Short-term rental rules · New Orleans, Louisiana
Short-term rentals in New Orleans, explained properly.
New Orleans allows short-term rentals, but tightly: residential (non-commercial) permits are capped at one per square block with no exceptions, limited to one per owner, and require a licensed operator who lives at the property during every guest stay, while commercial permits are limited to certain zoning districts and, since May 2026, need City Council conditional-use approval for any new one. The French Quarter and Garden District are largely off-limits. The Fifth Circuit upheld the one-per-block cap and lottery in August 2026.
At a glance
What you need to know before you buy or list
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Are short-term rentals legal? | Yes, with a permit [1] [2] |
| Must the owner live there? | No, but a licensed operator must live there during every guest stay (NSTR) [3] [4] [5] [6] |
| Is there a cap on how many STRs per block? | Yes — one residential STR per square block, no exceptions [7] [8] [9] [10] |
| Cap on commercial STRs? | The greater of 1 unit or 25% of units in a building [11] [12] [13] [14] |
| Any neighborhoods where STRs are banned? | Yes — the Garden District, and most of the French Quarter [11] [12] [15] |
| What does a permit cost? | NSTR: $500 owner permit + $150 operator permit; CSTR: $1,000 each; plus $50 per application [5] [3] [14] [16] |
| Per-night occupancy fee to the city | $5/night (NSTR) or $12/night (CSTR) [17] |
| Combined tax rate on rent | About 16.2%–16.75% of rent, plus a nightly occupancy privilege fee [17] [18]Confirming |
| Does someone need to be reachable during a stay? | Yes — a licensed, on-call operator [19] [3] [20] |
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Detailed rules
The full picture, section by section
Eligibility & zoning
| What permit types exist? | NSTR (non-commercial/residential) and CSTR (commercial) [1] [19] NSTR permits apply to STRs in residentially-zoned property and require owner-occupancy. CSTR permits apply in commercial and mixed-use zoning districts and require conditional-use approval through the city's One Stop permitting portal. An older "RSTR" (Residential Short Term Rental Owner's Permit) label appears on a legacy city application form that predates the 2023 rewrite (it still carries the homestead requirement the courts struck down); current city pages use NSTR. Separate operator permits (NSTR or CSTR) are also required. Since May 7, 2026, any new CSTR also needs City Council conditional-use approval under the Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District. |
|---|---|
| Any restriction on ground-floor commercial STRs? | Yes, in some multi-story residential buildings [11] [12] Commercial STRs cannot occupy the first floor of a multi-story structure that contains or can contain residential uses on upper floors. The rule does not apply to single- and two-family dwellings or single-story structures, or in the CBD, EC, MC, LS, M-MU and MI districts. |
| Any registration beyond the STR permit itself? | Yes — Healthy Homes registration [20] Properties must register with the city's Healthy Homes program to obtain a Certificate of Compliance; NSTR renewal applications are denied without it. |
Licensing & applications
| How are NSTR permits allocated? | Quarterly application windows; lottery if oversubscribed [1] NSTR applications open in quarterly windows (for example, the Q3 2026 window ran Sept. 16–22, 2026, with an Oct. 6, 2026 lottery drawing where a square block draws more applicants than the one available permit). |
|---|---|
| How does a CSTR application work? | Non-structural renovation permit + conditional use approval, then a full operational application [1] CSTR applicants submit a Non-Structural Renovation permit through the One Stop App, obtain conditional use approval, then submit picture ID, floor plans, an evacuation plan, and an operational plan. CSTR licensees have been required to install a noise-monitoring device since July 1, 2023. |
| How often must a permit be renewed? | Annually, expiring June 30 [20] [21] NSTR licenses expire June 30 each year. The 2026 renewal window opened April 19, 2026 with an original application deadline of May 2, 2026, which the city extended one time to June 18, 2026. Renewal requires a clean violation/financial record, resolved permits, and can include a property inspection (72-hour response window). |
Operating requirements
| What safety documentation is required? | Floor plan, evacuation plan, and safety equipment [19] Applications require a floor plan (entrances/exits, windows, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, interior doors), an evacuation plan showing fire exits, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and carbon monoxide detectors, plus a site plan showing required parking. |
|---|---|
| How fast must complaints be resolved? | Operators must resolve complaints within about 1 hour [7] [5] Every STR must have a licensed operator who is available during all periods of guest occupancy, including nights and weekends, and who must resolve complaints within one hour of being contacted by neighbors, guests or the city. (The 2023 rule that the NSTR operator live at the property full-time was narrowed by the Fifth Circuit in October 2025 to residence during guest stays.) |
