Short-term rentals in Fayetteville, explained properly.

Section 118.01(E)(7) says the application must include the owner's legal name, mailing address, phone and email; the address of the dwelling unit; the type and total number of dwelling units on the lot; the designated agent's details if the owner is not the agent; documentation that the unit passed a life safety and egress inspection by the City's Building Safety Division; and proof of applying to remit the hotel, motel and restaurant tax, with all sales, use and HMR taxes current. The Development Services Director may ask for more. A Type 1 applicant also proves long-term residency (see above), and a Type 2 rental in a residential district needs its conditional use permit first.

The City's Fees page lists the short-term rental business license at $127 (new), $35 (annual renewal) and a $30 renewal late fee. The published Code (codified through Ordinance 6986, March 17, 2026) still shows $88 new, $35 renewal and a $50 late fee in section 118.02(C); Ordinance 6998, adopted May 19, 2026 and effective June 20, 2026, amended the Chapter 118 fees and has not yet been codified. The fee table proposed in the City Council's May 19, 2026 packet shows a new short-term rental license at $127.00 and then $165.00, with the effective dates of each step left blank in that draft, so the date of any later increase is not confirmed here.

The City Planning Fees on the City's Fees page list a conditional use application at $600 and say an additional $67 public notice sign fee is required for the items marked with an asterisk, which include conditional use.

Section 118.02(B) says applications and renewals are completed between September 1 and October 31 each year, licenses run for a fiscal year from November 1 to October 31, and new businesses must register within two months of starting. The City's page says a notarized Short-Term Rental Renewal Affidavit is required to renew and that registering on the Landlord's Representative Registry is required for all short-term rental properties.

Section 118.01(E)(9)(b) says a short-term rental may not be advertised if it violates the occupancy, density, safety or other Code provisions, may not be advertised before the business license is obtained, and must include the business license number in the listing.

Section 118.05 makes operating without a valid license a violation punishable by a fine of up to $250 per day. If an unlicensed business keeps operating a week after written notice, the Mayor may order water, sewer and solid waste service withheld; for an unlicensed Type 2 rental the owner is first offered a due process hearing, and service may be withheld for up to one month for a first violation and up to six months for later ones. Three violations in a twelve-month period should remove the property from eligibility for a short-term rental license for two years. The Development Services Director may suspend or revoke a license on the general grounds in section 118.03 (such as unsafe conditions or delinquent taxes), or if a unit was rented for less than one full night or to more than one party of guests at the same time; after a revocation the owner may not reapply for the same property for twelve months.

Sections 163.18(B) and 164.26(B) set a maximum of two people per bedroom when a property is operated as a short-term rental, and section 118.01(E)(9)(a) says a rental may not exceed the occupancy limits approved with the business license.

Sections 163.18(C) and 164.26(C) limit parking to the maximum number of vehicles allowed by the underlying zoning district for the residential building on the property.

Sections 163.18(D) and 164.26(D) say special events are not permitted in a short-term rental, including weddings, receptions, anniversaries, private parties, fundraisers and business seminars.

Section 118.01(E)(10) requires the owner or designated agent to be available at all times during guest occupancy, including nights and weekends, meaning reachable by telephone and able to be physically present at the rental within three hours of being contacted.

Section 118.01(E)(11) requires summary guest registration records showing the dates of occupancy, number of guests per party and rates charged, without personally identifiable information, kept for three years and provided to the City's Chief Finance Officer on request for audit or HMR tax collection. Section 118.01(E)(9)(c) requires giving guests, and posting in a common area, the City phone number to report a safety complaint, and section 118.01(E)(13) requires reporting known or reasonably suspected criminal activity by a guest to the Fayetteville Police Department within 12 hours. Each unit must also meet the building regulations in Chapter 173 of the Unified Development Code.

