Short-term rentals in Hot Springs, explained properly.

The application gives the property address and the owner's residences (and principal officers if an entity), the owner's and any representative's contact details, the local contact person, a floor plan showing each room, square footage, bedrooms and the required off-street parking, and information the City needs to set the fee. The owner submits to a City inspection (fire and building codes, and the swimming pool and spa code) to receive a certificate of occupancy; an inspection up to 120 days before applying may be used. The City's page says a new license must pass the certificate of occupancy inspection and that an inspection is needed on renewal only if the maximum occupancy has changed.

Section 16-10-2(i) sets the initial and annual fee at $50 per person per year based on the maximum overnight occupancy on the license (eight people is $400), with a $200 minimum, not prorated, due January 1. A transfer to another person or location costs $100 (a gift or inheritance to an immediate family member passes the license to the new owner without additional fees until it expires).

A lapsed license cannot simply be renewed: any later application is treated as an initial application and, in the capped zones, joins the cap process. Changes of owner, representative, local contact person or any material fact must be reported through the portal within 30 days.

The owner or representative displays the license in a prominent place inside the rental and provides a copy to each responsible tenant.

Operating or advertising without a license can also forfeit the certificate of occupancy. Violations are strict liability, and owners, representatives, agents, brokers and property managers who arrange unlicensed use can be penalised. A denial, suspension or revocation can be appealed within 30 days to the board of zoning adjustment, then the board of directors and the circuit court. The City can also order municipal water service disconnected for violating the building and development codes. Where Chapter 10 and the zoning code conflict, the more restrictive provision applies.

Bedrooms must meet the 2012 International Residential Code. For example, if the overnight maximum is eight, no more than 12 people may be on the premises at one time at other hours.

The amount of required parking was not looked up in Title 16. The maximum number of onsite parking spaces must be posted in the rental.

Noise, trash and parking rules of the City Code apply to guests.

Failing to respond timely to two or more City calls is grounds for penalties.

A responsible tenant is an adult aged 18 or older who has been told the occupancy, parking and other limits. Posted items also include police, fire and code compliance numbers and a notice that guests, contacts or owners may be cited.

The City's advertising and promotion (A&P) tax is levied on gross receipts from renting hotel, motel, house, cabin, bed and breakfast, campground, condominium or similar accommodations; rentals of 30 days or more are not included. The tax is collected by the City advertising and promotion commission, and is not combined with state taxes here. County and other local taxes were not researched.

The tax is collected from the guest by the person furnishing the accommodation and reported on commission forms, in the same manner and at the same time as the state gross receipts tax. Chapter 10 requires a licensed owner to agree to collect and remit all applicable taxes. The City's page lists contacts for filing and payment questions.

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.