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

Do you own a place in Jonesboro and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and the city settled the question back in 2019 instead of leaving hosts to guess. Jonesboro, the seat of Craighead County up in northeast Arkansas, lists short-term rentals as a use permitted by right across all eight of its single-family residential districts, and Arkansas has no state statute sitting above the city telling it what it may or may not allow.

The catch here is smaller than in most cities, though it's sharper than it first looks. Your zoning district has to be one of the ones on the list, and none of the multifamily districts are, so a duplex or an apartment unit is out no matter how well it would rent. You also need a privilege license in hand before you advertise rather than after, and there's a tax rate sitting in the city's own code that doesn't match what Airbnb is currently collecting for you.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly: which zones allow it in 2026, what the license costs, the documents the Planning office wants to see, the tax layers that stack on a single night's stay, and how hard any of it gets enforced in practice. Every figure below comes from Jonesboro's own ordinances and forms or from the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, checked in July 2026, and where two city documents disagree with each other I've said so rather than picking one.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Jonesboro,Arkansas?

Two pieces of the city code do almost all of the work, and once you separate them the rest falls into place.

The first is Chapter 42, Article VI of the Jonesboro Code of Ordinances, which handles licensing. It defines a short-term residential rental plainly, as the renting of residential property for a period of 29 days or less per rental. No owner-occupancy condition, no primary-residence test, no cap on how many you can hold. Ordinance 18:081 created the article on February 5, 2019, and Ordinance 19:011 amended it that April, and the definition has sat unchanged since.

The second is the zoning use table, which is where most people get caught out. Under section 117-138 of the zoning ordinance, a "P" against a use means it's permitted by right in that district, a "C" means you need a conditional use permit, and a blank means the use isn't permitted at all.

Short-term residential rentals carry a P in RS-1 through RS-8, which is every single-family residential district in the city, from the one-acre-minimum lots of RS-1 down to the 5,445 square foot lots of RS-8. They carry nothing at all in AG, in RM-H, in any of the RM multifamily districts, or in RI-U. So apartments are out entirely.

The commercial side is narrower still. Section 117-139 permits short-term rentals by right in three districts only:

• CR-1, the commercial residence mixed use district, which the code describes as a transitional classification between retail and single-family.
• C-2, downtown fringe commercial, the older mixed-use ring around the core.
• C-1, downtown core commercial, where housing sits alongside offices, retail and entertainment.

C-3, C-4 and both industrial districts are blank, which means no. So before you spend anything at all, do check the zoning classification of the specific parcel, because it decides the answer on its own and no permit exists to override it. The Planning & Zoning office at 300 S. Church Street will confirm a district over the phone, and a written zoning letter costs $50 on the city's published planning fee schedule.

Above the city, the state layer is thinner than in most of the country. Arkansas has no statewide short-term rental license, no registry, and nothing that preempts what Jonesboro does with its own zoning.

Two 2025 bills tried to change that and neither survived. House Bill 1445 would have zoned all short-term rentals as residential use and capped local permit fees, but its author withdrew it on April 15, 2025. The compromise version, House Bill 1790, failed on third reading and died on the House calendar at sine die. The legislature's next regular session is 2027, so nothing is pending right now, and our Arkansas statewide guide covers that framework in full.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Jonesboro

Assuming your parcel sits in one of those districts, the business you can build on top of it is a conventional one, which is not something you can say about every market. Jonesboro doesn't require you to live in the property. It doesn't cap the number of licenses it issues, it doesn't restrict how many nights a year you rent, and it doesn't run a lottery or a waiting list. Whole-home rentals are the norm here, not the exception.

That makes the multifamily exclusion the single most expensive mistake available to a new host. An RM-6 fourplex, an RM-12 apartment building, a manufactured housing unit in RM-H: none of those can legally take a 29-night booking, however the numbers look on a spreadsheet. Keep in mind that a property's tax classification and its zoning district are different things, so check the zoning district itself rather than assuming from the building type.

