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

Do you own a place in Santa Fe and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that short-term renting is legal here, and the City of Santa Fe, in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, publishes a clear path to a permit. Getting one is the hard part. The city caps residential short-term rental permits at 1,000 citywide, hands out no more than one per person, and won't let a permit travel with the house when you sell it.

Then there's what happened this summer. On July 1, 2026 the city's Planning and Land Use director issued an interpretation of the ordinance's frequency rule, and it finally put a number on something hosts had argued about for years: a permitted rental on residentially zoned property can take at most 44 unique reservations in a calendar year. That works out to about one booking a week. So if you were modeling two or three weekend stays a month in a residential neighborhood, the ordinance won't let you.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: which permit your zoning puts you in, what the city charges, the paperwork it wants, the layers of tax attached to every stay, how hard Santa Fe pushes on enforcement, and who to call when something stalls. Every figure below comes from the city's, the county's or the state's own pages, checked in July 2026. Before you spend anything on fees, run the property through BNBCalc first, and model it against 44 bookings a year instead of a full calendar.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Santa Fe, New Mexico?

That 44-reservation ceiling sits inside a single, fairly compact ordinance, which is where any Santa Fe host should start.

The rules live in the Short-Term Rental Unit Ordinance, codified at subsection 14-6.2(A)(5) SFCC 1987. It defines a short-term rental as a dwelling unit rented for fewer than 30 calendar days, and it's blunt about why it exists. Two of its five stated purposes are keeping short-term rentals from disrupting the character of residential neighborhoods and preventing "speculators from purchasing multiple homes for the purpose of operating multiple short-term rental units." Read those two lines and most of what follows stops being surprising.

Zoning decides which track you're on, and the difference is bigger than the paperwork suggests:

• Residentially zoned property needs a permit. Permits are capped, spaced apart, limited to one per person, and now limited in how often you can rent.
• Non-residentially zoned property needs a registration instead. There's no citywide cap on registrations, no 50-foot spacing rule, and no frequency limit at all.

Either way, you also need a city business license under Section 18-1 SFCC 1987, and you have to apply for it at or before the time you apply for the permit. The ordinance treats these as one package, and the city's own lodger's tax FAQ confirms that the permit you receive includes the required business license.

One rule catches almost everyone eventually: your city-issued permit or registration number must appear in every advertisement, including the listing itself. That isn't decorative. Platforms are separately obligated to require the number, to deactivate a listing within five business days of the city calling a number invalid, and to send the city a monthly report pairing every listing URL with its permit number. Keep that in mind when you're tempted to test the water with an unpermitted listing.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Santa Fe

Since the permit is what everything else hangs on, the first thing to find out is whether one is even available to you.

The land use director may issue a maximum of one thousand short-term rental permits for residentially zoned property, full stop. Applications get processed in the order received, and once the count hits 1,000 the department stops processing and starts a waiting list. Wait a year or longer and the director may ask you to confirm you're still interested. I couldn't find an official count of how many of those 1,000 permits are issued, or whether the waiting list is active, so do call the Short-Term Rental Office before you buy anything on the assumption a permit exists.

Four more limits shape who actually qualifies:

• One permit per natural person. Permits go to human beings, not companies. The property can still be titled to a revocable trust, an LLC or a corporation, but the permit is held by a person with authority to act for that entity, and that person can hold exactly one.
• Permits don't transfer. Sell the house and the permit terminates and reverts to the land use department. The buyer applies fresh, subject to availability. A transfer that doesn't change who really owns the property, like moving title into your own revocable trust, doesn't count as a transfer.
• The 50-foot rule. The director won't issue a new residential permit if the property sits within a 50-foot radius of another residentially zoned property that already has one, measured from the property boundary. The city publishes a mapping tool for checking this and the multi-unit rule before you apply.
• Two exceptions to the spacing rule. An accessory dwelling unit meeting subsection 14-6.3(D)(1) is exempt. So is a unit in a multiple-family development of four or more units, though no more than 25% of those units may hold permits, rounded down, and no more than 12 permits may be issued within a single building.

Unfortunately for anyone building a portfolio, those four limits are designed to stop exactly that. One permit per person, no transfer on sale, spacing between properties, and a hard citywide ceiling, all in an ordinance that says out loud that stopping speculators is the point.

