Night Caps and Primary Residence Rules for Short Lets
The two levers cities use most are a count and a test. A count of how many nights a home may be let without the host present, and a test of whether the host actually lives there, measured in days of occupancy across the calendar year.
The rule in short
Municipal short-term rental schemes typically combine a registration requirement with two substantive limits: a cap on unhosted nights per calendar year, and a primary residence condition proved by a minimum number of days of occupancy. Hosted stays are often uncapped. Some cities restrict short lets to the host's presence entirely and limit paying guests per stay. Enforcement runs through registration numbers in listings and platform obligations rather than through inspection.
Municipal short-term rental rules look complicated in the aggregate and simple one city at a time. Almost all of them combine three elements: a registration requirement that makes the listing lawful, a numerical cap on how often the home may be let without the host present, and a residence test that ties the permission to a person rather than to an investment. Everything else is administration around those three.
Registration is the gate
In most schemes nothing else matters until a unit is registered. Registration produces a number that has to appear in the listing, and it is conditioned on eligibility: the unit must be a lawful dwelling, the applicant must have the right to let it, and the building must not appear on a prohibited list where the city maintains one. Applications commonly require proof of residence, insurance, and a certification about compliance with a lease or governing documents.
The enforcement leverage is at the platform rather than at the door. Where a city prohibits booking platforms from processing transactions for unregistered units, a listing without a valid number simply cannot take money, which is a far more effective control than inspecting properties. It also means a lapsed registration produces an immediate commercial consequence rather than a notice of violation months later.
Counting nights
The cap is usually written against unhosted nights, meaning nights when the host is not present in the unit overnight while paying guests are there. A common structure permits unlimited hosted stays and caps unhosted stays at a fixed number of nights per calendar year. The number sits somewhere between sixty and one hundred and twenty in most cities that use this approach.
Two counting questions come up constantly. A host present in the building but in a different dwelling unit is generally treated as absent, so a duplex arrangement does not convert unhosted nights into hosted ones. And a stay that begins with the host present and continues after the host leaves splits, with the later nights counting against the cap. Where a count is later challenged, the host's own calendar, receipts and travel records are the evidence.
| Control | What it limits | How it is proved | Typical consequence of breach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration requirement | Whether the unit may be advertised at all | A number displayed in the listing | Platform cannot process bookings; listing removed |
| Unhosted night cap | Nights let while the host is away | Host records, platform data reported to the city | Fines per violation; registration revoked |
| Primary residence test | Who may register a unit at all | Days occupied, plus documentary proof of residence | Application refused or registration canceled |
| Guest and occupancy limits | How many paying guests per stay | Listing terms and complaints | Fines; repeat breaches escalate |
| Building-level prohibition | Whether the address is eligible | A published list or the lease and governing documents | Ineligibility regardless of the host's compliance |
Proving a primary residence
The residence condition is what separates a home-sharing scheme from a licensing scheme for small hotels. It is typically expressed as a minimum number of days the registrant must occupy the unit during the calendar year — a figure in the range of two hundred and seventy is common — and it is proved by documents rather than by assertion: a driver record, voter registration, utility accounts, tax filings and a lease or deed in the applicant's name.
The condition also limits how many registrations a person may hold, since a person can only have one primary residence. That is the provision that removes whole-building operations from these schemes, and it is why enforcement often focuses on registrants who appear at multiple addresses. Cities that prefer a different balance regulate by zone or by unit count instead, permitting non-resident operation in defined areas and prohibiting it elsewhere.
A city permit answers only the public question. A residential lease may forbid subletting or transient use entirely, and a condominium declaration or set of association rules may prohibit lets below a stated term regardless of what the city allows. Registration applications frequently require the host to certify compliance with both, which means a host operating against a private restriction has created a false certification alongside the private breach. Read the lease or the declaration before applying, not afterward.
The restrictions that travel with the cap
Night caps rarely appear alone. Schemes commonly add a limit on the number of paying guests per stay, a requirement that the host maintain a common household with guests where hosting is required, insurance minimums, a local contact reachable at all hours, posted emergency information, and collection of transient occupancy tax. Some cities require the host to keep a register of stays and produce it on request.
