Reading a town's website and it lists a short-term rental registration, a transient occupancy tax account, and a general business license as three separate items with three separate fees. My assumption was that the STR permit covered all of it. Are these genuinely three different filings or is the town just describing one process badly?
Answer
Three separate filings, most likely, and this pattern is common. They do different jobs.
The short-term rental registration is the town saying this specific address is allowed to be rented for stays under whatever their threshold is, often 30 nights. It's tied to the property. It usually involves an inspection, a local contact requirement, and a cap on occupancy.
The transient occupancy tax account, sometimes called lodging tax or hotel tax, is a tax registration. It exists so you can collect a percentage from guests and remit it. Platforms collect and remit this automatically in a lot of jurisdictions, but not all, and even where they do, some towns still require you to hold the account and file a zero or reconciling return. That varies by state and by town, so confirm the filing obligation directly with the local tax office in writing.
The general business license is the town treating you as a business operating within its limits, the same way it treats a hair salon. It's tied to you, not the property.
One thing that trips people who come at this from the documents side: these often renew on different cycles and only one of them tends to send a reminder. Missing the registration renewal is the expensive one, because in towns with a cap on total permits, a lapsed registration can go back into the pool and you're behind a waiting list. Put all three renewal dates somewhere you'll actually see them, and ask the clerk whether their registration is transferable on sale, since in many places it isn't.