Stanton Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Stanton, Kentucky and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, at least once your address clears one specific zoning test. Stanton is the seat of Powell County and the closest town of any real size to the Red River Gorge, and it has run a dedicated short-term rental ordinance since 2022, so this isn't the legal gray area it is in a lot of small Kentucky towns.

The catch is that Stanton only allows short-term rentals in two residential zoning districts, and the city's own paperwork on what it costs to operate one doesn't fully agree with itself. The original 2022 ordinance and the city's current website both quote one fee schedule, while a 2025 rewrite of the general business license ordinance quotes a different one for the exact same license. Neither document has been corrected to match the other, at least as of this writing, and that's the kind of thing you want to know before you apply rather than after.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly in 2026: the zoning limit and the license itself, the documents Stanton wants, the three separate governments that each want a cut of your nightly rate, and who to call when the city's own numbers disagree. Every figure below comes from Stanton's, Powell County's, or Kentucky's own pages, checked in July 2026. Assuming your property clears the zoning test, run it through BNBCalc once you know every tax layer, because a Stanton listing carries more of them than the sale price alone suggests.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Stanton

That tax stack is worth pricing in early, because it changes what a Stanton listing actually nets you compared with the cabin economy next door. Stanton itself is a small town, a bit over 3,000 people, and its own zoning map only lets short-term rentals operate in R-1 (low-density residential) and R-2 (two-family residential) districts under Ordinance No. 22-002. Anywhere else in the city limits, the ordinance is direct about it: a short-term rental "shall not be located in any other zoned area."

That matters more here than in most cities, because Stanton isn't the whole story. The famous Red River Gorge cabin cluster, the one drawing national investor attention for its four to seven-bedroom rentals near a million annual visitors, mostly sits outside Stanton's city limits entirely, in unincorporated Powell County around Slade and Nada. I couldn't find a published Powell County zoning ordinance covering those areas the way Stanton's own code covers the city, so don't assume the rules in this guide travel with you once you're past the city line. Confirm directly with the Powell County Planning and Zoning Office which set of rules, if any, applies to a specific parcel outside Stanton.

Inside the city limits, though, the shape of the business is fairly narrow: a house or duplex in a residential zone, licensed and registered with the city, paying three separate governments before a guest ever checks in. It's a real business, just a smaller and more tightly zoned one than the gorge's cabin boom might suggest.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Stanton

Since the zoning test comes first, the license is the next hurdle, and it's still two separate requirements stacked on each other. Ordinance 22-002 requires both a short-term rental business license and a separate property registration before you can legally operate, and it applies to every unit that was already renting before the ordinance passed too, not just new ones.

The business license is issued through the Planning & Zoning Office, runs annually, and is due by August 1 each year. It's non-transferable: sell the property or hand it to a new operator, and that person needs their own license before taking a single booking. Registration is a separate step handled by the same office, and it has to be renewed by March 1 every year, a different date from the license itself, so keep both deadlines somewhere you'll actually see them.

Here's where the paperwork gets genuinely inconsistent, and it's worth being precise about it rather than picking a number and hoping. Ordinance 22-002 itself, and the city's current short-term rentals page, both list the annual business license fee at $300 for a host's first short-term rental and $100 for each additional one. But Ordinance No. 25-001, the city's full 2025 rewrite of its general business-license fee schedule, lists short-term rentals at $300 for the first unit, $300 for each additional unit, and adds a new $300 fee for anyone operating as a manager or booking platform. I checked both documents directly and found nothing that reconciles them. If you own more than one short-term rental in Stanton, that gap is real money, so don't rely on either figure alone. Call Planning & Zoning and get the current per-unit fee in writing before you file.

Zoning brings its own wrinkle worth flagging plainly. The ordinance's own zoning section calls short-term rentals a "permitted use" in R-1 and R-2, full stop, and never mentions a Conditional Use Permit anywhere except as the process for appealing a revocation. The city's short-term rentals page, though, states in its own words that a short-term rental is "allowed as a Conditional Use Permit through the Board of Adjustment which is reviewed annually," and the business license application even has a line item for one. I could not find anything tying those two statements together, so treat it as an open question and ask Planning & Zoning directly which track your application follows.