One wrinkle explains any cluster of listings that looks like it breaks the spacing rule. Permits and registrations already held when Ordinance 2020-35 was adopted stay valid, sit outside both the proximity limit and the one-per-person limit, and can keep being renewed by the same owner. They still terminate on sale, though, so they're no help to a buyer.

If your property happens to sit on non-residentially zoned land, the picture changes completely. There's a registration to file, no citywide cap, no spacing rule outside multi-unit buildings, and no frequency limit at all. Do check your zoning before you assume anything.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Santa Fe

Assuming a permit is available and your property clears the spacing rule, you can then move on to what the city actually charges and demands. There's still a fair amount of it.

The fee schedule sits in the ordinance itself, so it doesn't move quietly. These are the amounts as of July 2026:

Charge	Amount	When
Application, processing and inspection fee	$100	One time, non-refundable
Permit (residential) or registration (non-residential)	$290	Annual
Business license	$35	Annual
Late renewal fee	$50	If you miss March 15

So year one runs $425 before you've bought a single smoke alarm, and $325 every year after. That $100 is explicitly non-refundable, which is another reason to check the cap and the spacing map first.

The renewal calendar trips people up because two dates matter. Permits expire after December 31 each year, and the ordinance requires you to renew both the permit and the business license by March 15. Miss it and a $50 late fee buys you until April 15, which the city's short-term rentals page treats as the final annual deadline, at 5 p.m. New permit applications open the moment that window shuts, also April 15 at 5 p.m. Let the whole thing lapse and your permit reverts to the department and goes to the next eligible applicant on the waiting list, which in a capped market means you're starting over.

Before your first permit is issued, the city inspects. Seven things have to be in place:

• A fire evacuation plan
• Carbon monoxide detection
• Smoke alarms in all bedrooms
• Fire extinguishers on each floor
• No combustible materials stored in mechanical, boiler or electrical rooms
• A non-combustible ash receptacle outside for any fireplace or wood stove
• Address numerals at least four inches tall, half-inch stroke, contrasting color, visible from the street

The unit also needs a certificate of occupancy before a permit or registration issues, has to meet all applicable building, fire and safety codes, and its toilets, faucets and shower heads must meet the water conservation requirements in Section 25-2.6 SFCC 1987. Santa Fe is serious about water, so don't treat that last one as boilerplate.

Then come the operating rules, the ones you live with every day you're hosting:

• A local operator, available 24/7. Reachable by phone and physically able to be at the unit within one hour of being contacted.
• Off-street parking on site. One space for a one-bedroom, two spaces for two or more bedrooms. Guests can't park RVs on site or on the street.
• Occupancy is twice the number of bedrooms. A three-bedroom tops out at six guests.
• No noise or disturbance after 10:00 p.m., including from decks, portals, porches, balconies and patios.
• No commercial activity or events at a residentially zoned unit, which the ordinance defines to include any gathering larger than twice the legal guest count.
• Written notice to guests of the city's nuisance and water conservation ordinances.
• Records kept for three years: the start date and number of nights for every reservation, monthly rent received, and the monthly amount of each tax and fee paid to the city.

That records requirement isn't busywork either, because your renewal application has to include the previous year's records. Combined with the 44-reservation interpretation, the city now has both a number and the paperwork to check it against.

Required Documents for Santa Fe Short-Term Rentals

Since $100 of that application fee is gone whether or not you're approved, it's worth getting the file complete the first time. Applications run through the Avenu short-term rental portal, where you create an account, verify by emailed code, add the property, upload documents and pay by ACH or card.

The ordinance itself asks for the local operator's name and phone number, an affirmation from owner and operator that they'll comply with subsection 14-6.2(A)(5) and all other applicable laws, city codes and private covenants, a statement that no private covenants prohibit the use, and whatever else the land use director requires. In practice the city's short-term rentals page spells that last part out: proof of ownership, verification that a natural person holds the permit where applicable, a New Mexico gross receipts tax certificate, a site plan, a floor plan, proof of insurance, a draft of your notification letter, and an HOA or neighborhood association letter where one is required.

Templates for several of these live on the city's short-term rental forms page, including the notification letter, the notification affidavit and a records spreadsheet.

Neighbor notification is the requirement with a clock on it. Within 10 days after your permit is issued or renewed, you have to mail first-class notices to four sets of recipients: the HOA if there is one, the owners of residentially zoned property within 200 feet of yours as shown in county assessor records, those properties' physical addresses where they differ from the owner's mailing address, and the land use department. The notice carries your local operator's name and phone number.