Two more filters sit between you and a first booking. The first is your homeowners association, and the city makes you confront it up front: the application packet includes an HOA certification form on which you either certify that no association governs the property, or certify that operating a short-term rental won't violate the association's agreement, bylaws, covenants or restrictions. Jonesboro won't police your covenants for you, but it will hold your signature on that form.

The second is the local contact rule, and it has two versions in two city documents. Section 42-147 requires that if the owner isn't a resident of Craighead County, the application names a local contact person who can serve as agent for lawsuits, citations, warnings and other correspondence. The city's own application checklist goes further, and says the responsible party must reside within a 25 mile radius of the property.

Treat the stricter one as operative. Buying from out of state means lining that person up before you apply, since the application won't move without a name, phone number, address and email for them.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Jonesboro

Once you've managed to line all of that up, there's still the license itself, and the code leaves no room for a soft start. Section 42-147 states that it's illegal to operate any type of short-term residential rental business in Jonesboro without a privilege license. The city's own instruction sheet puts it more bluntly still: unless or until you receive a permit, you're not authorized to list the property for rent on a website. So the listing goes up last.

The notarized affidavit you sign at the end of the packet asks you to certify you haven't advertised or operated a short-term rental without a permit, which means an early listing follows you into the application itself.

The fee is modest. Section 42-148 leaves the amount to a council resolution, and Resolution 19:037, adopted June 4, 2019, set it on a sliding scale by door count: $100.00 for one to nine units, $125.00 for 10 to 19, $150.00 for 20 to 29, and on up in steps to $400.00 at 100 units or more. Almost every reader of this guide sits in the first band.

Cash, check and cards are all accepted at the Collections Office, though a 2.3% processing fee rides on any card payment. Worth knowing before you turn up: the city's published checklist still shows the permit fee as "$??", so the resolution is the number to rely on, not the form.

The sequence matters more than the paperwork does. You start at Planning & Zoning on the third floor of the Municipal Center for use approval, then have a Certificate of Occupancy inspection ordered through the Inspections Department on the same floor. The Fire Marshal handles a separate inspection after that. Only then does the application go downstairs to the Collections Office on the first floor to be paid. Skip a step and you'll be sent back for it.

Licenses run on the city's ordinary business calendar rather than on a rolling anniversary. Under section 62-131, all annual licenses and occupation taxes are due January 1 each year, and a business that starts mid-year pays a prorated fee based on the months left in the calendar year.

Miss the deadline and the penalties escalate on a fixed ladder: 10% of the tax due if you pay between 45 and 75 days late, 20% between 75 and 135 days, and 40% past 135 days. The city collector also publishes a list of delinquents in a local newspaper by July 1, which anyone can read. So don't forget to put the renewal in your calendar, because the penalty isn't the only cost of missing it.

One ongoing duty attaches the moment you're approved. Section 42-149 requires a copy of the current privilege license to be posted on all advertising of the rental unit, and the city's instructions clarify that the permit number or a picture of the permit has to appear in the listing on every short-term rental posting. Failing to do that is one of the enumerated grounds for revocation, so it isn't a formality.

Required Documents for Jonesboro Short Term Rentals

Because the ordinance folds "a completed application checklist" into the license requirement by reference, that checklist carries the same legal weight as the ordinance text itself. Here's what the city's short-term rental application packet asks you to bring to the Planning office:

• A floor plan, on letter-sized paper, showing every room with walls, doors, windows and smoke detectors marked, for each floor of the house.
• Proof of homeowner's fire hazard and liability insurance, with liability limits of not less than one million dollars per occurrence.
• Proof that you notified the adjacent property owners, in person or by certified mail. The packet includes a template letter you can send as-is.
• Two forms of identification showing proof of residence. They have to show the property address, and the city's accepted list runs to an Arkansas driver's license, an Arkansas ID card, a Craighead County voter registration card, a pay stub, a work ID or badge, an IRS W-2 or a bank statement.
• Proof of payment of all taxes due, meaning property taxes, and at renewal all applicable room, occupancy and sales taxes.
• Contact details for the responsible party: name, phone number, address and email, with that person living inside the 25 mile radius.
• The homeowners association statement, on the city's template.
• A notarized affidavit confirming everything you've submitted is true and accurate.