Beyond the license itself, a handful of standing requirements apply to every registered short-term rental:

• Parking has to be off-street, paved or properly graveled, with no on-street parking permitted at all. A site without adequate parking is grounds for denial or for revoking a license that's already been issued.
• No advertising signage on the property. A sign showing the address or marking the location is fine; anything advertising the rental itself, or listing contact information for booking it, isn't.
• The Zoning Administrator can inspect the interior on proper notice, to confirm the property still complies with the ordinance.
• No criminal or nuisance violations can occur on the property in connection with the rental, and you're on the hook for keeping it that way.

Complaints drive enforcement here more than routine inspections do. Two or more complaints against the same property within a calendar year triggers formal notice to the owner. If the city then finds an actual violation, the Zoning Enforcement Officer can revoke the license, though only after giving 15 days' written notice and a real chance to fix the problem, unless there's an emergency risk to life or property. You can appeal a revocation to the Stanton Board of Adjustment within 30 days.

Penalties escalate from there. A criminal conviction under the ordinance carries a fine up to $250, with each day of an ongoing violation counted separately. The city can also pursue civil penalties up to $100 per day once it's given written notice to fix a problem, plus its attorney fees and court costs, and it can place a lien on the property for all of it. That lien sits above every other claim on the property except the city's and county's own property taxes, which share equal priority.

Required Documents for Stanton Short-Term Rentals

Since a license this specific gets revoked over paperwork gaps just as easily as over noise complaints, it's worth getting the documents right the first time. The registration form itself is short, but it wants proof behind almost every line.

• A copy of the recorded deed, showing the property in the current owner's name. The registration form asks for the book and page number from the Powell County Clerk's Office, and the ordinance defines "responsible party" as whoever holds title in those county records, so make sure the name on your registration matches the name on the deed exactly.
• Contact information for both the owner and the host, if they're different people: name, address, and phone number for each.
• The physical address of the rental, along with its zone district and whether it sits in a floodplain.
• The number of on-site parking spaces dedicated to the rental. Remember, on-street parking doesn't count toward this at all.
• The business license application itself, which separately asks for the zone district and, confusingly given the discrepancy above, a "Conditional Use Permit" field.

Clear these before you file rather than after. A registration or license that's incomplete, or that comes in late, is itself grounds under the ordinance for the city to deny it, suspend it, or revoke it later.

Stanton Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you clear the licensing gauntlet and are able to start hosting, there's still a real tax bill to work out, and it comes from three different governments rather than one. Kentucky's state sales tax and state transient room tax apply everywhere in the commonwealth, Stanton adds its own room tax and an occupational tax on top, and Powell County layers on a third room tax plus its own occupational tax. None of them replace another; they stack.

Tax	Rate	Collected by
State sales tax	6%	Kentucky Department of Revenue
State transient room tax	1%	Kentucky Department of Revenue
City transient room tax	3%	Stanton Tourism and Convention Commission
Powell County transient room tax	3%	Powell County Tourism Commission
City occupational (payroll) tax	1% of wages	City of Stanton (if you have employees)
Powell County occupational tax	1.75% of gross receipts or net profit	Powell County (as of 2025)

Kentucky's own Department of Revenue guidance says Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit the 6% state sales tax and the 1% state room tax automatically for hosts who book exclusively through those platforms, so you likely won't handle those two yourself. Whether the platforms also collect and remit the local room taxes for Stanton and Powell County is genuinely unsettled right now. The Kentucky League of Cities sued Airbnb in December 2023 over unremitted local room tax owed to several cities, and the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled on June 25, 2026 that the League lacked standing to bring that claim, which ended the case on a technicality without ever deciding whether Airbnb actually owes the local tax. Don't assume it's handled until you've confirmed it with each of the two commissions directly.

The city's 3% transient room tax goes to the Stanton Tourism and Convention Commission, is due monthly by the 20th, and has to be filed even in a month with zero bookings. Miss it and the penalty is steep: 10% of the tax due for each 1 to 30-day period it's late, plus 1% interest per month on the unpaid balance. Powell County runs an identical 3% overnight transient room tax, also due the 20th of the following month, paid separately to the Powell County Tourism Commission by check.

