reach. I should say plainly that I couldn't read Reddit for this, since it blocks automated access, and no Jamestown-specific BiggerPockets thread surfaced that I could open. So what follows comes from meeting minutes and correspondence logs instead, which at least have the advantage of being verbatim.

• The loudest objections are about density and water, not noise. At the November 2025 licensing round, one resident's complaint was that 36 of the 122 properties on the agenda sat north of Eldred Avenue, and another asked the Council to look at limited water resources and septic systems in the Shores. Neither asked for a ban. Both asked for geography.
• Owners feel the rules keep moving. The correspondence log in the July 20, 2026 Council packet includes a family letter headed "Short-term rentals, please do not change the rules again to hurt middle-class citizens like us", alongside two further resident letters on the subject filed the same week. That's the temperature four months after the zoning proposal landed.
• Contested applications are survivable. The 87 Bow Street objection went the owner's way once the administration confirmed the property had already been reviewed and was properly classified. Being prepared with septic paperwork was the whole difference.
• The 183-day residency test does the sorting. With 51 of the 139 properties non-resident owned and paying $200 a bedroom, the fee schedule is doing quiet policy work, and it's the number most likely to move again if the Council adopts the April proposal.

Take that second point seriously if you're underwriting a purchase here. For what the surrounding market actually earns, the Newport market numbers are the closest reliable read on demand at this end of the bay, because Jamestown's own inventory is far too small to average safely.

Whatever those numbers say, though, price the rules as a variable rather than a constant. Small coastal towns don't settle this question once and move on, and a place that reads out every host's name in public each autumn is a place that can change its mind in public too.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Jamestown, Rhode Island in 2026?

Yes. Jamestown permits short-term rentals, including whole-house rentals, provided the property is registered with the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation and separately licensed by the town. Applications go to the Town Clerk on or before October 1 for a license covering the following calendar year, and the property must pass Building Official and Fire Marshal inspections. Rentals in accessory structures, in ADUs and at cesspool-served properties are prohibited.

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

The town charges $125 a year plus a $30 fire inspection fee, plus a per-bedroom fee set by who owns the property and whether they live in it. That bedroom fee is $0 in the Commercial Downtown District, $50 for an owner-occupied unit, $100 where a Jamestown resident owns but doesn't occupy it, and $200 for a non-resident owner, capped at four bedrooms. Rhode Island's registration adds $25. All town fees are non-refundable.

How many short-term rentals are there in Jamestown?

The Town Administrator reported 129 approved short-term rentals for the 2026 calendar year, plus 10 pending, after the October 1, 2025 application window closed. Of those 139 properties, 51 are non-resident owned, 35 are owner-occupied, 24 are owned by a resident living elsewhere in town, and 19 sit in the Commercial Downtown District. No cap is currently set, though the ordinance reserves the Council's right to impose one.

What are the penalties for renting without a Jamestown license?

An unregistered rental draws a first violation letter with a $250 penalty, a second letter at $500, then a final letter and referral to District Court at $500, and every day of non-compliance counts as a separate violation. Enforcement sits with the Zoning Enforcement Officer, and citations are heard in District Court. A licensed host can also be called to a show-cause hearing where the Town Council may suspend or revoke the license.

What tax do guests pay on a short-term rental in Rhode Island?

Since January 1, 2026, a whole-home short-term rental carries 7% state sales tax, a 5% whole-home short-term rental tax and a 2% local hotel tax, for 14% in total. Rent a single room instead and the 5% state hotel tax replaces the whole-home tax, for the same 14%. Platforms registered as room resellers collect and remit these, and the tax follows the date of occupancy rather than the booking date.

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