Then, within 10 days of mailing, you file the mailing lists and a signed affidavit of mailing with the land use director. Change your local operator later and you repeat the whole mailing within 10 days. The city runs a notification mailing list tool that builds the 200-foot list for you, and you'll want it.

One more filing sits outside the city entirely. Before you can hand over that gross receipts tax certificate, you need a New Mexico Business Tax Identification Number from the state, which the Taxation and Revenue Department issues through its Taxpayer Access Point. The department states plainly that there is "no fee to register or obtain a Business Tax Identification Number", so that step costs nothing but time.

Santa Fe Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all of that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to sort out, and Santa Fe stacks more layers than most cities its size. Which ones apply depends on whether your address is inside the city limits or out in the unincorporated county.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Occupancy tax (city)	5.00%	City of Santa Fe Treasury
Convention center fee (city)	2.00%	City of Santa Fe Treasury
Gross receipts tax, Santa Fe city	8.1875%	NM Taxation and Revenue Department
Lodgers' tax, unincorporated county	5.00%	Santa Fe County Treasurer
Gross receipts tax, unincorporated county	6.8750%	NM Taxation and Revenue Department

City of Santa Fe Lodgers' Tax

Section 18-11.4 of the city code imposes "an occupancy tax of five percent (5%) and a convention center fee of two percent (2%) for a total of seven percent (7%) of gross taxable rent" for lodging at a taxable premises inside the city. The code's definition of "taxable premises" names short-term rental units explicitly, so there's no argument to be had about whether you're in scope. Gross taxable rent excludes the state gross receipts tax, which matters when you're setting up your accounting.

Reporting is monthly. Operators file by the 25th for the preceding calendar month at hoteltaxonline.com and remit what's due. As of the February 2026 tax period, the city has partnered with Neumo, previously Avenu Insights & Analytics, to administer both the permit program and the lodger's tax.

Santa Fe County Lodgers' Tax

Out in the unincorporated county the city tax doesn't apply, and the county's own applies instead. Santa Fe County's lodgers and short-term rental tax report shows the rate on its face as 0.0500, which is 5%, under Ordinance No. 2023-02. It's due to the County Treasurer on or before the 25th of the month following the reporting month, and the form has to be filed even when no tax is due.

New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax

Gross receipts tax is the state's substitute for a sales tax, and it applies to lodging receipts on top of whichever lodgers' tax you owe. NMSA 1978 § 7-9-4 puts the state rate at 4.875%, subject to a revenue trigger that can lift it to 5.125%, and cities and counties layer local options on top, so the number that matters is your own location code. On the most recent official schedule I could open, effective January 1 through June 30, 2026, Santa Fe (city), location code 01-123, runs 8.1875%, and the remainder of Santa Fe County, code 01-001, runs 6.8750%. New Mexico reissues that schedule every January and July, so do check your own address against the department's location code and tax rate map before you file, and don't trust a figure in any guide, including this one.

Occupancy Tax Exemptions

The city's lodger's tax FAQ handles the exemption most hosts ask about. A stay of at least 30 days, where the tenant has occupied the property with the intent to become a resident or you hold a written agreement for 30 days or more, isn't subject to lodger's tax. Rent a property interchangeably as short-term and long-term, though, and you still file a monthly report and mark the applicable exemption. Section 18-11.8 of the lodgers' tax ordinance carries the full exemption list, which the city says was recently updated to match state statute.

Tax Collection by Booking Platforms

Airbnb's New Mexico occupancy tax page says it collects and remits state gross receipts tax of 5.125% to 8.6875% on reservations of 30 nights or fewer, a Santa Fe city lodgers' tax of 7.1% on stays of 29 nights or fewer, and a 5% Santa Fe County lodgers' occupancy tax. That city figure sits slightly above the 7% the city's own ordinance imposes, and I couldn't reconcile the difference from either party's page, so treat the ordinance as the authority on what's owed and your platform statements as the record of what was paid on your behalf. I found nothing confirming Vrbo collects the same way, so check that directly if Vrbo carries your bookings.

Platform collection doesn't get you out of filing, and the city and county both explain it the same way. Platforms remit in one lump sum with no property-level breakdown, so the city can't tell whose taxes it just received. You still file a monthly report showing the taxable amount and noting that the platform is paying, using lines 3 and 4 of the remittance form.

