Cavmir Market Data · Washington · July 2026

Washington Short-Term Rental Permit Data

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.

See the numbers Where Cavmir works in Washington

Where The Licenses Are

Washington's most-licensed markets

Washington's numbers are city-built. Seattle's open-data license file is one of the deepest city registries anywhere — close to nineteen thousand license records — joined by county programs in the San Juan Islands and on the Pacific coast.

01SeattleCavmir market guide available18,877records

02San Juan County 768records

03Pacific County 128records

Every record on this page comes from Seattle, San Juan County and Pacific County; no other Washington jurisdiction publishes a registry we could verify yet. Where a property sits inside those markets still matters: a dense top market and a small permit pool ask for different marketing.

Washington top markets at a glance

Records are permit and license records on file with the registries named on this page, as of July 2026. Share is each market’s slice of the 19,773 records compiled for Washington. Free to cite with a link to this page.

#	Market	Records on file	Share of state	Cavmir market page
1	Seattle	18,877	95.5%	Seattle market page
2	San Juan County	768	3.9%	not covered yet
3	Pacific County	128	0.6%	not covered yet

How To Read These Numbers

What this number is — and is not

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.

City of Seattle Open Data — short-term rental licenses
Pacific County — vacation rentals
San Juan County — vacation rental permits

Cavmir Market Guides

Where Cavmir works in Washington

Eleven Washington markets carry a Cavmir guide, covering Seattle, the San Juan Islands, the Cascades towns and the coast. Seattle is the only one that also appears on the registry above; San Juan County's 768 permits cover Friday Harbor, Orcas and the islands guides listed here.

SeattleOn the registry

Cavmir is an Airbnb, vacation rental and boutique hotel marketing agency for Seattle. Photography, listing strategy and direct-booking website design.

Friday HarborMarket guide

Cavmir markets Friday Harbor and San Juan Island stays — permitted rentals, orca-season pricing, ferry-savvy copy and direct-booking website design.

Lake ChelanMarket guide

Cavmir markets Lake Chelan rentals: licensed lake homes in Chelan and Manson, wine-country shoulder strategy and direct-booking website design that cuts OTA fees.

LeavenworthMarket guide

Cavmir markets Leavenworth lodging: permitted rentals, pensions and boutique hotels in the Bavarian village, with direct-booking website design that books direct.

Orcas IslandMarket guide

Grow your Orcas Island vacation rental income with Cavmir. Expert STR marketing for waterfront cabins, Eastsound homes and view retreats on Orcas in the San Juan Islands.

PackwoodMarket guide

Cavmir markets Packwood cabins the right way: Lewis County permits made visible, Rainier-season pricing and direct-booking website design that cuts OTA fees.

Port AngelesMarket guide

Cavmir markets Port Angeles rentals at the gateway to Olympic National Park — photography, direct booking, local SEO and ads for a two-country market.

San Juan IslandsMarket guide

Cavmir markets short-term rentals across the San Juan Islands, WA — Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, Orcas and Lopez. Permits are capped; make every booking count.

Walla WallaMarket guide

Cavmir markets Walla Walla wine country rentals — photography, direct booking, local SEO and ads for Washington's best-known wine town.

Whidbey IslandMarket guide

Cavmir markets Whidbey Island short-term rentals - photography, direct booking, local SEO and ads on an island whose county rulebook is still being written.

WinthropMarket guide

Cavmir markets Winthrop and Methow Valley rentals — photography, direct-booking sites and campaigns for a valley where legal nightly rentals are scarce.

What It Means For Hosts

Reading Washington like a marketer

Seattle operators face a permitted, professionalized market: the registry is public, the competition is countable, and guests increasingly book with hosts who look established rather than improvised. In a city that size, discovery is a search-and-reviews problem — being findable for the neighborhood and the trip type, and looking like a safe, repeatable stay once you are found.

The San Juans are the opposite game: small supply, ferry-access demand, and a guest choosing a whole island trip rather than just a room. There the listing has to sell the getaway — the water, the slowness, the logistics handled — and presentation matters more than volume. Cavmir markets both: the urban listing that needs to be found, and the island stay that needs to be wanted.

Questions

Washington STR data, answered

How many licensed short-term rentals are in Washington?

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.

Who licenses short-term rentals in Washington?

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.

Which Washington cities have the most short-term rentals?

By records on file: Seattle (18,877), San Juan County (768), Pacific County (128). Seattle leads with 18,877.

Where does this data come from?

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.

How many Washington communities have ten or more licensed short-term rentals on file?

3 communities in Washington have ten or more permit or license records on the registries we compiled, as of July 2026. Seattle leads with 18,877 records, followed by San Juan County (768), Pacific County (128).

What share of Washington's licensed records sit in Seattle?

About 95%. Seattle holds 18,877 of the 19,773 records on file for Washington. One license can cover several units, so the share of rentable inventory can differ from the share of licenses.

Which Washington markets does Cavmir publish guides for?

11 market guides: Friday Harbor, Lake Chelan, Leavenworth, Orcas Island, Packwood, Port Angeles and 5 more. Each one covers the season, who books there, what wins in that market and how Cavmir markets rentals in it. They are listed on this page under "Where Cavmir works in Washington".

Cite this data

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/

Keep Exploring

Where to go from here

Free Regulation Alerts

Be first to know when Washington changes its rules

New permit requirements, caps, moratoriums, new registries in Washington — one plain-English email when something actually changes. If nothing changes, you hear nothing.

Work With Cavmir

Marketing for Washington's licensed hosts

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.

Talk to Cavmir