Short-Term Rentals in Bennington County, Vermont: The Village of Manchester Ordinance

The Village of Manchester's ordinance: registration, a $300 fee, and inspection on request

The Village of Manchester's trustees adopted a short-term-rental ordinance in December 2023, with an amended version taking effect in February 2024. It defines a short-term rental as a furnished house, condominium, or self-contained dwelling unit rented to the transient, traveling, or vacationing public for fewer than 30 consecutive days at a stretch, and for more than 14 total days in a calendar year -- and any property meeting that definition inside the Village must register annually and pay a $300 registration fee. Registration isn't just paperwork: the ordinance sets an occupancy cap (two people per bedroom, plus two additional), requires the owner to provide guests with safety information covering fire safety, nearby hospital access, and trash/waste disposal, and makes the property subject to inspection by a designated Short-Term Rental Officer on request. The Village went on to adopt entirely new Land Use Regulations on September 8, 2025, so a current STR operator or buyer should confirm the ordinance's present form rather than relying on the original 2023/2024 text alone.

The surrounding Town of Manchester: a real regulatory gap, not an oversight

The Village of Manchester is a small incorporated municipality nested inside the much larger Town of Manchester, and the two have always had separate governments and separate land-use rules -- similar to the Village of St. Albans/Town of St. Albans split already documented in our Franklin County hub. As of 2025, the Town of Manchester (the larger surrounding jurisdiction, covering most of the area's ski-adjacent and outlying residential land) had not adopted a short-term-rental ordinance of its own, even as the topic was actively under discussion by the town's housing task force and planning commission. That means a property just outside the Village boundary, even one a short walk from a Village-registered STR, may currently face no local STR-specific registration requirement at all -- a genuinely different regulatory reality than a Village property, and one worth confirming directly rather than assuming either way, since the Town's own process has been described as active and could change.

Statewide obligations that apply no matter which side of the line a property sits on

Regardless of Village or Town jurisdiction, Vermont's statewide framework still applies. Under Act 48 of 2024, short-term-rental operators must register with the state and collect and remit Vermont's 9% Rooms Tax, and a separate 3% short-term-rental surcharge applies under Act 183 of 2024 for rents collected on or after August 1, 2024, on top of the Rooms Tax and any local-option tax. Vermont's occupancy-based fire-safety framework also applies statewide: smaller-capacity units complete a self-certification worksheet, while units with a higher sleeping capacity require an actual inspection and occupancy certificate from the Vermont Division of Fire Safety. A property fully compliant with the Village's registration ordinance -- or facing no local ordinance at all in the Town -- can still be out of compliance with these separate state tax and safety obligations.

What to verify before buying a Manchester-area property for short-term-rental income

1. Confirm whether the specific parcel sits inside the incorporated Village of Manchester or the surrounding Town of Manchester -- the address alone can be ambiguous, so check with the Village clerk or the Town's zoning office directly.
2. If it's in the Village, confirm the current registration fee (as of the 2024 amendment, $300 annually), the occupancy cap, and the safety-information and inspection-access requirements under the Village's post-September-2025 Land Use Regulations.
3. If it's in the Town, don't assume there's no rule to check going forward -- ask the Town's planning commission or housing task force directly whether an ordinance is pending, since this has been an active topic.
4. Regardless of jurisdiction, confirm state Rooms Tax and STR-surcharge registration with the Vermont Department of Taxes, and determine whether the property's planned sleeping capacity requires only self-certification or a full Division of Fire Safety inspection.
5. For comparison, note that other Vermont resort corridors (Stowe in Lamoille County; Dover and Stratton in Windham County) have each adopted their own, non-identical STR rules in the same 2023-2025 window -- this is a genuine statewide pattern of town-by-town response, not something unique to Manchester.