On Tuesday, the Oklahoma City Council approved a new set of rules for home-sharing and short-term rental services like Airbnb and VRBO operating in Oklahoma City.

The new, more stringent rules take effect Feb. 16, 2025, and are in response to residents' concerns about issues like affordable housing and eroding their neighborhood’s sense of community,

“The Planning Department hosted seven focus groups with a diverse group of stakeholders over the past 18 months to help guide the ordinance update,” Assistant Planning Director Lisa Chronister said. “We also considered feedback received by email and social media, and from public meeting comments.”

The new ordinance updates include:

• Sixteen is the maximum number of people that can occupy a home share at any given time, regardless of the number of rooms or not more than the number allowed by a special exception permit.
• The maximum number of nights a home share can be rented per month is ten unless the owner gets a special exception permit.
• The Board of Adjustment can deny applications or renewals for one year when the home share ordinance is violated.
• Short-term rentals that require special exception permits can’t exceed 10 percent of the homes on any given block.
• Host must provide at least one parking space on the property for every four guests.
• When evaluating a special exception application, the Board of Adjustment may consider a neighborhood’s restrictive covenant that specifically identifies home sharing/short-term rental as a prohibited use.
• The Board of Adjustment may consider the impacts of vehicular traffic in their decisions on special exception permits.

Home sharing details can be found at okc.gov/homeshare.

Home sharing oversight

To better manage home sharing in Oklahoma City, the City Manager’s office is working with the Office of Innovation to hire a consultant to:

• Identify unlicensed home shares.
• Contact unlicensed short-term rental owners to encourage them to get their licenses.
• Document violations for municipal courts.
• Create a 24-hour compliant platform.
• Connect with the city’s enforcement database. 

“Throughout our outreach, we heard concerns about how the ordinance could be enforced and how complaints could be better addressed,” Assistant Planning Director Lisa Chronister added. ”The consultant can help us identify unlicensed home shares, provide a 24-hour complaint platform, and coordinate with our licensing and code enforcement staff.”

Existing Home Sharing rules

In 2019, Oklahoma City Council adopted the following rules for home-sharing that are still in effect:

• Hosts are required to get an annual license. Currently, the fee for this license is $100.80 for each property.
• Properties must have working smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors.
• Hosts whose property is not their primary residence must get a special exception permit from the Board of Adjustment.
• All hosts in Historic Preservation (HP) districts must get a special exception from the Board of Adjustment and pay the $300 filing fee.
• Everyone who rents a home, apartment or bedroom to guests using a home-sharing site must pay applicable hotel taxes to the City and sales taxes to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.