Short-term rental permit and license records on file with 3 local registries, as of July 2026 — compiled, deduplicated, and free to cite. Part of Cavmir's U.S. STR permit data hub.
Washington's numbers are city-built. Seattle's open-data license file is one of the deepest city registries anywhere — license records going back years — joined by county programs in the San Juan Islands and on the Pacific coast.
The headline figure counts short-term rental permit and license records on file with 3 local registries, deduplicated by permit number. A license is not a listing: some licenses cover multiple units, some licensed homes sit unrented, and jurisdictions that publish nothing are missing entirely. Treat it as a verified floor for the size of Washington's legal short-term rental market — not a census.
Seattle operators face a permitted, professionalized market: the registry is public, the competition is countable, and guests increasingly book with hosts who look established. San Juan County is the opposite game — small supply, ferry-access demand, and presentation that has to sell a whole island trip.
The official registries we compiled show 19,773 short-term rental permit and license records on file with 3 local registries as of July 2026. Not every Washington jurisdiction publishes its data, so the true statewide figure is higher.
In the Washington markets covered here, short-term rental permitting runs through city and county programs. The registries in this compilation: City of Seattle Open Data — short-term rental licenses, Pacific County — vacation rentals, San Juan County — vacation rental permits. Rules and requirements vary by jurisdiction — always confirm with the local program directly.
By records on file: Seattle (18,877), San Juan County (768), Pacific County (128). Seattle leads with 18,877.
Directly from the official registries listed on this page, pulled and deduplicated in July 2026. No records are estimated or modeled — see the methodology on the national data page for what was excluded and why.
These numbers are free to use in articles, research, and reports — no permission needed. We ask for one thing: credit Cavmir and link to this page so readers can check the source.
Cavmir, “Washington Short-Term Rental Permit Data,” compiled from official state, city, and county registries, July 2026. https://cavmir.com/data/washington-short-term-rental-permits/Cavmir markets short-term rentals in Washington — photography-led listings, direct-booking websites, and local SEO built around how guests actually search. The registry tells you how many competitors you have; we make sure you do not look like any of them.