Then comes the fire inspection, which is the part that costs real money if your house isn't ready. The Jonesboro Fire Department's short-term rental requirements sheet is specific, and it goes beyond what a normal single-family home carries:

• The street number on the front of the building has to be at least four inches tall, in contrasting colors, and visible from the street.
• Smoke detectors meeting UL 217 standards in all sleeping areas, in every room along the egress path out of the unit, and on each story including basements and garages, kept at least three feet away from any air diffuser.
• Every detector has to be interconnected, so that when one sounds they all sound. Battery-only units can't be interconnected, and the department says outright that they aren't allowed. Hardwiring by a licensed electrician or programmed wireless devices are the two routes.
• Each sleeping room needs an operable rescue window with an opening of 5.7 square feet, a minimum two foot width, and a sill no more than 44 inches off the floor. Sprinklers, or a door leading directly outside from that room, waive it.

Give the Fire Marshal's Office at least five business days' notice when you book the inspection, and allow another 48 hours after the field visit before the result reaches the Collections Office. Watch out for the interconnection requirement in particular, because retrofitting hardwired detectors through a finished house is the item most likely to add weeks and a four-figure electrician's bill to your timeline.

Jonesboro Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through the inspection and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and Jonesboro stacks more layers on a night's stay than the license fee would lead you to expect. Three separate governments have a claim on the same booking, spread across five separate charges.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Hotel and motel gross receipts tax (A&P)	4.0%	City of Jonesboro Collections Office
Arkansas gross receipts (sales) tax	6.5%	Arkansas DFA
Arkansas tourism tax	2.0%	Arkansas DFA
Jonesboro city sales tax	1.0%	Arkansas DFA
Craighead County sales tax	1.0%	Arkansas DFA

Start with the city's own charge, because it's the one that's moved. Section 62-41 levies a tax of four percent on the gross proceeds from hotel and motel accommodations or short-term residential business rentals inside the city limits, raised from three percent by Ordinance 21:048 on December 7, 2021. The city's own Local Supplemental Tax Remittance Form confirms it, listing "Hotel & Motel Tax" at 4% and describing it as the tax on gross receipts from both hotel and motel accommodations and short-term residential rentals.

Now the part that catches hosts out. Airbnb's Arkansas tax page still lists the Jonesboro Advertising & Promotion Tax at 3%, as of July 2026. The city says four, the platform collects three, and nothing in Airbnb's disclosure explains the gap.

That missing point is your exposure, not the platform's, because the tax is levied on the person furnishing the accommodation. Make sure you pull a payout breakdown for a real Jonesboro booking, check what rate came through, and take the difference to the Collections Office on 870-932-3042 before assuming you're covered.

The code itself isn't perfectly consistent either, which is worth knowing if a city employee quotes you a different number. Section 62-40, the definitions section, still describes the gross receipt tax as "a tax of three percent", because the 2021 amendment updated the operative levy in 62-41 and left the definition alone. Both sit in the same current supplement. The levy section is the one that imposes the tax, so four percent is the rate to work from, though I'd get that confirmed in writing before filing a first return.

That same definitions section carries a threshold the licensing rules don't have. Section 62-40 defines short-term residential business rentals as day-to-day or week-to-week rentals "where the rentals exceed a total of 30 days in any calendar year", and further as any property requiring commercial business insurance or a Schedule E filing. So the license bites from your first booking, while the city's 4% only reaches you once you pass 30 rented days across the year. Two definitions, two different triggers, in the same code.

Filing is monthly and manual. Returns and payment are due on the 20th, the late fee runs at 5% per month up to a total of 35%, and the city asks you to submit the Local Supplemental Tax Remittance Form alongside a copy of your Arkansas ET-1 excise return. You can pay in person at 300 South Church Street, mail a check to City of Jonesboro, PO Box 1845, Jonesboro, AR 72403, or use the online portal.

