Fort Worth, Texas Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Fort Worth, Texas and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that the city never banned short-term rentals outright, and the paperwork is cheap by big-city standards: $150 for a first registration, $100 a year to keep it, filed online instead of argued at a hearing. The catch sits in the zoning ordinance, because Fort Worth answers this question by district, and every residential district in the city answers no.

Fort Worth, the seat of Tarrant County, handles short-term rentals as a land-use question rather than as a license you can qualify for by meeting conditions. Either the property sits in a district where the use is allowed or it doesn't. So a duplex in an industrial district can go on Airbnb, while the four-bedroom house two miles away in a one-family district cannot, however well you'd run it. One hundred and fourteen owners sued over exactly that in 2023, and in March 2025 a Tarrant County district judge granted the city summary judgment, so the line held.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: how to tell whether your address qualifies, what registration costs and how long it lasts, the three layers of hotel tax stacked on every stay, how hard Code Compliance pushes, and who to call when the zoning tool gives you an answer you don't like. Every figure below comes from Fort Worth's own ordinances, the Texas Tax Code, or the city's published pages, checked in July 2026, and where the city's guidance and its own code disagree I've flagged it. Before you buy anything on the strength of a promising zoning label, run the numbers through BNBCalc first.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Fort Worth, Texas?

Before any of those numbers matter, two documents decide whether your address qualifies at all. The zoning ordinance says where a short-term rental may exist, and Chapter 7, Article XIII of the city code says what you owe the city once it does.

Start with the definition, since it's narrower than the phrase suggests. Under Sec. 7-453, a short-term rental is the rental for compensation of a dwelling or accessory dwelling unit, or any portion of one, for overnight lodging for not less than one night and not more than 29 consecutive days. Ongoing month-to-month tenancy to the same renter, in their primary residence, sits outside it. So do hotels, motels, bed and breakfast homes and inns, and a sub-30-day tenancy by the former owner after a sale.

The city's own plain-English version of that, on its short-term rentals page, is simply a stay of 1 to 29 days.

Now the zoning half, which is where most Fort Worth plans end. The city says short-term rentals are "currently allowed in all mixed-use and most form-based, commercial, and industrial zoning districts" and "not allowed in residential districts: A-#, AR, B, R1, R2, CR, C, D, UR". Reading the use tables themselves confirms it, and the residential one is blunter than the summary:

• In the Residential District Use Table, Sec. 4.603, the "Short term home rental" row is blank in every single column, from A-2.5A through UR and MH. The PD/CUP column is blank too, which matters more than it looks: there's no conditional-use permit that lets you run one inside a residential district.
• In the Nonresidential District Use Table, Sec. 4.803, the same use carries nine "P" entries across the commercial and industrial districts, with no supplemental use standard hanging off it.
• In the Form-Based Code District Use Table, Sec. 4.1203, it's permitted in both mixed-use districts, MU-1 and MU-2, and in most of the form-based districts, though it goes blank in a handful of them including TL-TR, TL-NB, BU-RA and BU-CIV.

The order those pieces arrived in explains a lot of the confusion around this market. The zoning treatment is older than most people assume, since Ordinance No. 26005-02-2023 recites that the city's zoning ordinance already "does not allow the use of property zoned residential to be used for transient, short-term stays for less than 30 days". That February 2023 ordinance then bolted the registration layer on top. A legal Fort Worth short-term rental therefore needs both: a district that permits the use, and an active registration attached to that one specific address.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Fort Worth, Texas

Unfortunately for a lot of people reading this, the residential blank row is the whole story. Say you already own a house in an A-5 or a B district and you were hoping a permit would make it work. None does, and the only route through zoning is a rezoning to Planned Development, which the city warns plainly is "not guaranteed." That's a City Council decision with a public hearing, neighbors notified within 300 feet, and no obligation on anyone to say yes.

What's left is a genuinely commercial acquisition. The property has to already sit in a mixed-use, form-based, commercial or industrial district, which in practice means downtown-adjacent condos, converted units along the mixed-use corridors, and buildings in the older commercial pockets. The newer residential subdivisions are simply out. Do check the district before you fall in love with a listing, because a real estate agent describing a neighborhood as "mixed use" is not the same thing as an MU-1 designation on the zoning map.