The two occupational taxes are easy to miss because they're not lodging taxes at all. Stanton's is a 1% payroll withholding on wages, so it only applies if your rental has actual employees, a cleaner or manager on the books rather than a contractor. Powell County's is broader: under County Ordinance 2025-07, a 2025 amendment I read directly at the county's own occupational tax office page, the rate rose to 1.75% on gross receipts for anyone employed by another, or 1.75% of net profit for anyone running the business themselves, and it reaches every trade or occupation conducted anywhere in the county, Stanton included. Keep this one in mind even if you have no employees, since a self-operated rental still counts as "engaged in business" under the county's own definition.

Kentucky Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

All three of those room taxes sit on top of a state framework that, at least for now, leaves Stanton free to write its own rules. Kentucky has no statewide law preempting local short-term rental regulation, and no statewide license or registry that would give you a shortcut around Stanton's own process. Every requirement in this guide comes from the city and county, not the state.

That could change. Kentucky legislators tried four separate times in 2025 and 2026 to preempt local density and conditional-use rules for short-term rentals, most recently SB 112 in the 2026 regular session, and every one of them died in committee or failed to get concurrence between the two chambers. None became law. Watch for a refiled version in 2027, since the pattern suggests this fight isn't over, but as of today Stanton's ordinance is the controlling word on zoning and licensing within the city.

What the state does supply is the tax layer covered above: the 6% sales tax and 1% transient room tax that apply to every short-term stay in Kentucky, plus local governments' authority to layer their own room tax on top, which is exactly what Stanton and Powell County have both done. If you're comparing Stanton against a bigger Kentucky market, our Kentucky statewide guide covers the full picture, and the Louisville guide and the Lexington-Fayette guide are the useful next reads if you're weighing a small-town cabin against a bigger city instead.

Does Stanton Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given that gap between what the state allows and what Stanton itself has chosen to write, the real question is still how hard the city pushes on the rules it has. Honestly, I couldn't find any public record of a specific enforcement action, revocation, or lawsuit tied to a Stanton short-term rental, and a search of local news turned up nothing either. That's a small town's paper trail, not proof that enforcement is lax.

What's clear from the ordinance itself is that the mechanism exists and has real teeth if the city chooses to use it. Two complaints in a calendar year trigger formal notice to the owner, a revocation can follow a 15-day cure period, and the city can pursue a criminal fine, a civil penalty of up to $100 a day, and a property lien all at once if it wants to. The annual registration renewal, due every March 1, also gives the city a built-in yearly checkpoint to reconsider a listing that's generated complaints, even without a single lawsuit ever being filed.

Keep in mind that a small city like this typically enforces by complaint rather than by patrol. A quiet, well-run rental in a residential zone is unlikely to draw attention, while a noisy one, or one operating outside R-1 or R-2 entirely, is the kind of thing a neighbor is far more likely to report than a city inspector is to notice first. Watch out for that on-street parking rule specifically, since it's the single easiest thing for a neighbor to see and report.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Stanton

Given how much of this hinges on getting the zoning and paperwork right before you spend anything, the order below is worth following rather than skipping around in.

1. Confirm your zone district first. Only R-1 and R-2 properties qualify, and the Planning & Zoning Office can tell you exactly which one your address is in before you commit to anything.
2. Call Planning & Zoning about the current fee and the CUP question. Given the conflict between the 2022 ordinance, the current website, and the 2025 fee ordinance, get the actual per-unit fee and the zoning process confirmed in writing.
3. Pull your deed from the Powell County Clerk's Office if you don't already have a copy with the current owner's name on it.
4. Apply for the short-term rental business license and the separate property registration through Planning & Zoning, 98 Court Street, Stanton, using the deed, contact details, and parking count the registration form asks for.
5. Set up off-street parking and remove any rental-advertising signage before your first guest, since both are grounds for denial if they're not already in place.
6. Register for the two transient room taxes with the Stanton Tourism and Convention Commission and the Powell County Tourism Commission, and file both monthly even in a month with no bookings.
7. Check whether you'll owe either occupational tax. Most solo hosts skip the city's 1% payroll tax entirely, but Powell County's 1.75% tax on net profit or gross receipts applies more broadly, so don't assume it doesn't apply to you.
8. Diarize both renewal dates. The business license is due by August 1 every year, and the property registration is due by March 1, a different date entirely.

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

Whichever step trips you up, four offices between them handle almost everything in this guide.