Pricing obligations run alongside these and come from a different source entirely. A host advertising a rental is a business offering short-term lodging for the purposes of federal fee disclosure rules, so the mandatory total including a cleaning fee has to be shown up front, as described in the duty to show the total price. State lodging statutes may also apply, depending on how the state defines a transient public lodging establishment.
Which body writes which rule
Short lets are governed at three levels at once, and confusing them wastes a great deal of effort. Zoning decides whether transient use is permitted in a district at all, and it is the level at which a use can be prohibited outright rather than merely capped. The registration scheme, usually administered by a planning department or a dedicated enforcement office, decides who may operate and on what terms. State licensing statutes decide whether the unit is a public lodging establishment owing inspections and taxes.
A host can satisfy one level and fail another. A registration granted by a city office does not cure a zoning prohibition, and a state license does not answer the municipal night cap. When a rule is quoted at a host, the first question worth asking is which of the three bodies wrote it, because the appeal route, the deadline and the person who can vary it are different in each case.
How enforcement actually works
Enforcement is largely documentary. Cities receive data from platforms, match registration numbers against listings, and act on mismatches. Complaints from neighbors supply the rest, and they are the usual source of guest-limit and nuisance cases. Penalties are typically per-night or per-violation, with escalation for repeat conduct and revocation of registration as the terminal sanction.
What protects a compliant host is the same material the city would ask for: a calendar distinguishing hosted from unhosted nights, booking records tied to that calendar, proof of occupancy for the residence test, tax filings and remittances, and the registration renewal record. Hosts who keep those contemporaneously answer an inquiry in an afternoon. Those who reconstruct them afterward tend to discover that the count was closer to the cap than they thought, and that the arrangement had drifted toward something the ordinary duties in the duty to receive and the grounds to refuse and the occupancy questions in when a long stay turns a guest into a tenant begin to reach.
Points to carry away
- Registration or a permit number is usually a precondition to advertising at all.
- Unhosted nights are commonly capped per calendar year while hosted stays are not.
- Primary residence is tested by a minimum number of days of occupancy in the year.
- Some cities require the host to be present and limit the number of paying guests.
- Platforms are barred from processing transactions for unregistered listings in several cities.
Questions readers ask
How is the difference between a hosted and an unhosted night measured?
By whether the host is present in the unit overnight at the same time as the paying guests. A host who is in the building but in a separate dwelling unit is generally treated as absent, and a host away for part of a stay converts those nights to unhosted. Cities that cap only unhosted nights rely on the host's own records to distinguish them, which is why calendars, receipts and travel records matter if a count is ever questioned.
Does a lease or an association allow what the city permits?
Not necessarily, and a city permit is not a defense to a private restriction. A residential lease commonly prohibits subletting or transient use, and a condominium declaration or set of rules may restrict short lets independently of any municipal scheme. Registration schemes frequently require applicants to certify that they have the right to operate under their lease or governing documents, which turns a false certification into a second problem alongside the private one.
What happens to a booking already accepted if a registration lapses?
Where a platform is barred from processing transactions for unregistered units, a lapse usually results in the listing being suspended and future bookings being canceled by the platform rather than by the city. The host is left holding the contractual consequences with guests. Because registration renewals are annual in most schemes and lapse automatically, hosts operating close to their caps generally treat renewal dates as the more urgent of the two deadlines.
Sources
- San Francisco Planning, FAQs on Short-Term RentalsExplains the unhosted night cap, the residence requirement and the certification process.
- SF.gov, Guide to opening a short-term residential rentalSets out the primary residence condition and the steps to register a unit.
- San Francisco Planning, Office of Short Term RentalsThe administering office and its enforcement role.
- New York City Office of Special Enforcement, Registration LawDescribes the registration requirement and the prohibition on platforms processing unregistered transactions.
- New York City Office of Special Enforcement, Registration Rules and LawsThe local law and rules behind the registration scheme, including the prohibited buildings list.
- Florida Statutes section 509.013A state definition of transient public lodging that determines which short lets fall under state licensing.
Metro Law Advisors is a publication, not a law firm. This article states general rules and cites its sources; it is not advice about any particular case, and the law differs by state and changes over time.
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