One 2025 change is worth knowing if a house-shaped property in a mixed-use district is what you're picturing. Ordinance No. 27822-06-2025, adopted June 24, 2025, amended Sec. 4.1203 to "delete the 'P' under 'MU-1' Low Intensity Mixed-Use and 'MU-2' High Intensity Mixed-Use for the use 'One-family detached dwelling', leaving the columns blank".

The short-term rental use itself survived that edit and is still permitted in both districts. What went away is the detached single-family dwelling as a by-right use, so the supply of house-like properties you can newly establish there has tightened. Anything already standing is worth running past zoning staff before you close.

There is one residential path to paid lodging in Fort Worth, and it isn't a short-term rental at all. A bed and breakfast home under Sec. 5.106 can be permitted by conditional use permit in some residential districts, granted by City Council rather than by staff. The conditions are heavy though:

• A scaled site plan plus three photographs of the property, filed with the application.
• One off-street parking space per guest room plus two for the owner, on a hard dust-free surface, and council has no authority to waive it.
• Three guest rooms maximum, three occupants per room, nine guests a night.
• A 14-consecutive-day cap per guest, and no guest for more than 60 days in any 12 months.
• Signage limited to one square foot, and no weddings, receptions, events or parties at all.
• A guest register kept for five years, plus an annual operator's license and a certificate of occupancy.
• A permit that expires after five years and doesn't transfer to a buyer.

That's closer to running a small inn than to a passive Airbnb, though it's legal, and it's why a handful of Fort Worth houses still take paying guests.

The other honest option is to stop competing on nightly rates. A stay of 30 consecutive days or more falls outside the short-term rental definition entirely, needs no city registration, and drops out of the hotel tax regime as well. Plenty of Fort Worth inventory works better that way anyway. If the nightly-rate math is what you're chasing, the Texas statewide guide is the better starting point, since the rules change completely from one Texas city to the next and several nearby markets are far more permissive than Fort Worth.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Fort Worth, Texas

So let's say your address does clear the zoning check. Registration is the next gate, and since January 5, 2024 all of it runs through Localgov, the city's online tax and registration platform, at tax.localgov.org. Paper filings and mailed checks stopped that day. The fee is $150 for a first application and $100 for each annual renewal as of July 2026, payable when you file, and Sec. 7-455 requires the registration to be active before you use or advertise the property.

Advertising an unregistered rental is itself the violation, so a listing that goes live "while the paperwork clears" is already exposed.

Keep in mind how the clock runs, because it isn't a calendar year. A registration expires on the last day of the month one year after the date of issuance. You can file the renewal starting 30 days before that date, and a renewal filed even one day after expiration gets treated as a brand new application rather than a renewal, which means the $150 fee again.

Remember too that the registration is tied to one address and is non-transferable, so buying a registered short-term rental buys you the building and not the permission. Attempting to transfer one, or using someone else's number, is itself grounds for revocation.

The operating rules attach automatically once you're registered, and they're specific enough that a large listing can breach them on the first booking:

• Occupancy: two persons per bedroom plus two additional persons, with a hard ceiling of 12 people including children regardless of how many bedrooms you have. A city employee visually counting more than 12 on the premises is prima facie evidence and probable cause for a citation.
• One group at a time. Splitting a property between two simultaneous bookings is unlawful.
• Parking: vehicles are capped at the number of available off-street spaces. No parking on an unapproved surface, and no directing guests onto the street contrary to city ordinance.
• No special events. Event centers, banquets, weddings, receptions, reunions, bachelor and bachelorette parties and concerts are all named in Sec. 7-465, and advertising one is a violation whether or not it happens.
• Minimum stay of one night, so hourly or day-use bookings are out.
• Host rules in writing. Sec. 7-466 requires you to give occupants a notice of instructions covering occupancy limits, parking, trash pickup, the events ban, noise and curfew times.
• Display and disclose. A copy of the approved registration must be posted conspicuously inside the front entrance, and your assigned registration number has to appear in every advertisement, in any medium, including the platform listing itself.

Then there's the local responsible party, which is the requirement most out-of-town owners underestimate. Sec. 7-458 says the designated person must be reachable in person or by phone at all times while occupants are on the premises, and must be physically at the property within one hour of a call from the city. They also have to be authorized to make decisions about the premises and the guests.

You can name yourself, of course. Though if you live in Austin or California, you're buying a local co-host or a property manager whether you planned to or not.

Revocation is where a small problem turns into a two-year one. Sec. 7-471 gives the city four grounds for it: one or more citations for violating this Article or any other City Code provision in the preceding 12 months, a knowingly false statement on the application, a failure to notify the city in writing of a material change, or a failure to comply with the hotel occupancy tax chapter.