The state layers are simpler, mostly because someone else handles them. Arkansas charges 6.5% state gross receipts tax and a separate 2% tourism tax on lodging, and Airbnb confirms it collects and remits both automatically on every Arkansas booking of 29 nights or fewer, along with local sales tax.

The city and county sales tax rates come from the DFA's quarterly city and county tax table for July through September 2026, which shows Jonesboro at 1.000% and Craighead County at 1.000%. One quirk to note: section 62-75 applies the city's 1% only to the first $2,500.00 of each single transaction, which won't bind on a normal nightly booking but might on a long block.

If you take any bookings directly rather than through a platform, you'll also need an Arkansas sales tax permit before you collect anything, which runs $50.00 per business location through the DFA's online tax account registration and takes up to about two weeks. Whether a host who books exclusively through Airbnb or Vrbo can skip that registration is something I couldn't pin to a primary DFA page, so ask them rather than trusting a blog on it.

Jonesboro Wide Short Term Rental Rules

Tax compliance keeps the city collector happy, and a different short list of rules keeps your license alive. These apply everywhere inside the city limits, in every district that allows the use.

Section 42-150 frames the whole thing as a privilege rather than a right, and it lets the mayor or a designee revoke your license, place you on probation, or issue a civil fine where a property is deemed a nuisance. The factors the code names read like a list of every complaint a neighbor has ever filed:

• The designated local contact is unresponsive or can't be reached, and the owner doesn't immediately fix it.
• Criminal activity on the premises.
• Repeated complaints of loud noise.
• Trash or debris on the property.
• Cars parked where they shouldn't be, on the yard or grass, or in a way that blocks the street.
• Failure to post the current license on online or other rental advertising.

Notice how many of those describe party behavior rather than paperwork. That's deliberate, and it's the shape enforcement takes here.

You do get a real hearing if it goes wrong. Under section 42-151 you file a notice of appeal with the city clerk within ten days of the revocation notice, and the council's Public Works Committee hears it with the chairperson presiding. You can bring counsel and cross-examine the city's witnesses, and the committee delivers a written decision within ten working days. From there the appeal goes to the Circuit Court of Craighead County.

Be aware of the tail on this, though. Any further offence during an active probation forces revocation, and once a license is revoked no short-term rental license issues to that same owner for three years. That's the provision with teeth.

On the money side, operating without a license carries a fine of not less than $100.00 and not more than $500.00, and each day you keep operating counts as a separate offence. That's not a one-time fine. It accrues daily, so a month of operating unlicensed runs somewhere between $3,000 and $15,000 before anyone touches your revenue. Section 62-140 stacks a misdemeanor on top, with a fine of up to 150% of the license fee owed, again per day.

Compared with the rest of the state, that's a light regime built on a heavy backstop. Little Rock and Fayetteville both run dedicated short-term rental permit systems with their own inspections and conditional-use routes, and our Little Rock guide and Fayetteville guide walk through how much more there is to clear in those cities. Jonesboro asks less of you up front and reserves the right to take the whole thing away.

Does Jonesboro Strictly Enforce STR Rules? Is Jonesboro Airbnb Friendly?

Friendly on paper, thin on enforcement, and openly debating whether to change that. Those three things are all true at once in 2026, and the city said as much out loud this summer.

On July 24, 2026, Jonesboro Right Now reported that residents of the West End and Bridger Place neighborhoods took a short-term rental problem to the city council after an Airbnb in Bridger Place was rented out for a party in May. Bridger Place HOA president Karen Slicer described drugs, beer bottles thrown into other people's houses, and people blocking the street, with police dispatched more than once.

Police Chief Rick Elliott confirmed an arrest and towed vehicles, said the incident "took a lot of resources to handle", and noted that party organizers have shifted from abandoned buildings to Airbnb properties.

The most useful line in that meeting came from City Attorney Carol Duncan. She acknowledged the ordinance already has enforcement mechanisms, then named the real problem: "We don't even have a way to know where they are, if they don't come in and get their privilege license." She raised what other Arkansas cities do about it, noting that Hot Springs pays an outside tracking company roughly $80,000 a year, while questioning whether Jonesboro's volume justifies the spend.

