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

Do you own a place in Pasco and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that the answer changed this summer, and it changed in your direction. On July 6, 2026, the Pasco City Council voted 7-0 to adopt Ordinance No. 4847, which creates a whole new chapter of the Pasco Municipal Code for short-term rentals. Before that vote, the city's own answer to this question was a flat no, and it had been for years.

The catch is the calendar. That ordinance doesn't take effect until January 1, 2027, so for the rest of 2026 there's still no permit to apply for and no legal path the city will bless. Pasco sits in Franklin County, on the Washington side of the Columbia at the top of the Tri-Cities, and it's the only one of the three cities that has put a framework like this on paper. Even in 2027, a few things stay unsettled: the council hasn't adopted a permit fee yet, and the zoning question of which districts will actually allow short-term rentals is still moving through the city's Comprehensive Plan update.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly: what Pasco allowed in 2026, what changes on January 1, what the permit and licenses involve, the three layers of tax that attach to a Pasco stay, how the Code Division actually enforces anything, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from the city's own council packets, the Pasco Municipal Code, or the Washington Department of Revenue, checked in July 2026. Before you buy anything on the strength of a rule that starts in 2027, run the property through BNBCalc first.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Pasco, Washington?

There are two answers, and which one applies depends entirely on the date you're asking about.

Through the end of 2026, the city's position is a no. Pasco's own code enforcement FAQ answers the question "Does Pasco allow AirBnB's?" with a single line: "No. The City of Pasco does not allow short-term rentals under 30 days." That's the whole answer the city gives residents.

Now, the reason that reads so blunt is worth understanding, because it isn't a ban in the way Scottsdale or New York bans things. The staff report that went to council on June 8, 2026 puts it differently: "The City currently has no dedicated regulatory framework for short-term rentals (STRs)." The slide behind that report is blunter still, saying no PMC framework existed to "regulate, permit, or enforce STR operations."

So there was no permit to grant, no use listed in the code, and no STR-specific enforcement tool either. Listings existed anyway. The city just had no clean way to say yes, and its counter answer was therefore no.

From January 1, 2027 that changes completely. Ordinance 4847 creates PMC Chapter 5.120, Short-Term Rentals, and defines one as "a legally established dwelling unit, accessory apartment, or portion thereof that is offered as a rental to guests for fewer than thirty consecutive nights." Cross thirty nights and you're outside the chapter entirely. Stay under it, and from 2027 you need an approved short-term rental permit and a City of Pasco business license before you operate.

Two pieces of the new regime aren't finished yet, though, and both matter more than they sound.

• The fee is unwritten. PMC 5.120.030 says the permit fee is "as established by resolution of the City of Pasco City Council," and no such resolution had been adopted as of July 2026. The minutes record staff saying fees would be developed later in the year.
• The zoning answer is unwritten too. One of the three approval criteria is that the property sits "within zoning districts where short-term rentals are allowed," and the city told council those land-use decisions are being carried through the Comprehensive Plan update, to be effective the same day the ordinance is. So nobody can yet tell you whether your street qualifies.

Keep in mind that a permit criterion with no published answer is a real risk, not a formality. If your plan depends on a specific address, watch for the Comprehensive Plan land-use amendments before you commit to it.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Pasco

That unsettled zoning question shapes the sensible order of operations, which is why starting here in 2026 looks less like applying for something and more like getting ready to.

Nothing stops you buying, furnishing and preparing a Pasco property today. What you can't do is get the city to sign off on nightly stays before the ordinance takes effect, because the permit doesn't exist yet. The agenda report is explicit that the January 1, 2027 date exists to give staff roughly six months to write the administrative procedures, build the application forms, run public outreach, and give existing operators time to comply before enforcement begins.

The ordinance as adopted carries no grace period after that date. Staff had floated a 90-day one at the June workshop, and it didn't survive into the text.

The honest read for anyone already listing a Pasco property is that you've been operating in a gap the city has now closed. That's not a reason to panic, mind you. The whole design of Ordinance 4847 leans toward accommodation rather than punishment, which the council said out loud. Councilman Mark Figueroa told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business in July 2026 that "we need to have some parameters in place," while Mayor Charles Grimm's summary of the vote was simply "I think this is a win."

