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Chicago short-term rental rules: shared housing registration, the 245-day test and the 10.5% city tax

Sergej Sitki · founder of ReceptionGO and host
Published October 29, 2026 · 5 min read

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change often and vary by state, county and city — confirm your situation with the local agency or a CPA.

In Chicago you need an approved shared housing registration before you advertise a stay of 31 nights or fewer. A house or a 2–4 unit building must be your primary residence (at least 245 days a year) and you may have only one active rental. The city tax on these stays is 4.5% plus a 6% surcharge. Licensed platforms remit it; on your own bookings, you do.

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Chicago does not ban short stays. It makes you register the unit first, live in it if the building is small, and pay a city tax that is higher than the headline hotel rate because of a surcharge aimed at housing services. Hosts who list first and “figure out the license later” are the ones BACP is built to catch: you may not advertise or rent while the application is pending, and you may not advertise after a denial.

Who can register

Every unit, regardless of building size, has to be a legal dwelling with six or fewer sleeping rooms. It cannot sit in a Restricted Residential Zone or on the Prohibited Buildings, Scofflaw or Problem Landlord list. A lease or HOA ban ends the conversation before the city does — private rules are not something registration overrides. The same point, statewide, is in HOA and condo rules.

How registration works

Applications go through the Shared Housing Registration Portal. The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection decides eligibility and writes to you by email and mail. Approval is not the number: the number arrives when you pay the $250 annual fee. Put that number on every listing. Renew every year; the reminder comes 60 days out, and the expiry lands on the 15th of the same month the following year.

A denial can be appealed within 10 days. In some cases the city offers a Commissioner’s Adjustment. Neither an appeal nor a pending adjustment lets you keep the listing up.

The tax guests actually pay

Shared housing and vacation rentals in the city pay the 4.5% hotel accommodations tax plus a 6% surcharge — 10.5% to the city, on top of whatever Illinois and the county add. Licensed platforms remit the city pieces on their own bookings. A stay you sell yourself, including anything on your own booking page, is your return. The state and county layers, and the habit of assuming “Airbnb paid it”, are covered in the occupancy tax guide.

What gets a registration revoked

Chicago enforces from complaints — 311 calls about noise, trash, overcrowding — and from listings that have no number or the wrong building. A primary residence that is clearly empty for the summer will fail the 245-day test the moment someone asks for proof. Keep the ordinary evidence: the homeowner exemption if you claim it, utility bills, the nights you were actually there.

The operational half is dull and effective. Tell guests which entrance, which night the carts go out, and that the unit is a home with neighbors. Collect that as part of check-in rather than a PDF. Where Chicago sits next to other cities is in short-term rental laws by city.