The city made this hard. We’ll help you through it.
The Short-term rental registration certificate is real work — forms, documents, fees and a lot of small requirements that are easy to miss. Plenty of owners never start. We’ll sit with you and get the package together at no charge, because a directory where every listing is permitted is worth more to us than a subscription.
Tell us about your place and where you are in the process.
We send you Akron’s checklist and a folder to drop your documents into.
We help you get the package complete and organised.
You sign it and file it with the city.
Send us the permit number and your listing goes up free.
What the city asks for
- General liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 — Akron's minimum is twice Cleveland's.
- An Affidavit of Life Safety Compliance — Certifying your smoke alarms, CO detector and fire extinguisher.
- A basic site plan — Identifying the number of sleeping rooms for maximum occupancy.
- Proof of rental registration under section 150.30 — A separate registration from this one.
- Certificates of tax and utility compliance — Or evidence you are on a payment plan.
- A list of every platform you advertise on — Current at the time you apply.
- A responsible person in Summit or an adjoining county — Available 24/7 and able to respond within 45 minutes.
- A signed acknowledgement of Akron's anti-discrimination chapter — Chapter 38, including housing and public accommodations.
Source: Department of Neighborhood Assistance, Housing Division · Akron Code, Title 11, Chapter 111, Article 37, sections 111.620 to 111.629
Worth knowing
- Your registration certificate number must appear in every advertisement.
- A carbon monoxide detector is required within 15 feet of each sleeping room.
- Rental records must be kept for seven years.
- No cap on permits, no owner-occupancy requirement, no background check and no routine inspection.
Lodging tax
Akron levies a 3% short-term rental excise tax. Summit County's 5.5% lodging tax only applies to establishments with five or more sleeping rooms, so most houses fall outside it. Neither Airbnb nor Vrbo remits in Akron, so the 3% is yours to file.