Stonington, CT Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Regulations 2026

Regulation Overview

Coastal New England borough (includes the Mystic village area) with historic seaport charm and strong second-home/vacation-rental demand; notably, the town has no local STR licensing regime after voters rejected a proposed ordinance.

No local permit, registration, cap, or owner-occupancy rule currently exists; STRs are not expressly addressed in Stonington's zoning code after a 2017 Planning & Zoning decision, and a 2023 ordinance proposal was rejected by referendum — registration via state tax law is the practical floor, though legal ambiguity remains a real risk factor.

Connecticut State Law

State preemption: No preemption; historically ambiguous local zoning authority over STRs. PA 24-143 §7 (effective Oct 1, 2024) explicitly authorized municipalities to adopt STR licensing ordinances and to hire consultants to help draft them, confirmed via CGA Office of Legislative Research report 2026-R-0025 (Jan 20, 2026).

Statewide rules: No statewide STR registration or license. Operators must register with the CT Department of Revenue Services for a room occupancy tax number unless a marketplace facilitator (Airbnb/Vrbo) remits the tax on their behalf.

Taxes: State Room Occupancy Tax of 15% on rentals of furnished residential property for 30 consecutive days or less, confirmed via CT DRS Special Notice SN 2019(9); enacted by 2019 Conn. Pub. Acts 117, effective Oct 1, 2019.

2025–2026 legislation: Per CGA OLR 2026-R-0025: only PA 24-143 §7 (above) is STR-specific for the 2024-2025 sessions. A separate 2025 act (PA 25-73 §7) created a 9-member task force studying corporate/institutional acquisition of residential property (STR-adjacent, not STR-specific); its findings report was due to the Housing and Planning & Development committees by Jan 1, 2026 but appeared not yet completed as of the report date.

Stonington Rules

Governing jurisdiction: Town of Stonington, CT (includes the Mystic area); Connecticut state law (PA 24-143) since October 2024 permits, but does not require, towns to adopt STR ordinances..

• Stonington currently has no short-term rental permit, license, or registration requirement at the town level.
• A proposed STR ordinance requiring registration (which had evolved away from an earlier, more restrictive owner-occupancy requirement) was rejected by Stonington voters 694 to 342 in a referendum on March 13, 2023.
• In 2017, Stonington's Planning and Zoning Commission determined the town's zoning code would not regulate short-term rentals, leaving a legal gray area that has led to some neighbor disputes.
• Connecticut's PA 24-143 (effective October 1, 2024) now explicitly authorizes Stonington, like any CT municipality, to adopt an STR licensing ordinance by vote of its legislative body, so this status could change.
• All CT short-term rentals, including those in Stonington/Mystic, are subject to the state's 15% Room Occupancy Tax on stays of 30 days or less.
• If a booking is made through a marketplace facilitator like Airbnb or Vrbo, the platform typically collects and remits the state room occupancy tax directly; hosts booking independently must register with CT DRS and remit the tax themselves.
• The Mystic village area (split between Stonington and Groton) is a major tourism draw, but investors should confirm which municipality, and its specific rules, a given property falls under.

Not confirmed

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

• Whether Stonington has adopted or is actively drafting a new STR ordinance since the October 2024 state law took effect
• Current zoning enforcement posture toward STRs since the 2017 non-regulation decision

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