Charleston

Operating rules

Primary residence

Yes

Min stay (nights)

—

Max nights / year

—

Max occupancy

Maximum four (4) adults per STR unit, where 'an adult shall include any person eighteen (18) years of age or older'. Categories 1 and 2: 'The property shall not contain more than one (1) STR unit. Each unit shall consist of one or more rooms arranged for the purpose of providing sleeping accommodations for occupancy for one (1) to twenty-nine (29) consecutive days by up to four (4) adults.' Category 3: 'The number of STR guests on the property shall not exceed four (4) adults.' Each permittee may market only one (1) STR unit citywide. Commercial STRs in the ST Overlay Zone: 'may be rented to not more than four (4) unrelated people pursuant to the definition for family for a period of between one (1) and twenty-nine (29) days; provided, however, only one (1) family at a time may occupy and use a dwelling unit converted into a commercial short term rental.'

Zoning-restricted

Yes

Cap on licenses

—

Grandfathering: Sec. 54-208.d: 'All approved, legal bed and breakfast uses that are operating on the effective date of this ordinance or that are entitled to be in operation on the effective date of the ordinance from which this section derives on properties outside the Short Term Overlay Zone shall be issued a Category 1 or Category 2 STR Permit, depending on their location. Such previously approved uses shall adhere to the requirements of the Zoning Ordinance in effect prior to April 10, 2018.' Sec. 54-227.b.6: 'All STR uses within the ST Overlay Zone that have City approval to operate on the effective date of this ordinance shall be issued a commercial STR permit, which shall be valid for one (1) year from the date of issuance and shall be renewable annually unless revoked.' Sec. 54-227.b.4: 'For the purposes of applying Section 54-110 concerning nonconforming uses, a commercial short term rental is considered a continuation of the nonconforming use of a legal nonconforming dwelling unit.'

Zoning: Three residential accessory-use categories plus one commercial overlay pathway. Category 1 (Sec. 54-208.1) — property located entirely within the Old and Historic District; the unit 'shall be located within an existing structure or accessory building that is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places'; may not displace a dwelling unit occupied within the prior year; lot must comply with minimum lot area under Table 3.1. Category 2 (Sec. 54-208.2) — property located entirely on the peninsula, within the Old City District, and NOT within the Old and Historic District or the ST Overlay Zone; 'The STR unit shall be located within a building constructed fifty (50) or more years ago.' Category 3 (Sec. 54-208.3) — 'The subject property shall be located entirely off of the peninsula' (e.g., West Ashley, Johns Island, James Island, Daniel Island). Commercial STR (Sec. 54-227) — conditional use, commercially zoned lots entirely within the ST Overlay Zone and entirely within base districts CT, LB, GB, UC, MU-1, MU-1/WH, MU-2 or MU-2/WH; max nine (9) converted units per lot; unit may not be an affordable or workforce housing unit; construction of new commercial STRs prohibited. Per Sec. 54-220.a, accommodations uses are otherwise prohibited outside the Accommodations (A) Overlay Zone 'with the exception of short term rentals and bed and breakfasts that are approved in accordance with the provisions of sections 54-208, 54-208.1, 54-208.2, 54-208.3, 54-224. b.1 or 54-227.' Sec. 54-224.b.1(a) additionally permits owner-occupied single-family properties in the Savannah Highway (SH) Overlay Zone to have 'one short term rental unit utilizing only one bedroom within the principal structure with one parking space in addition to the parking spaces required for the residential use.' STRs are expressly excluded from the home-occupation provisions of Sec. 54-211.

• Owner-occupancy is the binding constraint and goes beyond ordinary 'primary residence' rules: Sec. 54-208.b.1 requires the record owner to be 'residing overnight on the property while residential STR guests are present.' Non-owner-occupied investor STRs are not permitted outside the ST Overlay Zone.
• The City's official summary states: 'The ordinance permits STRs in a homeowner's primary residence and requires the owner to obtain both a permit and a business license in all cases.'
• No minimum-stay requirement exists. An STR is defined by an upper bound only: 'any rental of a dwelling unit/bedroom as a residential accommodation for less than 30 consecutive days'; the ordinance frames units as providing accommodations 'for occupancy for one (1) to twenty-nine (29) consecutive days.' Stays of 30+ consecutive days fall outside the STR ordinance.
• No annual night cap (max_nights_per_year) appears anywhere in Sec. 54-208 through 54-208.3 or 54-227.
• No numeric cap on the total number of STR permits was found. However, Category 1 is de facto sharply limited because the unit must be in a structure individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Category 2 is limited to buildings 50+ years old.
• One-unit-per-permittee rule: 'Each Category 1, 2, or 3 STR permittee is entitled to rent, list with a booking or listing service, advertise, make available for STR use, or otherwise market only one (1) STR unit.'
• The STR 'shall be subordinate and incidental to the principal residential use of the property' and 'shall not create the need for exterior alterations to any building for the purpose of maintaining such accessory use.'
• A 24-month bar applies after revocation: 'The applicant for the STR use shall not be someone who has had an STR Permit revoked within the previous twenty-four (24) months.' (Bed and breakfast uses in the ST Overlay use a 12-month bar.)
• Meals: 'If meals are served by the resident owner, no meals other than breakfast may be served to the paying guests.'
• The STR use may not be expanded beyond the rooms designated on the approved plans or beyond the maximum number of guests listed on the permit without reapplication and approval.
• Bed and breakfast uses (Sec. 54-227.c) are a separate pathway available only inside the ST Overlay Zone: max four (4) units (or 4–10 units if conditioned floor area >= units x 560 sq ft); the owner 'also resides at the subject property at least 183 days each year'; the principal building must have been constructed 50 or more years ago; one sign of max 4 sq ft per side is allowed.

Enforcement

Active enforcement

yes

Fines

Zoning violations (operating an unpermitted STR, expanding without a new permit, advertising without complying, omitting the permit number from listings, or advertising more occupants/units than permitted) are misdemeanors 'punishable by a fine and/or incarceration.' Each day the violation continues is a separate offense, and any violation entitles the zoning administrator to revoke the STR permit. Chapter 54 does not state a dollar amount; under the general penalty in Code § 1-16, where no penalty is specifically provided the court 'may sentence him to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) or serve a term not exceeding thirty (30) days in jail, or both.' A revoked permittee is barred from reapplying for 24 months. Separately, on the tax side, the City warns of 'substantial penalties for failing to collect and remit this tax' and states that 'State law allows a civil penalty of not less than five hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars for each seven days the property was rented.'

Notes

The ordinance mandates a proactive annual compliance review by the zoning administrator rather than complaint-only enforcement, and requires operators to grant access for site inspections. Advertising itself is an enforceable hook: listing an STR without a displayed permit number is an independent violation, which makes platform listings (Airbnb, VRBO/Homeaway, FlipKey are named in the ordinance) directly auditable. Permits are also revoked automatically if the use is discontinued for 12 months or more (Sec. 54-227.d.2, ST Overlay). The dollar figure of $500/30 days is inferred from the Code § 1-16 general penalty because Chapter 54 specifies no amount of its own — treat the specific fine exposure as the general-penalty default rather than an STR-specific schedule.