Reference guide · 38 municipalities
Short-term rental permits by town: Hudson Valley & Catskills
Which towns will still issue a short-term rental permit to an owner who does not live there, which are capped, and which have closed the door. Scoped to non-owner-occupied use.
Research compiled August 2026 · Rosendale and Tillson re-checked 16 September 2026 · Published 18 September 2026
Ulster, Greene, Sullivan, Delaware, Dutchess, Columbia and Orange counties, New York
How to read this guide. Entries marked Verified were read directly from the municipality's own local law text, with one exception noted at City of Kingston, where the source is the city's published short-term rental fact sheet. Seven municipalities meet the law-text standard: Windham, Hunter, Catskill, Saugerties, Rochester, the Town of Delaware and Rosendale. Entries marked Reported come from secondary sources and local reporting, and published summaries of these laws contradict each other regularly. Woodstock's cap has been reported as both 285 and simply "capped with waitlist." Shandaken's has been reported as both 100 and 150. Olive's as both 22 and 24.
Treat every entry here as a lead to verify with the building department, not as a final answer. I confirm with the town before a client relies on it, and so should you.
On this page
- The statewide baseline, and why it is not the gate
- County-level read
- Tier 1: open door
- Tier 2: workable with one real condition
- Spotlight: Tillson and the Town of Rosendale
- Tier 3: effectively closed to investors
- Watch list: no law yet, regulation in motion
- The seven questions to ask before you buy
- Sources and confidence notes
The statewide baseline, and why it is not the gate
New York Real Property Law Article 12-D required counties to set up a short-term rental registry or formally opt out by 26 June 2026. Booking platforms now have to verify a registration number before a listing runs. State sales tax applies either way; opting out only gives up the county occupancy tax.
- Greene County: free registry. Combined tax runs around 12%.
- Ulster County: registration within three days of starting; 4% occupancy tax; no fee to register.
- Sullivan County: the Treasurer enforces the room tax.
County registration is a given nearly everywhere and it is almost never what stops a deal. The gate is the town or village law. That is the whole reason this page exists.
County-level read
The friendliest county overall, and it holds the two best ski markets in Windham and Hunter.
Several towns still have no short-term rental law of their own.
Several towns unregulated, but lower demand density.
Nearly every town regulates, and the strongest rental markets are capped or waitlisted.
Hudson, Rhinebeck, Beacon and Red Hook are all built around primary residence.
Tier 1: open door
No cap, no owner-occupancyVerifiedNo local short-term rental law. Nothing appears in the town's current local-law index, which I checked directly. ReportedSeparately, and from secondary sources rather than the index: a 2020 draft was reportedly pulled after a petition said to carry around 1,400 signatures.
VerifiedLocal Law #2 of 2023. Annual permit plus inspection. No cap and no owner-occupancy requirement. Occupancy runs two per bedroom plus two; more than eleven guests triggers site plan review. The permit does not transfer on sale.
VerifiedChapter 133. Annual permit expiring 31 December plus annual inspection. No cap, no owner-occupancy. Host must be reachable by phone and within 30 minutes by car. Fines up to $5,000.
VerifiedChapter 194, Local Law 2 of 2022. In my read, the most workable law in Ulster County right now. Annual permit plus fire and safety inspection. No cap currently enacted, though the board may set one by annual resolution. No owner-occupancy requirement. Single-family and permitted accessory apartments only, so no two-family or multifamily. One parking space per bedroom.
VerifiedAnnual license per unit. No cap, no owner-occupancy. Two per bedroom plus two, to a maximum of ten without Department of Health involvement. One space per bedroom and a 24-hour local contact. Covers Callicoon Center and Hortonville.
ReportedRegistration certificate from the code enforcement officer plus an annual fee. Out-of-county owners must name a local manager.
ReportedCertification and inspection, with no limit on the number of short-term rentals.
ReportedNo short-term rental law of their own as of mid-2026. Town of Ulster is the more useful of the two: real inventory, Kingston-area demand, and the city's cap does not reach it.
Tier 2: workable with one real condition
Permit available, with a catchVerifiedLocal Law 3 of 2021. Two-year permit, annual inspection. The cap applies to new non-owner-occupied permits only and resets by 1 August each year as a percentage of housing units; owner-occupied is uncapped. Manager must be within 30 miles of Town Hall. Permitted only in AR-3, AB-3, R-1, R-2, R-5, H and B districts.