Chapter 35 of the Code levies a 1% hotel, motel and restaurant tax (section 35.20, for the Advertising and Promotion Fund) and a separate 1% parks hotel, motel and restaurant tax (section 35.31) on the gross receipts from renting, leasing or otherwise furnishing hotel or motel accommodations for profit in the City, and both apply to all items described in Ark. Code § 26-75-602. The City's Short-Term Rentals page says short-term rentals are subject to the City's 2% HMR tax, that the City has voluntary collection agreements with Airbnb and HomeAway/VRBO, which collect and remit the 2% for their hosts, and that owners listing elsewhere must collect it from guests and remit it monthly. State sales and tourism taxes also apply (see state law below); no combined total is given here.

Section 35.21 says the tax is collected from the guest by whoever furnishes the accommodations and remitted to the City by the 20th day of each month for the previous month, with reports on the City's forms. Section 118.01(E)(14) says that, except where a hosting platform is responsible for collecting and remitting them, the owner must pay the HMR tax and other local, state and federal taxes on the rental on time, and that a platform's failure to collect and remit does not relieve the owner. The business license application must show the owner has applied to remit the HMR tax, and delinquent HMR tax is a ground for suspending or revoking a license.

The Department of Finance and Administration's sales tax rule (26 CAR § 30-501) says the service of furnishing rooms, suites, condominiums, townhouses, rental houses or other accommodations to transient guests by hotels, motels, lodging houses, property management companies or any other provider of accommodations to transient guests is subject to gross receipts tax, and defines transient guests as those who rent accommodations other than their regular place of abode on less than a month-to-month basis. The Department's statewide rate table lists the State Sales and Use Tax at 6.500% (effective July 1, 2013). City and county sales taxes may also apply; they are not shown here.

The Department's tourism tax rule (26 CAR § 30-1407) says that, in addition to state and local sales or use tax, a 2% tourism tax applies to the gross receipts from furnishing a condominium, townhouse or rental house to a transient guest, and from furnishing a guest room, suite or other accommodation by a hotel, motel, lodging house, property management company or any other provider of an accommodation to a transient guest. A transient guest is a person renting an accommodation other than their regular place of abode on less than a month-to-month basis. The Department's rate table lists the Parks and Tourism Tax at 2.000%. Act 822 of 2019 amended the tourism tax statute (Ark. Code § 26-63-402(1)) to the same effect and added accommodations intermediaries to the list of providers.

Act 822 of 2019 amended the state sales tax on accommodations (Ark. Code § 26-52-301(3)(A)) and the tourism tax (Ark. Code § 26-63-402(1)) to list accommodations intermediaries among the providers whose furnishing of accommodations is taxed. An accommodations intermediary is anyone other than the owner, operator or manager of the room, condominium, townhouse, rental house or other accommodation, and furnishing includes brokering, coordinating, making available or otherwise arranging the sale or use of the accommodation. The Act's title says it requires an accommodations intermediary to collect and remit the sales tax and tourism tax due on the arrangements it makes, and these sections took effect on the first day of the calendar quarter after the Act took effect (approved April 9, 2019). The same Act requires marketplace facilitators with more than $100,000 of Arkansas sales or 200 transactions in the current or previous year to collect and remit sales tax. This is the Act as passed; the current wording of the Arkansas Code was not read here. Which taxes a given platform collects is not stated in these sources; check with the platform.

Act 313 of 2025 (approved March 18, 2025) requires cities to allow at least one accessory dwelling unit by right on a lot with a single-family home, bars cities from requiring that the house or the accessory dwelling unit be occupied by the owner, and makes conflicting city rules in effect on or after January 1, 2026 invalid to the extent of the conflict, but it also says the section does not prohibit a municipality from regulating short-term rentals (defined as a home or unit offered for a fee for 30 days or less). Two 2025 bills on local regulation of short-term rentals did not become law: HB1445 was withdrawn by its author and recommended for study in the interim by the House City, County and Local Affairs Committee, and HB1790 failed on third reading and died at the end of the session. Searches of the Legislature's bill records from 2017 to 2026 found no enacted statewide short-term rental licensing law.