Compliance and Recordkeeping

File late and the city charges a penalty of 10% of the tax due or $100, whichever is greater, plus interest at 1% of the unpaid balance of tax and penalty per month until it's cleared. Penalty is one-time; interest keeps running. The county's form applies the same 10%-or-$100 penalty and the same 1% monthly interest. And remember that you must file every month even with zero occupancy, or your account goes delinquent on paper while you're doing nothing wrong.

Your three years of ordinance records and your monthly tax filings are meant to line up. If you're comparing what a capped Santa Fe permit might clear against markets with no permit ceiling at all, BNBCalc Markets is the faster way to see that gap before you commit to a purchase.

New Mexico Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Everything above is local, and that's not an accident. New Mexico has left this almost entirely to cities and counties.

There is no state statute preempting local short-term rental regulation, no state floor or ceiling on what a municipality may require, and no statewide short-term rental license. What the state does require is the Business Tax Identification Number described earlier, used to report gross receipts tax and, where it applies, local lodgers' tax. Beyond that, the rules are whatever your city or county wrote.

The one statewide frame worth understanding is the Lodgers' Tax Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 3-38-13 to 3-38-24, which lets a municipality or county adopt an occupancy tax of up to 5% on stays of 30 days or fewer. That's why Santa Fe County sits at exactly 5% and can't go higher. It also explains the shape of the city's 7%: the 5% occupancy tax comes from the Lodgers' Tax Act, while the extra 2% convention center fee is imposed under the Civic and Convention Center Funding Act, Sections 5-14-1 to 5-14-15 NMSA 1978, which is a separate authority entirely.

New Mexico lawmakers have been circling this, though nothing has changed the law yet. In 2025 the Legislature passed House Memorial 52, a non-binding memorial asking a work group to study short-term rental economics, taxation and regulation, and asking county assessors to pause reclassifying short-term rental homes while it worked.

The group reported to the Economic and Rural Development and Policy interim committee on December 8, 2025, and its recommendations were sweeping. It asked for a uniform statewide residential classification for short-term rentals, and for a model "Short-Term Rental Preemption & Accountability Act" that would ban spacing and density quotas, cap local registration fees at parity with a general business license, and prohibit per-room permit schemes. Every one of those would gut a core piece of Santa Fe's ordinance.

Be aware that none of it is law. As of my check in July 2026 no such bill had been introduced, and the 2026 regular session ended in February without an enacted short-term rental measure. The next regular session doesn't convene until January 2027, so plan around the ordinance you have, not the preemption bill somebody hopes for.

The one state-level issue that can hit your wallet before then is property tax classification. The Taxation and Revenue Department told the same work group that under the definitions in Section 7-35-2 NMSA 1978, assessors "may determine that certain short-term rentals are non-residential if they are not used primarily for permanent human habitation." A non-residential classification strips the 3% annual valuation cap that Section 7-36-21.2 gives residential property, and the bill goes up accordingly. Santa Fe County's assessor sat on that work group, so treat this as a live risk here.

Does Santa Fe Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Assessors aren't the only people checking up on you, mind you. Yes, Santa Fe enforces, and it doesn't need a large inspection team to do it.

Santa Fe built enforcement into the listing itself. Your permit number has to appear in every advertisement. Platforms must require it, must deactivate a listing within five business days once the city says a number is invalid, and must file a monthly report matching every listing URL to its permit number. So the city doesn't have to discover an illegal rental in the field. It compares two lists.

The 44-reservation interpretation is the newest piece of that, and the city was explicit about why it published a number. It gives neighbors and enforcement staff, in the city's words, a "clear and transparent metric" for spotting a violation. Since renewal applications already require the previous year's reservation records, a host who over-rents has effectively documented it in advance. Watch out for that if you were planning to average out a busy summer.

Complaints go to the city's Inspections and Enforcement Division, whose code enforcement staff investigate unpermitted short-term rentals along with unlicensed businesses and zoning violations. Reports can be made anonymously. Out in the county, Santa Fe County runs a Granicus Host Compliance portal plus a 24/7 hotline on 505-405-3772 for unauthorized rentals and nuisance activity.

