Short-Term Rentals Near Mount Snow and Stratton Mountain, Vermont

Dover (Mount Snow): a $125 registry with a one-hour, 24/7 response requirement

Dover, the town most directly built around Mount Snow's base area, adopted a short-term-rental registry ordinance on August 20, 2024. Vermont's general statutory definition of a short-term rental applies -- a furnished dwelling rented for less than 30 days at a time but for more than 14 total nights in a calendar year -- and under Dover's ordinance, registering each such property costs $125 a year. The ordinance requires at least one owner contact and a designated point of contact who can respond in person within one hour, 24 hours a day, while the property is actively being rented -- a meaningfully tighter response window than some neighboring towns require. Occupancy also triggers a state-level safety step layered on top of the town registration: properties sleeping up to eight people must complete Vermont's short-term-rental self-certification worksheet, while properties with a capacity of nine or more require an actual inspection and occupancy certificate from the Vermont Department of Fire Safety.

Stratton: a newer, differently structured Town Clerk permit system

Stratton, home to Stratton Mountain Resort, took a different administrative approach on a similar timeline. The town's zoning bylaw, adopted in 2016, was already written to accommodate a tourism-driven, resort-based local economy, and short-term rentals have generally been allowed as of right through most of the town. What changed more recently is process: Stratton implemented a new STR registry ordinance effective May 1, 2025, under which a property owner must obtain a current permit from the Town Clerk's office and renew it annually -- a Town Clerk-administered permit system rather than Dover's economic-development-office registration, even though both towns are handling functionally the same problem on nearly the same timeline. Because this is a newly implemented system, expect the specifics of the application and renewal process to still be settling in; confirm the current form and fee directly with the Town Clerk's office rather than relying on secondhand summaries.

Wilmington: the region's least clearly settled rule, and why that matters

Wilmington, Mount Snow's other host town (along with Dover), was noticeably harder to pin down in this research: available secondary sourcing described the region's short-term-rental regulatory situation as still evolving in and around Wilmington specifically, without pointing to one clear, currently adopted ordinance comparable to Dover's or Stratton's. That's a meaningful finding in its own right for a buyer -- rather than assume Wilmington either has no rule or mirrors Dover's, treat the town's current STR policy as unsettled and confirm it directly with the Wilmington Zoning Administrator's office and by attending or checking minutes from recent Selectboard meetings where short-term rentals have been on the agenda, since coverage of this specific market noted the rules here "change frequently."

Statewide obligations that apply no matter which town the property is in

Regardless of which of these three towns a property sits in, Vermont's own statewide framework applies on top of the town's rule. Under Act 48 of 2024, short-term-rental operators must register with the state and collect and remit Vermont's 9% Rooms Tax; 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 the town also imposes. And as noted above for Dover, the state's own health-and-safety framework -- a self-certification worksheet for smaller-capacity units, a Division of Fire Safety inspection for units sleeping nine or more -- applies statewide, not only where a town ordinance happens to reference it explicitly. A property that is fully compliant with its town's registration or permit requirement can still be out of compliance with these separate state obligations, so check both layers.

What to verify before buying in this corridor for short-term-rental income

1. Which specific town the parcel sits in -- Dover's, Stratton's, and Wilmington's rules and administering offices are all different, and the mountain each is associated with (Mount Snow vs. Stratton Mountain) doesn't tell you which town's rule applies to a specific address near the town line.
2. In Dover, confirm current registration status, the $125 annual fee (or its current equivalent), and that a compliant 24/7, one-hour-response contact is in place or can be arranged before you close.
3. In Stratton, confirm with the Town Clerk's office whether the property already holds a current STR permit under the May 2025 system, since this process is still new and less established than Dover's.
4. In Wilmington, don't assume either town's rule applies by default -- contact the Zoning Administrator directly and ask what, if anything, is currently required, and whether a Selectboard vote on STR rules is pending.
5. Regardless of town, confirm the property's occupancy-based state fire-safety obligation (self-certification vs. inspection) and that state Rooms Tax and STR surcharge registration with the Vermont Department of Taxes is current or achievable before you rely on projected rental income.