| Do booking platforms report to the city? | Yes [7] [10] Platforms operating in New Orleans (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) are required to report listing addresses, rental nights, and fees collected to the city on a monthly basis, and hosts must disclose their booking platforms as part of licensing. A 2024 ordinance also requires platforms to verify that a listing has a valid city permit before completing bookings; the Fifth Circuit upheld that verification requirement in August 2026. Listings must show the permit number, and a 2025 Fifth Circuit ruling struck down the rule limiting each listing to a single dwelling unit. |
| Is insurance required? | Yes [19] Applicants must attest to carrying adequate insurance for the STR use, along with compliance with property-maintenance codes and fair housing law, and having no outstanding property taxes. |
Taxes & fees
| Louisiana state sales tax on short-term lodging | 3% (10+ room properties) or 5% (9 or fewer rooms) in Orleans Parish, through 2029 [18] Most individual short-term rental hosts have fewer than 10 rooms and fall in the 5% state-tax tier. |
|---|---|
| Orleans Parish taxes on rent | 5% gross rentals tax + 6.75% occupancy tax [17] Collected by the city's Department of Finance, Bureau of Revenue, in addition to state tax and the per-night occupancy fee and occupancy privilege charge. |
| Fines for violations | Up to $1,000 per violation [17] STR violations are adjudicated through the city's administrative hearing process, with fines up to the $1,000-per-violation cap set by state law. |
Changes
Recent and pending changes
We re-checked the Short Term Rental Administration home and announcements pages (latest item: June 12, 2026 renewal-deadline extension), the CZO interim zoning district list (Article 19.4) and STR use standards (20.3.LLL), City Planning Commission notices, Fifth Circuit opinions, and recent news. Current state: Airbnb and hosts lost their Fifth Circuit appeal on August 5, 2026 (Bodin v. City of New Orleans), so the one-per-block cap, lottery and platform-verification rules stand; the October 2025 Hignell-Stark ruling struck the LLC-ownership ban and the one-unit-per-listing rule and narrowed operator residency to guest stays; and the Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District (Ord. 30625 MCS, May 7, 2026) requires council conditional-use approval for new commercial STRs while the city finishes a transient-lodging study. Watch for permanent rules replacing that interim district (it can last up to a year with a possible extension), for city code amendments conforming to the 2025 ruling, and for any rehearing or Supreme Court petition in Bodin.
In Bodin v. City of New Orleans (No. 25-30524), brought by hosts and Airbnb, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court: the 2023 ordinance's one-license-per-block limit and lottery are not a taking, and Section 230 does not block the 2024 ordinance's requirement that platforms verify a valid permit before booking. The rules remain fully in force.
Ordinance 30625 MCS, adopted May 7, 2026, created a citywide Transient Lodging Interim Zoning District that turns commercial STRs, hotels/motels, hostels, timeshares and bed and breakfasts into conditional uses needing City Council approval wherever they were otherwise permitted, pausing new transient-lodging development while the City Planning Commission completes a transient-lodging study. Interim districts typically last up to one year with a possible extension.
In Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans (No. 24-30160), the Fifth Circuit held that barring LLCs and other business entities from holding STR owner or operator permits violates equal protection, and that requiring each listing to advertise only one dwelling unit violates the First Amendment. It upheld the NSTR operator-residency requirement only as construed to apply while guests occupy the property, along with the other advertising disclosure rules. The city's 2026 training materials now list LLCs and trusts as eligible NSTR owners.
After a moratorium on new density-cap exception applications (none accepted after September 19, 2024), the City Council adopted Ordinance 30311 MCS on March 27, 2025, removing the special-exception process from the zoning code and making the one-NSTR-per-square-block cap absolute. The City Planning Commission stopped processing the remaining pending exception applications on October 10, 2025.
A federal district court upheld nearly all of New Orleans' STR regulations, including density limits, platform verification mandates, and reporting requirements. Airbnb announced it would appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The rules stayed in force during the appeal, which the Fifth Circuit decided in the city's favor on August 5, 2026.
Ordinances 029381 MCS and 029382 MCS rewrote New Orleans' STR rules following a 2022 federal appeals ruling: residential STRs were capped at one per square block (with a since-eliminated exception process), an on-site operator with a roughly one-hour complaint-response requirement was mandated, and platforms were required to report data to the city monthly.
Sources
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This page is general information compiled from public sources, not legal or tax advice. HOA rules, deed restrictions and zoning for a specific property can be stricter. Confirm with the local permitting office and a qualified professional before buying or listing a property.