On penalties, the ordinance points to Sections 1.3 and 14-11 SFCC 1987 and to "all other legal remedies," which can mean civil or criminal penalties or revocation. The city's own December 2020 guidance on the ordinance put civil penalties at $100 for each day of violation for a first-time violator, $250 for a second offense and $500 for subsequent offenses, plus possible revocation and a one-year waiting period before the violator may apply again. In a market where permits are capped and a lost permit goes to the next person on the waiting list, that one-year lockout costs far more than the fine does.

What I couldn't find was any published count of citations or revocations. The city doesn't post an enforcement dashboard, so I can't tell you the odds of being caught, only the mechanism.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Santa Fe

Given how many of these steps gate the one after them, the order below matters. The early steps tell you whether the later ones are worth paying for.

1. Check your zoning first. Residential means a capped, spaced, once-a-week permit. Non-residential means a registration with no cap and no frequency limit. Everything downstream follows from this one answer.
2. Check availability and spacing before you spend. Call the Short-Term Rental Office about the 1,000-permit count and the waiting list, and run your address through the city's 50-foot and 25% mapping tool.
3. Read your covenants and HOA rules. The ordinance lets private restrictive covenants prohibit short-term rentals outright, and your application includes a statement that none of yours do.
4. Get your New Mexico Business Tax ID. Register through the Taxpayer Access Point. It's free, and you'll need the gross receipts tax certificate for the application.
5. Line up the certificate of occupancy and pass the fire inspection. Evacuation plan, carbon monoxide detection, bedroom smoke alarms, extinguishers on each floor, the ash receptacle and the four-inch address numerals.
6. Apply and pay through the Avenu portal. $100 application, $290 permit or registration, $35 business license. Don't forget that the $100 doesn't come back.
7. Mail your notices within 10 days of issuance. HOA, every residentially zoned owner within 200 feet, those properties' physical addresses, and the land use department. Then file the mailing lists and the affidavit within 10 days of mailing.
8. Put your permit number in every listing on every platform, and keep the listing consistent with what you told the city.
9. Set up tax on day one. Monthly city lodger's tax at hoteltaxonline.com by the 25th, or the county form to the Treasurer if you're outside the city, plus gross receipts tax with the state. File even in months with no bookings.
10. Diarize March 15 and April 15, and track your reservation count. Renew both permit and business license, keep the previous year's records ready, and remember the 44-reservation ceiling if you're in a residential zone.

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

Whichever of those steps stalls, four offices handle nearly all of it, and picking the right one saves a lot of hold music.

Permits, eligibility and the ordinance

The City of Santa Fe Short-Term Rental Office covers ordinance questions, permit eligibility, required documents, renewals, new applications, inspections and compliance.

• Phone: 505-955-6639, listed on the city's short-term rentals page. The city's July 2026 notice on reservation limits gives 505-955-6687 for the same office
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with responses inside 24 hours
• Applications and renewals: the Avenu portal, with support on 1-800-692-6019 or [email protected]

Complaints, code enforcement and zoning violations

The Inspections and Enforcement Division investigates unpermitted short-term rentals, zoning violations and businesses operating without a license.

• Address: Santa Fe City Hall, 200 Lincoln Ave., lower level, southwest entrance facing Marcy Street
• Mailing address: City of Santa Fe, Inspections and Enforcement Division, P.O. Box 909, Santa Fe, NM 87504-0909
• Phone: 505-955-6150
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

City lodger's tax

Lodger's tax is administered by the city's Treasury office within Finance, with Neumo handling filings.

• File and pay: hoteltaxonline.com, by the 25th of each month
• Support: 866-240-3665, or the Neumo support portal

Santa Fe County, for addresses outside the city

If your property sits in the unincorporated county, none of the city offices above are yours. Santa Fe County Growth Management handles short-term rental licensing and registration.

• Address: 240 Grant Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501, mailing to PO Box 276, Santa Fe, NM 87504-0276
• Phone: 505-995-2700
• Email: [email protected]
• Lodgers' tax: [email protected] or 505-986-6245, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Complaints: the county's Host Compliance portal, or the 24/7 hotline on 505-405-3772

County fees run differently from the city's, which surprises people who assume the county is the cheaper option. A non-owner-occupied short-term rental needs a business license at $375 initially and $300 to renew, while an owner-occupied rental needs a $35 business registration renewed through the Treasurer each January. The county caps non-owner-occupied rentals too, at 3% or 7% of housing stock depending on which census designated place you're in, under an amendment to Ordinance 2022-07.

