The Nantucket Board of Health reported on Aug. 21 that 1,347 short‑term rentals were registered on the island as of Aug. 18, 2025, and described next steps to improve compliance, expand auditing of returns and coordinate with other local actors. Andrew Shapiro, environmental contamination administrator for the health department, presented the update at the meeting.

Why it matters: Short‑term rentals touch housing, neighborhood quality and public safety. The board said accurate registration data is a foundation for any enforcement or public‑safety follow‑up and pointed to work under way to make the registry easier to use and to get noncompliant listings into the system.

The health department told the board that registration fee receipts for fiscal 2025 total $336,750 (1,347 registrations × $250). Shapiro said that when the registration effort began last fall there were roughly 150 registered properties; after fixing vendor issues and improving the online flow the town now has the much larger list.

“We went from a 150 or so to 1,347,” Rocky (health department staff) said, summarizing the department’s progress in identifying owners and contact information.

The department said routine or annual physical inspections of STR units are not part of the Board of Health’s Chapter 338 regulations; the building department handles routine building‑code inspections. The health department will inspect only in response to complaints and will pursue follow‑up audits triggered by quarterly electronic reporting required in the regulation. Shapiro said the department will begin asking for attestations and more detailed quarterly data as part of the upcoming renewal process, which is due Oct. 31.

Public commenters said the registration process still confuses owners. Karen Balser, who said she has been trying to register two rentals on her primary property, told the board, “I still have inconsistent information about how to proceed. So any clarity that you could give or publish so that everybody could use the same information would be much appreciated.”

Board members and residents urged the health department and town counsel to press major listing platforms and local brokers to require that online advertisements show the Nantucket certificate of registration number, a requirement in the local regulation. David Iverson, a citizen, asked the board to request that town counsel send notice to platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO to ensure ads display local registration numbers.

Shapiro said the department has already been working with local brokers and has written code to compare external listing sites to the town registry. He said realtors have been “incredibly cooperative.” He also said that, under legal advice, the town’s enforcement relationship is with property owners, not the platforms, and that changing that would require changes to the regulation or additional legal steps.

The department said it is in the final stages of hiring a short‑term rental community liaison whose role will focus specifically on registration administration and follow‑up audits. That position will run attestations, perform data audits and follow up on suspected noncompliance.

What the board directed or decided: No new enforcement ordinance or formal board resolution was adopted at the Aug. 21 meeting. Board members asked staff to return with options and recommended next steps, including contacting town counsel about outreach to listing platforms and continuing the public information work on registration process guidance. Shapiro said the department will include a more explicit attestation and other data fields in the renewal process, and that an audit program will follow after the new liaison is in place.

Bottom line: The health department says the short‑term rental registry is now a functioning dataset with contact information for most listings; officials expect to move from registration capture to audit and enforcement steps and to coordinate further with realtors and, as appropriate, town counsel to encourage platform compliance.

For more: The Board of Health discussed short‑term rental registration in the public comment and staff‑report portions of the Aug. 21 meeting; the department will post additional FAQ material and step‑by‑step guidance on the town website to reduce owner confusion.