Note how low that first bar sits. A single citation for something as ordinary as trash placement is enough to open the door.

You then get 10 days to appeal to the City Manager, who has 10 days to decide, and that decision is final. Lose it, and no new registration issues for that property for one year. The underlying fines run to $500 per offense, or up to $2,000 where a culpable mental state is alleged and the offense touches fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation. Each day counts as a separate offense, which is what turns a quiet non-compliant summer into a number nobody budgeted for.

Required Documents for Fort Worth, Texas Short-Term Rentals

Since a late renewal costs you the full $150 again, it's worth getting the file right the first time. The list is shorter than most cities and shorter than a lot of published guidance on Fort Worth suggests, so here's what the code and the city's registration page actually ask for.

The document that decides everything is the zoning confirmation. Run your address through the city's CFW Permit Assist tool, then upload the resulting PDF showing a "success" message with your application. Per the city's own Localgov training material for short-term rentals, the messages that let you proceed are "your project is allowed" or "your project receives additional staff review."

A prohibited address returns "Unfortunately, your project is prohibited at this location", and that's the end of the road short of a rezoning. Make sure you run this before you spend anything, since the fee doesn't come back and roughly one in seven applicants in the city's first year got denied for exactly this reason.

Everything else is contact detail and money. Sec. 7-457 asks for four things:

• The physical street address of the short-term rental.
• The name, address, email addresses, phone numbers and authenticated signature of every owner, plus the corporate owner's representative where a company holds title.
• The name, address, email and phone numbers of any operator or agent, and of the designated local responsible party.
• Whatever certifications the Administrator wants in order to confirm continuing compliance.

You'll also be registered for hotel occupancy tax on the same Localgov account, since the short-term rental registration form is the Hotel Occupancy Tax Registration form. Incomplete applications aren't accepted at all, so a missing phone number stalls the whole thing rather than getting queried.

Be aware of what is not on the list, because a fair amount of Fort Worth guidance written before the code was published says otherwise. Reading Sec. 7-450 through Sec. 7-473 line by line, there's no insurance certificate, no inspection, no floor plan with dimensions, no separate parking plan, no homeowners association sign-off and no affidavit of compliance. Fort Worth chose a light registration bolted onto a hard zoning line, and it didn't build a document-heavy permit around it.

A private deed restriction or association covenant can still stop you where the city wouldn't, mind you, so do read your own paperwork before you rely on the city's.

Fort Worth, Texas Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and this is the part where the city's public guidance has fallen behind its own code. Three separate charges land on a Fort Worth stay, they're administered by two different governments, and only one of them is likely to be collected for you.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
City hotel occupancy tax	9% of the room charge	City of Fort Worth, via Localgov
City venue hotel occupancy tax	2% of the room charge	City of Fort Worth, via Localgov
State hotel occupancy tax	6% of the room charge	Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Total on a taxable stay	17%	City of Fort Worth plus the Comptroller

The city's base charge comes from Code Sec. 32-17, which levies 9% of the consideration paid by the occupant wherever a room costs $2 or more per day. Sec. 32-17(d) explains the shape of it: everything above 7% is restricted to convention center expansion, which is why the city describes the rate as a 7% hotel tax plus a 2% hotel convention tax. Permanent residents are exempt, and Sec. 32-16 defines one as an occupant with the right to occupancy for at least 30 consecutive days.

The second city layer is the one to watch, and it's the change most Fort Worth guidance has missed. Voters approved the Fort Worth Convention Center venue project on May 4, 2024, and Ordinance No. 26960-06-2024 followed. Code Sec. 32-31 now levies a 2% venue hotel occupancy tax "in addition to the hotel tax levied under Article II", and it states the result outright: "a combined hotel occupancy tax under Articles II and III of 11%". It bites on every occupancy from August 1, 2024 onward, and Sec. 32-32(b) requires every bill or receipt to disclose it conspicuously.

And it reaches short-term rentals as squarely as it reaches hotels, because Sec. 32-30 borrows its definitions from Sec. 32-16, which sweeps in apartments not occupied by permanent residents along with "all other facilities where rooms or sleeping facilities or open space is furnished for a consideration".