VerifiedLocal Law 5 of 2024, §75-28.4. Two-year permit. No town-wide cap, but each owner gets one owner-occupied plus one non-owner-occupied permit. $1M landlord liability required. Local manager with 30-minute response if the owner lives more than 10 miles from Town Hall. Does not transfer on sale. Full detail below.
ReportedAnnual permit plus inspection. One owner-occupied and one non-owner-occupied per owner. Maximum ten guests. Accessory dwelling unit restrictions added in 2025.
ReportedAnnual permit. Non-owner-occupied requires site plan approval, which is a board decision and takes months. Local host within roughly 15 miles. $1M liability.
ReportedAnnual permit, single-family only. Does not transfer on sale. Note this is the Town, which is separate from the City of Kingston in Tier 3.
ReportedTwo-year cycle with a cap on non-owner-occupied permits.
ReportedLocal Law 3 of 2025. Annual safety license, one per lot, cap possible by resolution.
ReportedLocal Law 2 of 2022. Zoning Board special permit at $50 plus $150 certificate of occupancy and compliance. Local contact within 20 miles. Non-transferable.
ReportedSite plan approval plus inspection plus $500 per year.
ReportedAnnual permit plus inspection plus a local agent.
The pattern worth internalizing: wherever a zoning board has discretion, as in Hillsdale, Highland, Esopus and Lloyd, getting a permit means a hearing rather than a form. Build that time into the contract.
Spotlight: Tillson and the Town of Rosendale
Tillson is a hamlet in the Town of Rosendale, on Routes 32 and 213 south of Rosendale village, ZIP 12486. There is no village government, so the Rosendale town law is the only local rule, alongside Ulster County registration and the 4% occupancy tax. A permit is available on application, but each owner gets only one non-owner-occupied permit in the town.
What the law requires
VerifiedRead directly from Local Law 5 of 2024 and the March 2024 permit application.
- Two-year permit. Renewals are filed between 1 October and 1 December, and renewals are never capped while ownership stays the same.
- Owner-occupied means primary residence 180 or more days a year.
- Single-family, two-family and multifamily are all eligible.
- Allowed in A, A-1, B-1, B-2, R-1, R-2, R-2a and R-3, which is every district except I-1.
- Occupancy is set by the code enforcement officer from bedroom size and layout. There is no fixed formula.
- One parking space per sleeping room. No street or front-lawn parking.
- Septic must work, and its type, size and location go on the application.
- Fees on the March 2024 application: $25 application, $100 registration, $125 inspection, so $250 total. The board sets these, so confirm current figures.
- The inspection schedule is genuinely unclear. The law says "bi-annually" in one place and "annual" in another. Ask the Building Department.
Deal killers
- The seller's permit does not convey. The buyer applies new. Write a permit contingency.
- Accessory dwelling units permitted less than ten years ago cannot be short-term rentals. Rosendale's ADU law passed the same night as the STR law, so any ADU approved under it is out until roughly 2034.
- No campers, tents, tiny houses or other structures for guests to sleep in. No events, commercial use or outdoor camping.
- Ownership is limited to individuals, LLC, LLP, general partnership, sole proprietorship or family trust, and LLC members must be disclosed. No corporations.
- The buyer, or an entity with the same people behind it, already holds a Rosendale non-owner-occupied permit.
A common mistake worth naming. Tillson Lake is not in or near Tillson. It sits at least 15 miles away in the Town of Gardiner near Minnewaska. The shared name is a local quirk and it turns up in listing copy that should know better.
Also: confirm the parcel is actually in Rosendale using the Ulster County Parcel Viewer. Mailing addresses do not follow town lines up here.
For a single-property investor, Tillson is one of the easier entry points in southern Ulster. The City of Kingston is full. Hurley and the Village of New Paltz are effectively closed. Esopus needs site plan approval. Marbletown carries the same one-plus-one limit. The Town of Ulster has no law at all but sits farther from the Gunks and New Paltz. Tillson's constraint is scale: one whole-home short-term rental per owner.
Tier 3: effectively closed to investors
Do not underwrite a non-resident STR hereVerifiedSource here is the City of Kingston's own published short-term rental fact sheet rather than the law text. Whole-home permits (STR-F) capped at 1% of housing units, which worked out to about 106. Full since March 2024 with a lottery waitlist, and the fact sheet states whole-home requests are rejected until further notice. $650/yr for STR-F, $125 for STR-RO and STR-L. Resident-occupied and limited categories are not capped the same way. ADUs barred.
