The city made this hard. We’ll help you through it.
The Short-Term Vacation Rental permit is real work — forms, documents, fees and a lot of small requirements that are easy to miss. Plenty of owners never start. We’ll sit with you and get the package together at no charge, because a directory where every listing is permitted is worth more to us than a subscription.
Tell us about your place and where you are in the process.
We send you Columbus’s checklist and a folder to drop your documents into.
We help you get the package complete and organised.
You sign it and file it with the city.
Send us the permit number and your listing goes up free.
What the city asks for
- Certificate of Occupancy and a business licence — Both are required before the rental may operate.
- Liability insurance of at least $500,000 — Homeowners policy showing the minimum coverage.
- A digital floor plan — Of the property being rented.
- Three background checks, $20 each — The homeowner, the applicant, and the 24/7 contact person.
- A 24/7 contact person living within 50 miles — Must be customarily present within the city for transacting business.
- Proof you notified the neighbours — Required by UDO section 4.9.6.
- A lease, if you are leasing the property — Showing you are permitted to sublet.
Source: Columbus Consolidated Government, Inspections & Code · Unified Development Ordinance, Chapter 4, Article 9
Worth knowing
- Occupancy is capped at two people per bedroom plus one.
- Non-owner-occupied permits are capped per historic district and issued first come, first served.
Lodging tax
Columbus levies an 8% hotel-motel excise tax. Half of it funds VisitColumbusGA. Airbnb and Vrbo remit it for bookings made on their platforms; a booking you take directly is yours to file, by the 20th of the following month, with a 3% credit for filing on time.