Which brings up a gap that will cost somebody money. Both of the city's short-term rental pages, and the Localgov training deck, still describe the rate as 9%, and all three carry a January 2024 stamp that predates the venue tax by seven months. The code says 11%. So before you set up your first remittance, get the current combined rate confirmed by the Central Revenue Office in writing, because a city page last updated before the ordinance passed won't help you in an audit.

The filing rhythm is fixed and unforgiving. Your report is due on the first day of the month after the collection period, and payment is delinquent if it isn't remitted or postmarked by the 25th, with the next business day substituting where the 25th falls on a weekend or holiday. Miss it and Sec. 32-18 assesses a 15% late penalty on the total tax owed, plus 10% per annum interest for every month the tax stays unpaid. Don't forget the zero-dollar returns either, since a filing is required for every single period even when there were no bookings at all.

Keep the records that support each report, too, because the city audits. An account more than 90 days past due goes to the City Attorney, who under Sec. 32-21.1 can sue to enjoin you from operating any hotel in Fort Worth until the tax is paid, then add attorney's fees, audit costs and a further 15% on top. At that point it has stopped being a fine and become a shutdown order.

The state layer works differently, and it's the one piece you may not have to collect yourself. Texas Tax Code Sec. 156.052 sets the state rate at six percent, Sec. 156.051 applies it to a room costing $15 or more each day, and Sec. 156.101 exempts a guest with the right to occupancy for at least 30 consecutive days as long as payment isn't interrupted. Reports go to the Comptroller by the 20th of the following month, or quarterly if you owe under $500 a month, and Sec. 156.153 lets you keep 1% of the tax due as a collection reimbursement when you file on time.

Airbnb's own occupancy tax page puts the Texas state rate at "6% of the listing price including any cleaning fee" for reservations of 29 nights and shorter. The same page then hands the rest back, since hosts "are responsible for assessing all other tax obligations, including state and city jurisdictions" themselves. No platform is listed as collecting Fort Worth's city layers, so treat those as yours. The Comptroller draws the same line: cities and counties collect their own local hotel taxes, and where a platform has no collection agreement the owner carries the state obligation as well.

Which means the practical setup is two separate filings on two different calendars. The 11% goes to Localgov monthly, while the 6% is handled for you on Airbnb bookings and is yours to remit on anything booked anywhere else. If you're comparing what a compliant Fort Worth listing clears against markets with a lighter tax stack, BNBCalc Markets shows that difference at the neighborhood level.

Texas Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Those two tax layers are, in fairness, most of what Texas does to you as a short-term rental owner. There is no statewide short-term rental license, no state registry, and no state agency that inspects or approves a listing.

Regulation is a municipal question here, and the state has never preempted it. That is exactly why Fort Worth can ban the use in residential districts while a city forty minutes away allows it.

What the state does do is define you into the hotel tax. Tax Code Sec. 156.001(b) says that "for purposes of the imposition of a hotel occupancy tax under this chapter, Chapter 351 or 352, or other law, 'hotel' includes a short-term rental", and then defines that as the rental of all or part of a residential property to someone who isn't a permanent resident. That single subsection is what makes an ordinary house taxable as lodging.

Watch out for the two thresholds, since they don't match. The state tax bites at $15 or more per day under Sec. 156.051, while a city tax reaches a room at $2 or more per day under Sec. 351.002. Chapter 351 also caps what a city may charge, with Sec. 351.003(a) allowing "any rate not to exceed seven percent" except where a listed exception applies, which is the framework Fort Worth's 7% plus 2% structure is built to fit.

The real state-level constraint on cities comes from the courts rather than the Legislature, and it's worth understanding why it didn't save the Fort Worth plaintiffs. In Zaatari v. City of Austin, the Third Court of Appeals struck down Austin's phase-out of non-homestead short-term rentals as unconstitutionally retroactive under Article I, Section 16 of the Texas Constitution. The provision, the court said, "operates to eliminate well-established and settled property rights that existed before the ordinance's adoption" while serving "a minimal, if any, public interest".

The court voided Austin's assembly restrictions on the same listings too, and the Texas Supreme Court declined to review any of it.

That ruling still binds Texas cities, yet it turns on taking away a use that was already lawful. Fort Worth's position has always been that its zoning ordinance never permitted the use in residential districts, so there was no settled right to take, and the city argued exactly that in Tarrant County.