ReportedRoughly 15 permits total and about 16 rental days a year, primary residence plus Planning Board. The most restrictive in the region.
ReportedPrimary residence, roughly 60 nights a year, owner must reside 50 or more days.
ReportedPrimary residence, owner present during stays, maximum six guests.
ReportedNon-resident license cap met and not issuing. Resident and hosted categories still available.
ReportedCap with a long waitlist. New slots generally open only when an existing permit lapses. Non-owner-occupied around $250 a year.
ReportedNon-owner-occupied cap in the low twenties for 2026, resetting each January, one per owner.
ReportedA moratorium was reported as running through 11 August 2026, with a revised law pending. That date has now passed and I have not confirmed what replaced it. Do not assume either way. Call the town before you underwrite anything here.
ReportedWhole-home only in commercial districts. Residential requires primary residence.
ReportedSpecial use permit plus Planning Board plus Building Department. Maximum two per owner. Not to be confused with the Town of Highland in Sullivan County, listed in Tier 2.
ReportedThe owner must be a Town resident.
ReportedThe operator must be the owner. Maximum 90 nights a year.
ReportedBuilt around owner occupancy. Non-owner-occupied roughly 120 days a year.
ReportedPrimary residence only, roughly 100 days a year, two-year permit.
ReportedProhibited in R-1/2, R-1/3 and R-1/4. $500 a year where allowed. 60-minute local contact rule.
Watch list: no law yet, regulation in motion
In any of these, a buyer could close under today's rules and end up operating under tomorrow's.
- Gardiner (Ulster). No short-term rental law of its own, but a primary-residence-only draft has been circulating since a contentious February 2024 public hearing and was never formally withdrawn.
- Bethel (Sullivan). A moratorium law was introduced and then stalled. Regulations still being written.
- Cochecton (Sullivan). Rules drafted, holding off until the town can enforce them.
- Roxbury (Delaware). Draft short-term rental law posted.
One early-warning signal worth knowing: a comprehensive plan update almost always precedes a short-term rental law by a year or two. If a Tier 1 town starts updating its comp plan, the window is closing.
The seven questions to ask before you buy
Get the answers in writing from the code enforcement officer.
- Is there a cap, and how many permits are open right now? "A permit process exists" is not the same as "a permit is available to you."
- Does the permit transfer with the sale? In Hunter, Town of Kingston, Hillsdale and Rosendale, no.
- Is there an owner-occupancy or primary-residence rule? It is usually written as a days test rather than a yes or no. Hudson 50, Rochester 180, Rosendale 180.
- Does my manager meet the local-host distance rule? 30 minutes in Catskill, 30 miles in Rochester, 15 miles in Esopus, 20 miles in Hillsdale, 60 minutes in East Fishkill, 30-minute response in Rosendale when the owner is 10 or more miles from Town Hall. A remote co-host does not clear these.
- What zoning district is the parcel in, and are short-term rentals allowed there? Check the tax map, not the mailing address. Village and town lines overlap constantly here.
- How many bedrooms will the code officer certify, and can the septic support them? Occupancy is nearly always two per bedroom plus two. One bedroom off means one bedroom's worth of nightly rate off, and the septic design governs before the town does.
- Is there a moratorium, draft law or comprehensive plan update pending?
Sources and confidence notes
Read directly from primary law text or official fact sheet: Hunter Local Law #2 of 2023 · Catskill Chapter 133 · Saugerties Chapter 194 (Local Law 2 of 2022) · Rochester Local Law 3 of 2021 · Town of Delaware short-term rental chapter · Windham local-law index · Rosendale Local Law 5 of 2024, its March 2024 permit application, and the zoning districts at §75-4 · City of Kingston's own short-term rental fact sheet.
Statewide framework: NYSAC implementation memo and the New York State Department of State presentation to Dutchess County Planning.
Everything else including caps, current permit counts, fees and the Tier 3 details comes from secondary sources and local reporting, and those sources disagree with each other more often than not. Confirm with the town before anything reaches a closing table.
Underwriting a short-term rental purchase up here? I will pull the current permit position on a specific parcel before you write the offer, including whether the permit conveys and what the code officer will certify for bedroom count. That check takes a day or two and it has killed more than one deal that looked fine on paper.