There's also a license you owe regardless of nightly stays, and plenty of Pasco owners miss it. Under PMC 5.60.010, nobody may rent any residential dwelling to the public without a current business license under that chapter, and PMC 5.60.020 requires the license to register each unit along with a certification that it complies with the Uniform Housing Code as the city has adopted it. Issuance depends on that certification, an inspection, the fee and general compliance.

So a thirty-plus-night furnished rental, the fallback plenty of owners will run in the meantime, still puts you in front of the city.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Pasco

Since the rental license is already a live obligation, the cleanest way to think about 2027 is as a second permit stacked on top of a license you should hold anyway.

PMC 5.120.030 requires both: an approved short-term rental permit and a City of Pasco business license, in place before you operate. The permit itself is deliberately narrow. It's issued to one person or entity, it can't be transferred to anyone else, and it isn't valid at any address other than the one printed on it. It stays alive until the owner changes or the associated business license stops existing, and it runs for one year, expiring on the date set by the state's master license service.

The business license side has real numbers attached to it today. Washington runs city endorsements through the state Business Licensing Service, and the Department of Revenue's Pasco endorsement page lists origination and renewal at $80 plus $20 per full-time equivalent where gross annual income is above $4,000, with no fee at all in the $0 to $4,000 band and a $5,000 cap once a business has 250 or more employees.

An FTE is total hours worked in the year by all employees divided by 1,920, so a one-property host is looking at the low end of that.

The city's adopted fee schedule at PMC 3.35.050 carries the same $80 base and $20 per FTE, and separately sets the rental dwelling license at $50 including the first unit and $10 for each additional unit, with a late penalty of 20% of the amount due.

Charge	Amount	Status in 2026
Business license base fee	$80.00	In force
Employee fee, per FTE	$20.00	In force
Rental dwelling license, first unit included	$50.00	In force
Rental dwelling license, each additional unit	$10.00	In force
Short-term rental permit fee	Not yet adopted	Set by council resolution, expected before 2027

Do check the current fee schedule before you budget, because a code snapshot ages and Pasco's was last republished with the code current through Ordinance 4751. The two figures I could cross-check against a live state page, the $80 and the $20, match exactly.

Approval isn't a rubber stamp, although the criteria are short. The Community & Economic Development Department decides, and under PMC 5.120.040 the Director or a designee may issue the permit, deny it, or attach conditions and limitations that have to be met first. Any denial or condition has to rest "solely upon those requirements reasonably necessary to protect the peace, health, safety and welfare" of people using and living near the rental.

Applicants who don't meet the operating conditions "shall be denied," which is mandatory language rather than discretionary. Procedure and appeals run through PMC 5.05.030, which gives the city 15 working days to approve or disapprove a complete application unless something else says otherwise.

Renewal is annual and comes with paperwork of its own: a signed affidavit, approved by the director and the city attorney, confirming you've met the chapter's operating conditions, plus the completed self-inspection checklist. And revocation is real. If the City Manager has reasonable cause to believe you've violated a condition, PMC 5.120.050 sends the matter through PMC 5.05.140 for suspension or revocation.

Required Documents for Pasco Short Term Rentals

A permit that can be denied outright for a missing condition puts a lot of weight on what you file, so the document list is worth reading twice.

PMC 5.120.030 spells out what makes an application complete:

• The completed short-term rental permit application.
• A verified statement that the property is in your exclusive ownership, or that every owner consented to the application.
• A written description of the proposed short-term rental operation, plus an affirmation that it'll meet the chapter's operating conditions.
• A written description of the proposed location.
• A completed Good Neighbor Policy form.
• The permit fee, once the council sets one.

The draft forms attached to the ordinance fill in what the city will actually ask for. The application asks for your UBI or Washington State sales tax number, then runs a checklist: the permit application itself, a completed life safety compliance form, a copy of the certificate of occupancy where one is available, a copy of the liability insurance for the property, and a copy of your Pasco business license. It asks you to identify the structure type, from single family through duplex to a detached accessory dwelling unit, and whether you're renting the entire unit, a single bedroom, or several.

You then sign a responsibility statement that includes two promises hosts should read carefully: that your permit number will appear in all advertising, and that you'll register the business with the city and submit the appropriate transient lodging taxes.

The Good Neighbor Policy is a guest-facing document rather than a filing, and it's written in plain language: quiet between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., trash in the on-site containers, pets cleaned up after and kept from roaming, parking and driving handled the way you'd want in your own neighborhood, and no weddings, banquets, receptions, parties, concerts or fundraisers. Your 24-hour contact goes at the top of it.

