West Yellowstone, MT Short-Term Rental Rules (2026)
Can I operate a short-term rental in West Yellowstone?
Whole-home short-term rentals are lawful only in the B-3 central business district. All residential districts bar them, so most residential cabins and homes cannot lawfully be used this way. Eligible properties also go through state health licensing, town business licensing and state and local lodging taxes.
Key facts
What the record says about short-term rentals in West Yellowstone, with the level of law each comes from. What do these facts mean?
Can you operate?
Stay limits
Taxes
Why this score
The main reasons West Yellowstone scores the way it does. Listed most important first.
What holds it back
- Zone eligibility (Commercial zones only) sets a hard limit on how high the score can go.Source
- Zone eligibility (Commercial zones only) lowers the score.Source
- Permit or license (Yes) lowers the score.
- Lodging tax (12%) lowers the score.
- Platform collects tax (Partly) lowers the score.Source
- Platform collects tax (Partly) lowers the score.Source
Operating restrictions
What limits how, where and how often you can rent in West Yellowstone.
Occupancy / night caps / zoning limits
Zoning confines the use by district. Residential districts, E-2 and residential accessory dwelling units are barred, and B-3 is the allowed district.
- Barred in R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4 and E-2 districts
- Allowed in the B-3 central business district
- Accessory dwelling units in residential districts may not be rented short-term
Owner-occupancy / primary-residence rules
The B-3 rules do not condition rentals on owner occupancy. A 2018 ordinance that barred non-owner-occupied tourist homes in the Madison Addition has been overtaken by the residential-district prohibition.
New to this? Owner-occupied vs non-owner-occupied STRs, explained
Permit requirements
What you need to file or hold before hosting in West Yellowstone.
Permits & licensing
Rentals in B-3 go through the town's business licensing process, and officials may inspect afterward. Whole-home rentals also go through the state public accommodation licence with county sanitarian review. Secondary sources describe a separate per-unit registration that does not transfer with the property, but its adoption is unverified.
- Town business licence for rentals in B-3 (Chapter 5.04)
- Fire, town or Gallatin County health inspections at officials' discretion
- State public accommodation licence for whole-home rentals
- Resort-tax bond posted with the town
- Verify the parcel's current zoning, since the zoning map was updated in 2026
New to this? How short-term rental permits and licensing work
Taxes
Lodging, occupancy and related taxes or fees.
Taxes & fees
State lodging taxes apply to short stays, plus the town's local resort tax paid monthly to the town finance office. Platforms collect state taxes on their bookings, and collection of the resort tax varies by platform.
- State lodging facility sales and use taxes
- Town resort tax remitted by the 20th of each month for the prior month
- Resort-tax bond posted with the town
New to this? Short-term rental lodging taxes, explained
Recent changes
The dated change history is part of the free account. Email alerts above need no account.
Market assumptions
Estimates, not lawRevenue, occupancy and returns depend on the specific property and are estimates, separate from the rules above.
Run any property in West Yellowstone through the deal analyzer for cash flow, cap rate, and long-term projections.
Sources
Last verified October 22, 2026 (19 days ago). Short-term rental rules can change between checks. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before relying on this for a real decision.
- townofwestyellowstone.com › 09/276.-Zoning-Code-revisions.pdf
- townofwestyellowstone.com › 07/TC_Adoption_Track_Changes.pdf
- townofwestyellowstone.com › 07/TC-Packet-7.16.24.pdf
- townofwestyellowstone.com › resort-tax-information
- buyinbigsky.com
- bencolemanrealty.com
- mtrevenue.gov
- buildyourbnb.com
- archive.legmt.gov › section_0140/0150-0650-0010-0140.html
- archive.legmt.gov › section_0010/0500-0510-0020-0010.html
- policyrisk.com
- airbnb.com
A free STRVE account shows which rule each source supports, plus the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown, change history, and rule-change alerts for West Yellowstone.
More STR-friendly options nearby
Nearby cities with a higher regulation score than West Yellowstone.
- 100/100Island Park~20 mi
- 100/100Rexburg~68 mi
- 79/100Ennis~56 mi
- 75/100Jackson~85 mi
How we research this
The STRVE Score is our own regulation rating, built from seven levels of authority: state, county, town, HOA, deed restrictions, special districts, and platform rules. Each level is scored separately, with its own citations and the date we verified it. The headline number is the strictest of the seven, never an average, because the tightest rule is the one that governs you.
We keep a history of what a city's rules said before and when they changed, so a score that moves is traceable to the rule that moved it.
- Highly permissive
- 90+
- Friendly
- 70–89
- Moderate
- 45–69
- Heavily restricted
- 20–44
- Effectively banned
- 0–19
Not legal advice
STRVE is a research tool, not financial or legal advice. Always verify regulation, tax, and permitting details with the local jurisdiction and a licensed professional before you buy.
The STRVE Score and the seven-level breakdown are our own rating framework, not an official or government rating, and no jurisdiction endorses or reviews them. The rules behind them are researched from public sources with AI assistance and are current only as of the verification date shown, so they can be incomplete, outdated, or wrong. None of it substitutes for advice from local counsel. Confirm every permit, tax, occupancy, and zoning requirement against the jurisdiction's own municipal code and with an attorney licensed in that jurisdiction before you buy, list, or operate. Terms of Service