Read that as an honest description of where things stand. There's no address-matching software, no published registry, and no proactive sweep of listing sites. Enforcement starts when a neighbor calls, which means an unlicensed rental in a quiet street can run for a long time and an unlicensed rental with one bad weekend gets found immediately. I couldn't locate any published count of licensed short-term rentals in Jonesboro, and the city attorney's remark suggests the city doesn't hold one either.

For an operator, that cuts both ways. The odds of being caught cold are genuinely low today, and the odds of the rules tightening are the highest they've been since 2019, with an HOA lobbying the council and a city attorney pricing tracking software in public. A licensed, insured, quiet operation is the one that survives whatever comes next, and it's also the one that keeps its three-year clean record if a neighbor ever does call. So no, I wouldn't treat the current enforcement gap as a business plan.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Jonesboro

Given how much rides on getting the order right, here's the sequence that keeps you from paying for a step you can't use.

1. Confirm the zoning district for the exact parcel. Call Planning & Zoning on 870-932-0406 or buy the $50 zoning letter. RS-1 through RS-8, CR-1, C-2 and C-1 work. Everything else stops here.
2. Check your covenants and HOA bylaws. You'll be signing a city form certifying that a short-term rental doesn't breach them, and Bridger Place is a live reminder that associations do act.
3. Name your responsible party. They need to live within 25 miles, and their name, address, phone and email go on the application.
4. Get the house through the fire requirements first. Interconnected UL 217 detectors, egress windows, four-inch street numbers. Fixing these before the inspector visits is cheaper than a re-inspection.
5. Assemble the packet. Floor plan, $1 million liability insurance certificate, proof you notified the adjacent owners, two proofs of residence, proof your taxes are paid, HOA statement, notarized affidavit.
6. Take it to Planning & Zoning, third floor of the Municipal Center, to open the application and get use approval.
7. Book the inspections. Certificate of Occupancy through the Inspections Department, then the Fire Marshal on 870-932-2428 with at least five business days' notice, then wait 48 hours for the result to post.
8. Pay at the Collections Office on the first floor. $100 for one to nine units, plus 2.3% if you pay by card.
9. Put the permit number or a photo of the permit in every listing before you take a booking, and set a calendar reminder for the January 1 renewal.
10. Register for the taxes. Get a DFA sales tax permit if you're taking direct bookings, and start filing the Local Supplemental Tax Remittance Form with your ET-1 by the 20th of each month.

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

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, four city offices and one state agency handle the lot between them. None of them publishes office hours on its own page, so call ahead rather than turning up.

Planning & Zoning owns zoning verification, the short-term rental application and the use approval.

• Address: 300 S. Church Street, Jonesboro, AR 72401 (third floor, Municipal Center)
• Phone: 870-932-0406 · Fax: 870-336-3036
• Email: [email protected]
• Director of Planning & Zoning: Derrel Smith, [email protected]
• Online: the Planning & Zoning page hosts the current Short Term Rental Application

The Collections Office issues the privilege license and takes the hotel and motel tax.

• City Collector: Tosha Moss, [email protected]
• Phone: 870-932-3042
• Address: 300 S Church Street, Jonesboro, AR 72401 (first floor)
• Mail payments to: City of Jonesboro, PO Box 1845, Jonesboro, AR 72403
• Online: the Collections page carries the privilege license and supplemental tax forms

The Fire Marshal Division runs the inspection that gates the whole application.

• Division Chief and Fire Marshal: Dr. Jason Wills
• Address: 3215 E. Johnson Ave, Jonesboro, AR 72405
• Phone: 870-932-2428 · Email: [email protected]
• Online: the Fire Marshal Division page

The Inspections Department handles the Certificate of Occupancy inspection.

• Chief Building Official: Tim Renshaw, [email protected]
• Address: 300 S. Church St., Jonesboro, AR 72401 · Phone: 870-933-4602

The Arkansas DFA Sales and Use Tax Section handles the state permit, the 6.5% sales tax and the 2% tourism tax.