One more piece of Texas law reaches into the private layer above the city. In Tarr v. Timberwood Park Owners Association, decided May 25, 2018, the Texas Supreme Court held that unambiguous covenants limiting tracts to "residential purposes" and single-family residences did not stop an owner from renting his home to short-term occupants, "no matter how short-lived". So a bare residential-purposes covenant isn't an automatic short-term rental ban in Texas.

A covenant that names transient or short-term rentals in terms is another matter entirely, mind you, and plenty of newer Tarrant County subdivisions carry exactly that.

For a sense of how differently this plays out elsewhere in the state, the San Antonio guide covers a city that permits the use in residential zones with density limits, and the Galveston County guide covers a coastal market where nightly rentals are the norm rather than the exception.

Does Fort Worth, Texas Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Yes, and the litigation is the clearest evidence of it, because a city that wasn't enforcing wouldn't have spent $450,000 defending the rules. Fort Worth hired outside counsel on a $150,000 contract in 2023 and raised it to $450,000 in November 2024 as the case went to summary judgment.

That case is the thing to understand before you weigh the risk. In June 2023, 114 Tarrant County short-term rental operators and members of the Fort Worth Short Term Rental Alliance sued the city. Their argument was that the right to lease their properties is "fundamental, vested, settled and not restricted in duration or location". The city's answer was that they hold no vested right to lease for fewer than 30 days, that the ordinances are rationally related to a legitimate purpose, and that they aren't so burdensome as to be oppressive.

On March 6, 2025, Judge Josh Burgess of the 352nd District Court granted the city's motion, framing the question narrowly: "The issue before the court is not whether the court would have implemented the same zoning ordinance as the city. The issue is whether the city had the authority to make the decision it made." The Alliance said it would appeal, though going through the records available to me in July 2026 I found no published appellate decision, so the ruling stands and the ordinance is being enforced as written.

Day to day, the Code Compliance Department investigates complaints and issues warnings or citations, working out of six district offices, so the number you need depends on where the property sits. Enforcement is complaint-driven in practice, which sounds forgiving until you remember that Sec. 7-468 requires your registration number in every advertisement. A listing with no number on it announces itself to any neighbor who checks, and a listing in a residential district is advertising a use the zoning map says can't be there.

The volumes give you a sense of scale, with the caveat that the most recent figures I could tie to a city briefing are now two years old. As of a June 4, 2024 City Council work session, the city had received 98 registration applications since the ordinance took effect, approved 85 and denied 13, with denials driven primarily by the property sitting in a district that doesn't allow the use. Over the same stretch it had investigated 222 properties for violations and issued 114 citations.

Sit with that ratio for a second. Fort Worth had cited more properties than it had ever registered, which tells you two things at once: the illegal inventory dwarfs the legal inventory, and the city is working through it rather than ignoring it. Higher and more recent numbers do circulate online, though I couldn't trace any of them back to a city source, so treat those with care.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Fort Worth, Texas

Given that enforcement record, the order of these steps matters more than it looks, because the first two tell you whether the rest are worth paying for.

1. Run the address through zoning before anything else. Use the CFW Permit Assist tool and save the PDF. "Your project is allowed" or "your project receives additional staff review" lets you continue. "Prohibited at this location" means stop, because no fee, structure or amenity changes it.
2. If you're still shopping, buy inside the answer. Filter for mixed-use, form-based, commercial and industrial districts, and confirm each candidate on the city's zoning map instead of trusting a listing description. Check the deed restrictions and any association covenants in the same pass.
3. Line up a genuine local responsible party. Someone reachable whenever guests are on site and able to be at the door within an hour. Settle this before you apply, since their name and contact details go on the form.
4. Create the Localgov account and file the registration. Go to tax.localgov.org, add the property, attach the zoning confirmation PDF, and pay the $150. The same form registers you for hotel occupancy tax.
5. Confirm the combined city tax rate in writing. Ask the Central Revenue Office whether you owe 9% or the 11% the code now specifies, and keep the reply.
6. Set the property up for the operating rules. Post the approved registration inside the front entrance, count your legal occupancy at two per bedroom plus two with a ceiling of 12, confirm your off-street parking count, and write the host-rules notice covering occupancy, parking, trash, events, noise and curfew.
7. Put the registration number in every listing. Airbnb, Vrbo, your direct site, any advertisement in any medium. Omitting it is its own violation, separate from being unregistered.
8. Set up tax collection and calendar the deadlines. City report on the 1st and payment by the 25th through Localgov, state return to the Comptroller by the 20th, and a zero-dollar city filing in every month you take no bookings.
9. Diarize the real expiration date. Your registration dies on the last day of the month one year after issuance, the renewal window opens 30 days before that, and filing late costs you the $150 new-application fee instead of the $100 renewal.