Then there's the annual life safety compliance form, which replaces the city inspection that some jurisdictions run. You certify under penalty under Washington law that every item on it has been checked and found in good working order:

• Each sleeping room has an egress window or door with a clear opening of at least 5.7 square feet, or 5.0 at grade level.
• Smoke alarms and adequate lighting cover the sleeping rooms and access hallways, and carbon monoxide alarms sit near the sleeping rooms.
• A maintained 2A-10BC fire extinguisher is stored where a guest can reach it, clear of obstructions.
• Stairs, handrails and deck guardrails are sound, lit, and free of trip hazards.
• Bathroom and kitchen counter outlets are GFCI protected, and bathrooms have an exhaust fan or an openable window.
• Plumbing delivers hot and cold water, and the heating and water heating systems work.
• Every occupied room has working outlets and lighting without extension cords, kitchen appliances included.
• A manual in the unit lists the breaker box, the extinguishers, the exits and your contact details.

Be aware that self-certification isn't the soft option it sounds like. You're signing the statement, so the liability moves from a city inspector's clipboard onto you.

Pasco Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting in 2027, there's still tax to deal with, and the lodging layer applies whether or not the city has issued you anything.

Washington stacks its lodging taxes rather than charging one combined rate, and the Department of Revenue publishes the result quarterly. For the quarter running July 1 to September 30, 2026, DOR's lodging rate table lists Pasco under Franklin County at location code 1104 with a special hotel-motel tax of 2% and a total lodging tax rate of 10.9%. The city's own June 2026 staff presentation puts the combined retail sales tax at 8.9%, of which Pasco keeps about 1.1%, and those two numbers reconcile: 8.9% plus 2% is the 10.9% DOR prints.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Combined state and local retail sales tax	8.9%	Washington DOR, remitted by Airbnb for Airbnb bookings
Special hotel/motel lodging tax	2.0%	Washington DOR, remitted by Airbnb for Airbnb bookings
Total lodging tax on a Pasco stay	10.9%	As published by DOR for location code 1104
Retailing B&O tax on gross rental income	0.471%	Paid by you, never by the platform
Tourism Promotion Area fee	$3.00 per night	40-unit-plus properties only, so not a single-listing host

That last row is the one people misread. The TPA charge appears on Pasco's "40 or more units" line and is marked not applicable for "39 or fewer units," so a normal host doesn't owe it. The city's own revenue slide agrees, projecting $0 a year from it.

Platform collection covers more than most hosts assume, but not everything. DOR confirms that Airbnb has collected and remitted state and local retail sales tax, the special hotel/motel tax and the convention and trade center tax on behalf of its hosts since October 15, 2015. You still have to register with DOR, file the excise tax return, report your gross rental income, then claim the "Gross Sales Collected by Facilitator" deduction so the platform's collection isn't taxed twice.

The Retailing B&O tax at 0.471% remains yours to pay. DOR's guidance names only Airbnb, so don't assume Vrbo or a direct booking behaves the same way. Verify per platform, and if you take direct bookings, all of it lands on you.

The scale here is modest, which is a useful reality check on Pasco as a market. The city's June 2026 slide cited a Visit Tri-Cities study estimating roughly $1.5 million in annual short-term rental revenue across the area in 2025, and projected only about $30,000 a year of lodging tax and $17,000 of sales tax reaching Pasco from that activity. The same slide notes the lodging tax is paid directly by the platform companies and is "difficult to validate for individual STRs."

One more layer may arrive from Olympia. SB 5576 and its companion HB 2559 would let a city, county or town levy a local excise tax of up to 4% on short-term rental charges for affordable housing. Neither had passed when our Washington statewide guide research was done, and it's the sort of bill that reappears each session, so it's worth tracking rather than budgeting for.

Pasco Wide Short Term Rental Rules

Tax is the part that applies everywhere in Washington. The operating rules are where Pasco writes its own, and from 2027 every permitted rental in the city carries the same set.