Planning & Zoning Office (licensing, registration, zoning, CUP questions)

• Address: 98 Court Street, PO Box 370, Stanton, KY 40380
• Phone: (606) 663-6474
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Stanton City Hall (general questions, business license renewal)

• Address: 98 Court Street, PO Box 370, Stanton, KY 40380
• Phone: (606) 663-6474
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Stanton Tourism and Convention Commission (city 3% transient room tax)

• Mailing address: PO Box 370, Stanton, KY 40380
• Phone: (606) 663-6474

Powell County Tourism Commission (county 3% transient room tax)

• Mailing address: PO Box 1028, Stanton, KY 40380
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (606) 663-1161
• Drop-off: Red River Gorge Welcome Center, Slade exit

Powell County Occupational Tax Office (county occupational/net-profits tax)

• Mailing address: PO Box 506, Stanton, KY 40380
• Phone: (606) 663-2834 (option 4 for the Business License Administrator)
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

I couldn't reach Powell County's own government website (powellcounty.ky.gov) at all while researching this, so if a number above has changed, the Planning & Zoning Office is the most reliable place to start; it deals with short-term rentals daily and can point you to whichever of these other three offices you need.

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

That contact list matters more here than in a bigger city, because there isn't much public discussion of Stanton's specific rules to lean on instead. I couldn't reach Reddit while researching this, and the one BiggerPockets thread I found that mentioned the Red River Gorge was a single unanswered post from 2022 asking for a builder recommendation, not a real discussion of the regulations.

What does exist is coverage of the gorge's cabin boom itself, and it's worth reading with the zoning limit above in mind. A May 2026 press release picked up by financial news outlets described the Red River Gorge cabin economy as drawing over a million annual visitors, with cabin supply failing to keep up with demand for five years running and investors buying four to seven-bedroom properties priced at $1 to $2 million. That's genuinely exciting for the region, but it's describing unincorporated Powell County near Slade and Nada, not Stanton's own residential zones. A property inside Stanton's city limits is a smaller, more conventional rental sitting in a small town's R-1 or R-2 zone, licensed under an ordinance with a fee schedule that currently contradicts itself. Both markets are real, but they're not the same investment, and it's worth being clear with yourself about which one you're actually buying into before you compare either against the numbers a bigger Kentucky market might offer through BNBCalc Markets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Stanton, Kentucky in 2026?

Yes, as long as the property sits in an R-1 or R-2 residential zoning district. Stanton's Ordinance 22-002 does not permit short-term rentals anywhere else in the city. You'll also need a short-term rental business license and a separate property registration from the Planning & Zoning Office, both issued under that same ordinance, before you can legally accept a booking.

How much does a Stanton short-term rental business license cost?

The city's own documents disagree. Ordinance 22-002 and the city's current website both list $300 for a first unit and $100 for each additional one, while the 2025 update to the general business-license fee ordinance lists $300 for the first unit, $300 for each additional unit, and a new $300 fee for a manager or platform. Confirm the current figure with Planning & Zoning before you apply.

What taxes do you owe on a Stanton short-term rental?

Kentucky's 6% state sales tax and 1% state transient room tax apply everywhere, and Airbnb or Vrbo typically collect and remit both automatically. On top of that, Stanton charges a 3% city transient room tax and Powell County charges a separate 3% county transient room tax, both paid monthly and both currently unresolved as to whether the platforms collect them for you. A county occupational tax of 1.75% on net profit or gross receipts may also apply.

Does Stanton require a Conditional Use Permit for a short-term rental?

The ordinance itself calls short-term rentals a permitted use in R-1 and R-2 zones, not a conditional one, but the city's own short-term rentals webpage separately states that a Conditional Use Permit through the Board of Adjustment is required and reviewed annually. The two documents don't match. Ask the Planning & Zoning Office directly which process applies to your specific property before you assume either version is complete.

Are the famous Red River Gorge cabins near Stanton subject to this ordinance?

Mostly not. Most of the well-known cabin cluster near the Red River Gorge sits in unincorporated Powell County around Slade and Nada, outside Stanton's city limits, where Stanton's Ordinance 22-002 doesn't apply. No published Powell County zoning ordinance covering those areas turned up in this research, so confirm directly with the Powell County Planning and Zoning Office what, if anything, governs a specific parcel outside city limits.

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