A guest booking on Airbnb or Vrbo assumes the platform has done some checking. A guest booking on your own website has nothing to go on but your word.
That gap matters more every year. Cities keep tightening short-term rental rules, and more of them now fine hosts, cancel bookings or require the permit number in every advert. A guest who has read about a crackdown in the news has a fair question before paying a deposit: is this place allowed to rent to me?
The LawfulStay badge answers that question on your own site.
What the badge shows
The badge sits on your booking page and shows:
- Your permit number, as it appears in your city's records.
- How we checked it. Where the city publishes a permit registry we can check, the badge says the number was verified with the city registry. Where it doesn't, the badge says "Permit on file", which means you gave us the number and we have not matched it against a public list.
- The city's rule in one plain line, for example "This city requires a permit for short-term rentals. This home has one."
- When we last checked the city's rules.
- A Verify link that opens a public page on lawfulstay.com showing the badge's status today.
It never shows your name, your email, the property's name or address, your notes or the permit's expiry date.
Three kinds of badge
The badge picks its wording from your permit and your city's rules. You don't choose it.
- Licensed rental: your permit number matched the city's registry.
- Permit on file: you hold a permit, and the city has no public registry we can check it against.
- Rentals allowed here: your city allows short-term rentals and our records show no local rental permit is needed. This badge never says licensed or verified, because there is nothing to license.
A pill or a card
You choose the shape before you copy the code.
The pill is small enough to sit in the line with your bedroom count ("4 bedrooms · 3 baths · Sleeps 8"). Guests tap it to see the details.
The card shows everything at once and fits a sidebar or the space under your booking form.
Built so it can't be misused
A badge is only worth something if it can't be faked or left up after it stops being true. So:
- It only shows on your websites. You list up to five sites where the badge may appear. Copied onto anyone else's listing, it shows nothing.
- It switches off when your plan ends. No active subscription, no badge.
- It switches off if your city bans short-term rentals. We don't draw a badge in a place where rentals are prohibited.
- The Verify page tells the truth today, not on the day you installed the code.
- Search engines and AI assistants can read it. The code carries one plain line of text, such as your permit number, how it was checked and the check date. Tools that don't run the badge's script still see it. If the badge stops being active, that line and the listing data are removed, so an old claim is never left on your page.
Adding it takes a few minutes
- In My Account → Permit Vault, add your permit and its number.
- Under Websites where this badge appears, add your booking site.
- Click Badge, then Copy, and paste the code next to your Book Now button.
The step-by-step guide covers WordPress, WordPress.com, Squarespace and OwnerRez, and there is a page you can send straight to whoever looks after your website.
Who can use it
The badge is included in every LawfulStay plan, alongside rule-change alerts for your markets and permit expiry reminders. If you have one property and only want the badge, there is a badge-only early access option at $49 a year per property.
Already a subscriber? Open Permit Vault and add your first badge.
Not sure what your city requires? Look it up on lawfulstay.com. Every place page shows the city's status, whether a licence is needed and the date we last checked the rules against the official source.