• A local property representative, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have to respond to complaints about the condition, operation or conduct of your guests within one hour and take remedial action. Their name, address and phone number stay on file with the city. Failing to provide or update that information, failing to respond in time, or drawing repeated complaints can cost you the permit and bring civil or criminal penalties.
• Occupancy set by the International Building Code, not by a number the city picked. You're responsible for keeping the unit inside it.
• Lodging use only. A renter may not use the property for anything not incidental to lodging or sleeping, and the ordinance names what it means: weddings, banquets, receptions, bachelor or bachelorette parties, concerts, fundraisers, sponsored events, and any similar group activity.
• No outdoor advertising signs connected to the rental, anywhere on the site.
• An information packet, given to renters before arrival and posted conspicuously in a common area during every stay, covering maximum occupancy, noise and use restrictions, your local representative's contact details, the guest's responsibility not to trespass or create disturbances, and a notice that the guest can be cited or fined by the city directly.
• Primary liability insurance of at least $1,000,000, or bookings run through a platform providing equal or greater primary cover. A current certificate of insurance stays on file with the city.
• A certificate of inspection on file showing the dwelling complies with the International Building Code provisions for transient accommodation, plus an appropriate certificate of occupancy, plus the self-inspection checklist at each renewal.
• Compliance with the rest of the code, and two chapters get named: PMC 9.130 on noise and PMC 9.90 on public nuisances.

Above all of that sits Washington state law, which applies to every operator in the state whether or not a city says anything. Chapter 64.37 RCW sets the floor. RCW 64.37.050 is where that million-dollar insurance figure comes from, and Pasco's ordinance says its own requirement tracks whatever the RCW level becomes. RCW 64.37.030 requires an emergency contact reachable during the stay, carbon monoxide alarm compliance, and postings inside the unit covering the address, emergency contact, a fire-exit floor plan and maximum occupancy.

A first violation of the state duties draws a warning letter from the city or county attorney, and a repeat is a class 2 civil infraction. RCW 64.37.040 puts duties on the platforms instead, including registering with DOR and warning you in writing that an ordinary homeowner's policy may not cover short-term rental use.

What Washington doesn't do is preempt any of this. There's no state statute stopping a city zoning or licensing short-term rentals however it likes, which is exactly why Pasco could move from prohibition to permit on its own, and why the rules a few miles away can look nothing like these.

The Spokane County guide is a useful comparison here, since Pasco staff told council they'd borrowed Spokane's owner self-certification model rather than building an inspection program. On the wet side of the state, the Port Angeles guide shows how differently a small coastal city handles the same activity.

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

Borrowing Spokane's lightest option tells you something about how hard Pasco intends to push, and the enforcement machinery says the same thing.

Enforcement is complaint-driven and education-first. The city's Code Division describes its own job as enforcing the municipal code "through education, inspections and formal notices (to those remaining in violation)." Its FAQ goes further, telling complainants that officers "strive for voluntary compliance from the responsible party; this may include extensions of time to gain compliance," and that every legal process has to be exhausted before anything reaches a hearing or a penalty.

Complaints arrive through the AskPasco app, by email, by phone, or in person at City Hall. Nobody is out patrolling for listings.

When it does bite, the numbers come from the general code enforcement schedule rather than anything STR-specific, because PMC 5.120.060 simply points at PMC 3.35.070. That schedule sets a maximum monetary penalty of $500 for each separate violation per day or portion of a day, up to a maximum of $5,000, and a repeat violation doubles the daily penalty. Remember that the meter runs daily rather than once, which is how a small problem left alone becomes an expensive one.

So is Pasco Airbnb friendly? From 2027, yes, and more so than most cities that have written an ordinance recently. There's no cap on the number of permits, no owner-occupancy requirement, no minimum-stay floor above the thirty-night definition, no annual city inspection, and no primary-residence test. Entire units are allowed. The application form even asks whether you're renting the whole place, one bedroom, or several, which tells you all three are contemplated. Set that against New York City, where only a hosted room share is legal, and Pasco looks genuinely permissive.

Unfortunately for anyone who wanted to start this year, that friendliness has a date stamp on it. For the rest of 2026 the city's published position is still no, and the two open items, the fee and the zoning districts, mean even a 2027 plan has gaps in it.

Be aware, too, that the city said out loud it will enforce its own code and not homeowners' association rules, which the July 6 minutes record staff clarifying. An HOA covenant banning nightly rentals stays a private civil matter, and a city permit won't rescue you from it.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Pasco

Given that the permit window opens on a fixed date, the order below is still mostly about arriving at January 1, 2027 with nothing left to do.