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

Those county numbers point at the argument running underneath all of this, which is about fees and fairness far more than safety.

Reddit blocks automated access, though, and the BiggerPockets threads I could open on Santa Fe are old and thin, so I'm not going to tell you what anonymous posters said. What I can point you to is better sourced anyway: New Mexico host groups put their complaints on the legislative record in 2025, and that record is public.

The HM 52 work-group report collects those arguments, and three of them are aimed squarely at cities like this one.

• Fee parity is the loudest complaint. The New Mexico Short Term Rental Group's testimony includes a Santa Fe builder who restored an older Victorian and says he was told to buy a separate short-term rental permit for each bedroom at roughly $425 a room, plus the $35 business license, running well over $2,000 to host guests. He registered the property as a hotel instead and paid $35. Whether or not that reading of the ordinance was correct, the $425 figure matches the city's own first-year total exactly, and the group's recommendation is a statewide ban on per-room permit schemes.
• Caps are described as picking winners. The same testimony names "Santa Fe permit frictions" alongside Taos County's 400-permit cap, arguing that quotas let one neighbor prosper while blocking an identical use next door, and that people with existing permits benefit while first-time buyers get locked out. Santa Fe's non-transferable permit makes that sharper, since the value attaches to the holder, not the house.
• Property tax reclassification worries people more than fines do. Host groups told the work group they fear reclassification to non-residential could even trigger mortgage note calls if a loan no longer fits Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines. That's an argument, not a determination, but the underlying reclassification risk is real and the Taxation and Revenue Department has said assessors may reasonably make that call.

Set against that, the housing case is on the record too. The New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority's contribution to the same report cites research finding that short-term rentals push up rents and house prices in tourist-heavy areas, and displace lower-income long-term renters. Santa Fe wrote that argument into its ordinance back in 2020, and it's kept tightening since.

My read, and treat it as a read rather than a fact: the 2026 reservation limit tells you which way the city is going. It didn't add a new rule, it enforced an old one with a number attached. So plan for the ordinance to get tighter over time, and be careful about paying a price that only works if the rules loosen. Model the property at 44 bookings a year in BNBCalc before you commit, because that's the ceiling the city has now written down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Santa Fe in 2026?

Yes, with a city permit. A property on residentially zoned land needs a short-term rental permit plus a city business license, and those permits are capped at 1,000 citywide with a limit of one per person and a 50-foot spacing rule between permitted properties. A property on non-residentially zoned land needs a registration instead, and registrations aren't capped. Either way, the permit or registration number must appear in every listing.

How much does a Santa Fe short-term rental permit cost?

First year costs $425: a one-time, non-refundable $100 application, processing and inspection fee, a $290 annual permit or registration fee, and a $35 annual business license. After that it's $325 a year. Renewal is due by March 15, and a $50 late fee extends the deadline to April 15. In unincorporated Santa Fe County the figures differ, at $375 for a non-owner-occupied business license and $300 to renew.

How often can you rent a Santa Fe short-term rental?

A permitted rental on residentially zoned property cannot be rented more than once in any seven-day period, and the city's July 1, 2026 interpretation puts a hard number on it: a maximum of 44 unique reservations per calendar year. The limit doesn't apply to rentals beginning between November 15 and January 15, which is where the 44 comes from, and it doesn't apply at all to properties in non-residential zones.

What taxes do Santa Fe Airbnb hosts pay?

Inside the city limits, a 5% occupancy tax and a 2% convention center fee, totaling 7% of gross taxable rent, filed monthly with the city by the 25th. On top of that, New Mexico gross receipts tax, which was 8.1875% for the Santa Fe city location code on the schedule effective January 1 to June 30, 2026. In unincorporated Santa Fe County it's a 5% county lodgers' tax instead, with gross receipts tax at 6.8750%. Hosts must file monthly even when a platform collects.

Can you buy a Santa Fe house that already has a short-term rental permit?

No. The permit terminates and reverts to the land use department when ownership transfers, and the buyer has to apply fresh, subject to permits being available under the 1,000 cap. Transfers that don't change beneficial ownership, such as moving title into your own revocable trust or an LLC where the ownership interest is unchanged, don't count. A permit may pass to a spouse or domestic partner on the holder's death if they apply within 90 days and hold no other permit.

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