Who to Contact in Fort Worth, Texas about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps stalls, the answer sits with one of four offices, and knowing which one owns your question saves a lot of transferred calls. Fort Worth has also moved into a new City Hall, so use the address below and be careful with any older one you find in an out-of-date guide.

Zoning, use tables and rezoning belong to the Development Services Department, which is where a "prohibited at this location" result goes next.

• Zoning and land use: 817-392-8028, [email protected]
• Permits and certificates of occupancy: 817-392-2222
• Board of Adjustment: 817-392-8026 commercial, 817-392-2733 residential, [email protected]
• Address: City Hall, 100 Fort Worth Trail, Fort Worth, TX 76102, with the Development Services customer center on the 5th floor
• Online: the zoning ordinance and application pages carry the current fee schedules and the rezoning process

Registration, hotel occupancy tax and anything about a filing belong to the Central Revenue Office inside Financial Management Services.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (817) 392-6665, with the department's main line at 817-392-8500
• Address: City Hall, 100 Fort Worth Trail, 12th floor, Fort Worth, TX 76102
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday
• Online: the hotel occupancy tax page holds the registration instructions and remittance rules

Technical trouble with the portal itself goes to Localgov, the vendor that runs it, not to the city. They also run one-on-one onboarding sessions, which are worth taking before your first filing rather than after your first penalty.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (877) 842-3037
• Portal: tax.localgov.org, available outside office hours

Complaints and citations are Code Compliance, and this line is worth knowing in both directions since it's how a neighbor reports you.

• North and Northwest districts: 309 Hillshire Drive, 817-965-6840
• Central and East districts: 818 Missouri Ave., 817-269-8650 central, 817-944-8256 east
• South and West districts: 3741 S.W. Loop 820, 817-994-4208
• General city line: 817-392-1234

For the state 6% and vendor registration, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts hotel occupancy tax pages carry the forms, filing thresholds and exemption rules. One thing they can't answer for you: whether Tarrant County adds a county hotel tax to a Fort Worth address. I couldn't confirm one from any official county page, so ask the Central Revenue Office to confirm your full stack in writing before your first remittance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Fort Worth, Texas in 2026?

Only if the property sits in a district that allows it. Fort Worth's zoning ordinance permits a short term home rental in mixed-use, most form-based, commercial and industrial districts, and leaves the use blank in every residential district including the conditional-use column. Where the use is allowed, you must hold an active city registration, filed through the Localgov portal, before you advertise or take a booking. A Tarrant County district court upheld that structure in March 2025.

How much does a Fort Worth short-term rental registration cost?

A first-time registration costs $150 and each annual renewal costs $100, both payable when the application is filed and both non-refundable. Registration expires on the last day of the month one year after issuance. You can file the renewal from 30 days before expiration, and a renewal submitted after that date is treated as a new application, so a missed date costs the full $150 rather than $100. Registrations are tied to one address and cannot be transferred.

What is the total hotel occupancy tax on a Fort Worth short-term rental?

Seventeen percent, split across two governments. Fort Worth levies 9% under Code Sec. 32-17 plus a 2% venue hotel occupancy tax under Sec. 32-31, which took effect on August 1, 2024 and brings the combined city rate to 11%. Texas adds a 6% state hotel occupancy tax. The city portion is filed monthly on the Localgov portal, and the state portion goes to the Texas Comptroller. Guests staying 30 consecutive days or more are exempt from both.

Can you get a permit for an Airbnb in a Fort Worth residential neighborhood?

No. The residential district use table leaves the short term home rental row blank in every column, including the planned development and conditional use permit column, so there is no permit that authorizes the use inside a residential district. The only zoning route is applying to rezone the property to Planned Development, which is a City Council decision the city describes as not guaranteed. A bed and breakfast home conditional use permit is a separate and much more restrictive option.

What are the penalties for running an unregistered short-term rental in Fort Worth?

Each violation is a misdemeanor carrying a fine up to $500, or up to $2,000 where a culpable mental state is alleged and the offense involves fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation. Each day the violation continues is a separate offense, so the total compounds. Advertising an unregistered rental is itself a violation, and a single citation in any 12-month period is grounds for the city to revoke an existing registration, which then bars a new one on that property for a year.

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