1. Confirm the address, then wait on the zoning answer. Permit approval requires the property to sit in a district where short-term rentals are allowed, and those districts are being set through the Comprehensive Plan update. Watch for the land-use amendments before you commit capital to a specific street.
2. Get the state business license and UBI number. Everything downstream references it, and the application form asks for your UBI or Washington sales tax number by name.
3. Add the City of Pasco endorsement. That's the $80 plus $20 per FTE piece, filed through the state Business Licensing Service alongside the state license.
4. Sort the rental license if you're already renting the property. PMC 5.60 applies to residential dwellings rented to the public, and it carries its own certification and inspection.
5. Buy the insurance early. You need $1,000,000 of primary liability cover, or a platform providing at least as much, and a current certificate has to sit on file with the city.
6. Line up your local representative before you list. One hour is a short response window, so this needs to be a real person who lives nearby and answers the phone at 2 a.m., not a relative in another county.
7. Walk the life safety checklist with a tape measure. Egress openings, alarms, the extinguisher, GFCI outlets and handrails are cheaper to fix in December than to certify falsely in January.
8. File the permit application the week it opens, with the Good Neighbor Policy form, the ownership statement, the operation and location descriptions, and the fee once the council has set one.
9. Register with DOR and set up your excise tax filing. Don't forget the facilitator deduction, or you'll pay sales tax the platform already remitted.
10. Put the permit number in every advertisement, and diarize the annual renewal, which needs the signed affidavit and a fresh self-inspection checklist.

Prepare Required Documents

Most of those ten steps come down to paperwork you can assemble now, months before there's anywhere to file it.

Start a folder with the documents that take longest to produce. Proof of ownership is one: the application needs a verified statement that the property is in your exclusive ownership, or written consent from every co-owner, which is the item most likely to stall if a property sits in a family LLC or a trust. The certificate of occupancy is another, since the form asks for a copy where one is available, and tracking one down for an older Pasco house takes a phone call rather than a click.

Insurance takes the second longest. A standard homeowner's policy usually won't cover short-term rental use, which is a warning Washington law actually requires platforms to give you under RCW 64.37.040, so allow time to move to a policy that does and to get the certificate issued in the right name.

Then write the two descriptions the ordinance asks for, because they're the parts nobody prepares. One covers the proposed operation and affirms it'll meet the chapter's conditions. The other covers the proposed location. Neither has a prescribed format, and a short, specific description of how many bedrooms you'll rent, how parking works, and who your local representative is will read far better than a paragraph of boilerplate.

Finally, run the life safety checklist as a genuine inspection rather than a form-filling exercise. Make sure you measure the egress openings rather than eyeballing them, since 5.7 square feet is a bigger clear opening than most people expect and older windows often miss it. Anything you find in advance is a repair. Anything you miss is a false certification signed under penalty of Washington law.

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

When a document or a zoning question stalls, three offices in the same building handle nearly all of it, and knowing which one owns your question saves an afternoon.

Community & Economic Development Department issues the short-term rental permit under PMC 5.120.040 and owns the zoning questions.

• Address: 525 N 3rd Avenue, Pasco, WA 99301
• Phone: 509-545-3441
• That address and number come from the CED contact block printed on the city's own draft short-term rental application, Good Neighbor Policy and life safety forms.

Business Licensing handles the City of Pasco endorsement and the rental dwelling license.

• Address: 525 N 3rd Ave, Pasco, WA 99301
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 509-543-5721 per the Department of Revenue's Pasco endorsement page, or 509-543-5726 per the city's own Business Licensing page. Both are published as current, so try one and then the other.
• Fax: 509-543-5727

Code Division takes complaints, which matters in both directions, since this is the number a neighbor would call about you.

• Phone: 509-543-5743
• In person: Pasco City Hall, First Floor, Code Division, 525 N. Third Avenue, Pasco, WA 99301
• Online: through the AskPasco service request app
• Properties outside the city limits go to Franklin County Code Enforcement on 509-545-3521 instead.

For state registration, the excise tax return and the lodging rate for your address, the Washington Department of Revenue is the right door rather than the city. The city switchboard is (509) 544-3080, and the City Clerk's office takes ordinance and public records questions at [email protected]. I couldn't find published counter hours for City Hall or the CED front desk on any city page I could reach, so call before driving over.

