Catskill, NY Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Regulations 2026

Regulation Overview

Hudson Valley/northern Catskills gateway town blending Hudson River access with proximity to Catskill Park skiing and hiking; growing second-home and STR investment interest as a lower-cost alternative to pricier ski towns like Windham and Hunter.

Requires a real permit with safety inspections, per-bedroom occupancy limits, parking rules, and a fast-response local contact for non-owner-occupied units, but no confirmed townwide numeric cap, owner-occupancy mandate, or zone-wide ban was found.

New York State Law

State preemption: No state preemption — NY's 2024 law (S.885C/A.4130C, Real Property Law Article 12-D, signed Dec 21, 2024, effective ~Apr 21, 2025) explicitly does not preempt local STR authority; municipalities retain full right to regulate or ban STRs entirely, and existing local registries remain intact.

Statewide rules: Article 12-D lets counties voluntarily opt into establishing a county-level STR registry; no statewide mandatory registry exists. Since March 1, 2025, NYS applies its 4% state sales tax to short-term rental occupancy, with booking platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) required to collect and remit it directly (effective March 25, 2025). Statewide, Class A multiple dwellings (3+ unit apartment buildings) cannot be used as unhosted vacation rentals under 30 days per the Multiple Dwelling Law. NYC's Local Law 18 requires host registration with OSE and effectively bans unhosted STRs under 30 days in most buildings, which is why NYC is excluded from this market list.

Taxes: Statewide 4% NYS sales tax on STR occupancy, platform-collected since March 2025, plus applicable county/local bed or occupancy taxes (e.g. Essex County Room Occupancy Tax for Lake Placid; Suffolk County hotel/motel tax for the Hamptons) — local rates vary by county and should be confirmed locally.

2025–2026 legislation: Article 12-D implementation (county opt-in registries, quarterly platform reporting to participating counties) is the main rollout in progress; no statewide mandatory registry as of this research.

Catskill Rules

Governing jurisdiction: Town of Catskill (Local Law No. 1-2022, Town Code Chapter 133).

• The Town of Catskill adopted a dedicated short-term rental law (Local Law No. 1-2022) on April 20, 2022, requiring a permit for any dwelling unit used as an STR.
• Permits require a safety inspection and cover occupancy limits tied to bedroom count, off-street parking minimums, a garbage/refuse plan, and mandatory visible posting of the permit.
• Non-owner-occupied STRs must designate a local host reachable by phone at all times the unit is occupied and able to reach the property within 30 minutes by car.
• Reported permit fees are $500 for an initial permit and $200 for renewal, though this should be reconfirmed directly with the Town's Code Enforcement Office.
• By contrast, the neighboring Town of Windham has no short-term rental permit requirement at all — its 2020 draft law, which proposed a hard cap of 150 permits total, was withdrawn after resident opposition.
• Catskill's regime is comparatively moderate: real conditions and inspections, but no confirmed hard numeric cap or owner-occupancy mandate, unlike Lake Placid/North Elba's capped-and-zoned system.

Not confirmed

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

• Whether a townwide numeric cap on total STR permits exists
• Exact minimum-stay rule, if any
• Exact occupancy-limit formula (secondary-source only; ecode360 blocked automated access)
• Whether permits transfer on sale of the property
• Specific penalty amounts for violations
• Greene County lodging tax rate

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