West Michigan Short-Term Rental Ordinances: The 2026 City-by-City Guide

South Haven is the southern anchor of the lakeshore market, and one of the strongest. Short-term rentals are legal here, including whole-home rentals, but every one of them needs a city license, and the city caps the total at roughly one in four dwellings, about 20% citywide.

License fees vary by class, so the annual cost depends on how your property is categorized. The bigger question is availability. With a cap in place, a desirable area can be full, and a property you buy today may wait in line before it can legally host.

Saugatuck allows whole-home short-term rentals, but it governs them by percentage. In the city's six R-1 residential districts, STRs are limited to 20% of dwellings, and most of those districts are already over the cap. In practice, that means a waitlist.

Outside the R-1 districts there is no cap. The license runs $540 a year, plus a $175 reinspection fee if the property fails an inspection. Lodging tax is the state's 6%.

Across the water from Saugatuck sits the most straightforward rulebook on the lakeshore. Douglas has no caps and no waitlist. The city issues a three-year certificate for $375, which works out to about $125 a year.

Whole-home rentals are allowed, and the lodging tax is simply the 6% state use tax. For buyers priced out of Saugatuck, Douglas often delivers the same guest demand with a fraction of the regulatory friction.

Fennville is open to investors, with guardrails. Short-term rentals need special land use approval in the R-1, R-2, B-1, and CBD districts, and the city caps density: 5% in R-1, 10% in R-2. Accessory dwelling units are exempt from both caps.

Costs are the lowest on this list: a registration fee around $25 plus a $75 inspection. Lodging tax is the 6% state use tax.

Holland draws a hard line between living in your rental and investing in one. Owner-occupied short-term rentals are allowed. Non-owner-occupied, whole-home investor STRs are capped at roughly 25 licenses across the city's low- and medium-density residential zones, and those licenses are reportedly full, with a waitlist.

If you do secure one, the cost is modest: about $85 a year for the first unit. Lodging tax is the state's 6%.

Grand Haven doesn't use a numeric cap. Instead, whole-home short-term rentals are limited to certified properties in limited districts. The practical effect is the same as a cap: roughly 350 certified STRs exist, and zoning keeps that number constrained.

Costs sit at the higher end: $525 initially, plus a $165 per-unit renewal each year. Lodging tax is 6%.

Spring Lake is one of the most restrictive municipalities on the shoreline. Short-term rentals are allowed only inside the village's mapped STR Overlay District, and only with special land use approval. The overlay has been shrunk before, which matters: a property that qualifies today is not guaranteed to qualify forever.

The village charges $500 a year, and applying requires a minimum $1,000 escrow. Lodging tax is 6%.

Norton Shores has no short-term rental ordinance yet. There is no STR license, no cap, and no day limit. The city's general rental registration applies, and that's the whole requirement today.

Budget for the county tax, though: Muskegon County adds a 5% accommodations tax on top of the state's 6%, so lodging taxes here total 11%.

The City of Muskegon is open to investors and allows whole-home short-term rentals, organized by zone. Zone 1, the beach area, is full and running a waitlist. Zones 2 through 11 are open, and the downtown DDA and BID districts have no cap at all.

Annual fees run $500 to $2,000 depending on property type, among the highest on the lakeshore. Lodging tax totals 11% with the Muskegon County add-on.

Whitehall has no short-term rental ordinance today, but one was in draft as of September 2025. Until it passes, the city's general rental ordinance applies, with a council-set fee.

Lodging taxes total 11% here: the state's 6% plus Muskegon County's 5%.

Montague doesn't cap the number of short-term rentals. It caps the calendar instead. Each registered STR can rent up to 120 days per year.

Registration costs $50 per building and stays valid for two years. Lodging tax is 11% with the county add-on.

Silver Lake, home to the dunes and some of the strongest summer rental demand in Michigan, is genuinely open to investors. The township allows short-term rentals township-wide for single- and two-family homes, with no cap and no owner-occupancy requirement.

The fee is set annually by the township board. Lodging tax is the 6% state use tax.

Pentwater requires an annual village license for short-term rentals, and the village council can impose a cap by resolution. Because a resolution can change without a full ordinance amendment, the current status is something to confirm directly with the village before you buy.

The renewal runs $750 a year, the highest recurring fee on this list. Lodging tax is 6%.

Ludington runs the tightest numeric cap on the lakeshore: a hard citywide limit, originally 30 licenses, and they're rarely available. Whole-home rentals are legal if you hold one of those licenses, and effectively closed if you don't.

The costs match the scarcity: a $500 application fee, $1,500 per three-year license, and $100 per-unit inspections. Lodging tax is 6%.

Grand Rapids isn't a lakeshore town, and we include it because it's the most searched market in West Michigan and the one buyers ask us about most. The short answer: the city does not allow non-owner-occupied short-term rentals. There is no license pathway for a whole-home investor STR in Grand Rapids.

What exists is an owner-occupied license: 200 of them citywide, at $634 initially and $229 at renewal, for hosts who live in the home. Lodging taxes run about 14%, the state's 6% plus Kent County's 8%.

It's also why we don't operate there. We're a lakeshore company, and this is the boundary of the map.