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

Those same phone numbers came up repeatedly when Pasco residents were given a microphone about this, and the record of that is unusually good here.

I should say plainly what I did and didn't read. No Pasco-specific Reddit thread was read for this guide, since Reddit blocks automated access and its platform policy doesn't permit the commercial use these guides represent. No Pasco-specific BiggerPockets thread surfaced either. Washington-wide threads exist, and none of the ones I found discussed Pasco. So instead of paraphrasing conversations I never opened, here's the on-the-record public comment from the June 8, 2026 council workshop, as the approved minutes recorded it.

• Operators wanted the lightest possible touch. Shane Arnot, a Pasco resident and short-term rental operator, backed a light regulatory approach, pointed out that neighboring cities already allow short-term rentals, and argued that not enough evidence had been presented showing an impact on housing availability.
• Neighbors pushed the other way. Amber Waid, a Pasco resident, raised landlord accountability, code enforcement, parking, neighborhood impacts, and whether the city can effectively regulate rental properties at all.
• The platform-does-it-already argument showed up. Doug Perez, a Kennewick resident, noted that rental platforms already impose safety and operational standards, and that short-term rentals support tourism and investment in the community.
• The middle position won. Thomas Granbois, a Pasco resident, supported a hybrid approach with reasonable oversight for poorly managed rentals, and that's substantially what council directed staff to write.

Reading the minutes and then the ordinance side by side, the operators mostly got what they asked for. No cap, no inspection regime, no owner-occupancy rule, and a self-certification form instead of a city inspector. What the neighbors got was the one-hour response clock and the events ban.

Deputy City Manager Richa Sigdel framed the whole exercise to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business in one line: "We need to clarify and make things explicit. The challenge is these programs have expanded significantly." That's a fair description of what Ordinance 4847 is. Not a crackdown. A definition, arriving late.

If you're weighing Pasco against its neighbors before the 2027 rules land, the Richland market is the natural comparison across the river, and the returns matter more than the rulebook once both cities are legal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Pasco, Washington in 2026?

No. The City of Pasco's code enforcement FAQ states that the city does not allow short-term rentals under 30 days, and no permit process existed during 2026. City staff told council in June 2026 that no chapter of the Pasco Municipal Code regulated, permitted or enforced short-term rentals. That changes on January 1, 2027, when Ordinance No. 4847 takes effect and creates PMC Chapter 5.120, requiring a short-term rental permit and a City of Pasco business license.

What does a Pasco short-term rental permit require?

From January 1, 2027, an approved short-term rental permit plus a City of Pasco business license. The permit application needs a verified ownership statement, written descriptions of the operation and the location, a completed Good Neighbor Policy form and the permit fee. Operating conditions include a local representative available 24/7 who responds to complaints within one hour, occupancy per International Building Code standards, at least $1,000,000 of primary liability insurance, an annual life safety self-certification, and no weddings, banquets, concerts or similar events.

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

The Washington Department of Revenue lists a total lodging tax rate of 10.9% for Pasco, location code 1104, for the quarter beginning July 1, 2026. That is a 2% special hotel-motel tax on top of an 8.9% combined retail sales tax. Hosts also owe Retailing B&O tax of 0.471% on gross rental income. Airbnb has collected and remitted the sales and lodging taxes for its Washington hosts since October 15, 2015, but the B&O remains the host's to pay.

How much does a Pasco business license cost?

The City of Pasco endorsement costs $80 plus $20 per full-time equivalent employee for businesses with more than $4,000 in gross annual income, with no fee below that threshold and a $5,000 cap at 250 or more employees. It is filed through Washington's Business Licensing Service. Separately, a rental dwelling license under PMC 5.60 costs $50 including the first unit and $10 for each additional unit. The short-term rental permit fee had not been adopted as of July 2026.

What are the penalties for an unpermitted short-term rental in Pasco?

Pasco has no short-term-rental-specific fine. PMC 5.120.060 routes violations to the general code enforcement penalties in PMC 3.35.070, which set a maximum of $500 for each separate violation per day or portion of a day, capped at $5,000, with the daily penalty doubled for a repeat violation. Enforcement is complaint-driven and education-first, with the Code Division seeking voluntary compliance before formal notices. A permit can also be suspended or revoked by the City Manager.

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