• Physical address: Ledbetter Building, 1816 W 7th St, Rm 1330, Little Rock, AR 72201
• Mailing address: PO Box 3566, Little Rock, AR 72203
• Phone: 501-682-7104 · Fax: 501-682-7904

The city's main switchboard is 870-932-1052 if you're not sure which office owns your question.

What do Airbnb Hosts in Jonesboro on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Before I summarize anything, one caveat about method. Reddit blocks automated access and its terms don't permit the kind of use this would need, so I haven't read Reddit threads and I'm not going to characterise them. What follows comes from BiggerPockets threads I opened directly and from the council coverage above, and the reply bodies on BiggerPockets sit behind a login wall, so even there I could only read the opening posts.

What's on the record is that Jonesboro shows up in investor conversation as a cashflow market rather than a regulatory one. A January 18, 2024 BiggerPockets thread opens with a Boise investor who heard Jonesboro named among the top eight cashflow markets on the On The Market podcast, then asks for local experience. An older Jonesboro market thread runs the same way, with an out-of-state investor noticing the growth and a local replying with property management recommendations. Neither thread turns into a complaint about permits.

That absence tracks with what the rules actually ask. A $100 license, one fire inspection and a monthly tax form don't generate the kind of forum anger that a permit cap or an owner-occupancy rule does, so the complaints in Jonesboro come from the neighbors instead. The people organising and showing up to council meetings in 2026 aren't hosts complaining about red tape. They're HOA presidents asking for more of it.

My read, and treat this as a read rather than a survey, is that the quiet period is ending. The regulatory question in Jonesboro isn't whether you can operate. It's whether the operators who show up over the next two years behave well enough that the council leaves the current rules alone.

Before deciding either way, do check the economics against the rules. The Jonesboro market on BNBCalc Markets shows revenue, occupancy and nightly rates at the property level, and running a specific address through BNBCalc first will tell you whether the deal survives a 4% city tax and a $1 million insurance requirement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a permit to run an Airbnb in Jonesboro, Arkansas?

Yes. Jonesboro Code section 42-147 makes it illegal to operate any short-term residential rental business in the city without a privilege license, and the city's instructions say you're not authorized to list the property on a website until the permit is issued. The license costs $100 for one to nine units, requires a fire marshal inspection, proof of $1 million liability insurance and a notarized affidavit, and must be renewed each January 1.

Which Jonesboro zoning districts allow short-term rentals?

Short-term rentals are permitted by right in RS-1 through RS-8, which covers every single-family residential district in Jonesboro, and in three commercial districts: CR-1, C-2 and C-1. They are not permitted in the AG agricultural district, in any RM multifamily district, in RM-H manufactured housing, in RI-U, in C-3 or C-4, or in either industrial district. A blank cell in the city's zoning use table means the use is prohibited, and no permit overrides it.

How much tax do you pay on a short-term rental in Jonesboro?

Four layers apply. Jonesboro levies a 4% hotel and motel gross receipts tax on short-term residential rentals under section 62-41, remitted monthly to the city Collections Office by the 20th. Arkansas adds 6.5% state gross receipts tax and 2% tourism tax, and local sales tax runs 1% for the city plus 1% for Craighead County. Airbnb collects the state and local sales taxes automatically, but its Arkansas page still lists the Jonesboro city tax at 3%.

Does Jonesboro require you to live in the property you rent short-term?

No. Jonesboro's definition of a short-term residential rental covers any rental of residential property for 29 days or less, with no owner-occupancy condition and no primary-residence test. Ordinance 19:011, passed April 16, 2019, amended the article that created the rules. Non-resident owners face one extra requirement instead: the application must name a responsible party who lives within a 25 mile radius and can accept service of citations and lawsuits.

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

Operating without a privilege license carries a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $500, and each day of operation counts as a separate offence, so the total compounds. A separate provision adds a misdemeanor charge and a fine of up to 150% of the license fee owed. Enforcement is complaint-driven, and the city attorney said publicly in July 2026 that Jonesboro has no way of knowing where unlicensed rentals are unless the owner comes in for a license.

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