Block Island, RI Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Regulations 2026

Regulation Overview

Ferry-only island resort community with a century-long vacation-rental tradition; the newest (2024) town ordinance formalizes registration and occupancy limits rather than restricting supply.

No permit cap or owner-occupancy rule, but real operating conditions apply: a mandatory local representative with a 2-hour response requirement, per-day fines, and occupancy strictly capped by septic-system bedroom limits.

Rhode Island State Law

State preemption: No broad state preemption found; RI sets a mandatory statewide STR registration floor via DBR, but municipalities (Newport, Narragansett, New Shoreham) layer their own permits/zoning on top, which is being actively litigated on home-rule grounds in Narragansett.

Statewide rules: Any STR listed on a third-party hosting platform (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) must register with the RI Dept. of Business Regulation (DBR) under R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-63.1-14 and Reg. 230-RICR-30-20-4. Fee is $25/year with no owner-occupancy or seasonal exemption; apply via elicensing.ri.gov. The DBR registration number and expiration must appear on the platform listing. ADUs have been barred from STR/transient use since June 25, 2024. Civil penalties for failure to register: $250 (first 30 days), $500 (31-60 days), $1,000 (60+ days).

Taxes: Through 12/31/2025: room-only rentals pay 7% state sales tax + 5% state hotel tax + 1% local hotel tax (13% total); whole-home STRs pay 7% sales tax + 1% local hotel tax (8% total). Effective 1/1/2026, the local hotel tax doubles to 2% and a new 5% tax on whole-home STRs is added, bringing both room and whole-home rentals to a combined 14% state+local lodging tax. Newport separately levies its own 6% municipal rooms tax on top of state rates.

2025–2026 legislation: The RI lodging-tax restructuring effective January 1, 2026 (new whole-home STR tax + doubled local hotel tax) is the main dated 2026 change found. No additional statewide STR-preemption or registry bill beyond the existing DBR registration law was identified.

Block Island Rules

Governing jurisdiction: Town of New Shoreham, plus RI DBR state registration.

• Block Island's short-term rental ordinance (adopted July 2024) requires a $200/year town registration with no numeric cap on the number of STRs.
• Occupancy is capped at 2 people per bedroom, and the number of bedrooms allowed cannot exceed the property's septic system rating — a hard physical constraint unique to this market.
• Every listing must display its town-issued registration number, matching the parallel state DBR registration requirement.
• Owners must designate a local representative physically present on the island during rentals who can respond to town inquiries within 2 hours; repeated failure to respond is itself a violation.
• Continuing violations of the ordinance carry fines up to $200 per day.
• As a ferry-only island, Block Island's STR market is fundamentally capacity/infrastructure-constrained (septic, water) rather than permit-constrained, which shapes both regulation and investment economics.
• A separate proposed ordinance provision (5-day minimum stay in RA/RB residential zones) appears in some records but was not confirmed as part of the adopted code — verify before assuming a minimum-stay rule applies.

Not confirmed

We could not verify the following against a primary source. Confirm each with the jurisdiction before you rely on it:

• Whether a minimum-stay requirement (5 days in RA/RB zones) was actually adopted or remained a proposal
• Whether there is any owner-occupancy requirement for the owner personally (only the local-representative rule was confirmed)
• Permit transferability on sale

Buyer Due Diligence Checklist

Before you write an offer on a short-term rental here:

• Get a written determination from the governing jurisdiction for the specific parcel. Verbal guidance from anyone else is not diligence.
• Establish which jurisdiction governs — city, town, village and unincorporated county can differ sharply within a few miles.
• Ask whether an existing permit transfers on sale. In many markets it does not, and a listing marketed as a running short-term rental may convey nothing of the sort.
• Read the HOA or condo covenants during your inspection period. Private covenants bind even where the jurisdiction permits the use.
• Model revenue against the legal occupancy cap, not the bedroom count.

Frequently Asked Questions