Short Term Rental Rules in Bozeman, Montana

Last verified 5 September 2026 against the City of Bozeman Community Development short term rental page and the Montana Department of Revenue. This is general information, not legal advice. Bozeman has changed these rules twice since 2023 and can change them again. Confirm anything that affects a purchase or a permit with the city directly before you act on it.

The short version

If you live in the property, you can almost certainly get a permit. If you do not, you almost certainly cannot, unless you already had one before 14 December 2023.

That single sentence is the whole regime. Everything below is detail on how the city defines living there, what happened to the people who already had permits, and what it costs to stay compliant.

The four permit types

Bozeman sorts every short term rental into one of four types. Three are open to new applicants. One is closed.

Type 1 is one or more bedrooms in the host’s primary residence, with the host present during the rental period. In plain terms, you rent a room while you are living there.

Type 2A is a dwelling unit that is the host’s primary residence, with the host not present during the rental. You rent your own home while you are away.

Type 2B is an ADU on the same lot, or one additional dwelling unit in the same building as the host’s primary residence. You live on the property and rent the second unit.

Type 3 is the pure investment rental, and it is closed. The city allows it only where a complete permit application was submitted before 14 December 2023, and only in non-residential zones.

The 70 percent rule, which is stricter than most owners expect

For Types 1, 2A and 2B the city requires that the host reside in the property, in its words, 70 percent or more of each calendar year.

Two things about that wording matter. It is a percentage of the calendar year, not a vague test of intent, and it applies every year rather than only at the point of application. Seventy percent of a year is roughly 255 days, which leaves about 110 days when the property can be rented with you elsewhere.

If your plan depends on being away for more than about three and a half months a year, the arithmetic does not work, and that is worth knowing before you buy rather than after.

What changed on 1 February 2026

The city replaced its entire Unified Development Code. For short term rental owners the consequential part is a district consolidation. In the city’s words: the RS, R1 and R2 districts became the new RA district, only Type 1 short term rentals are allowed in the new RA district, and Type 2 short term rentals operating in RA may no longer be permitted under the new UDC.

Read that carefully, because the city hedged and so should you. Only Type 1 is allowed in the new RA district. Type 2 rentals already operating there may no longer be permitted. The city is not promising those permits survive and it is not saying outright that they die.

If you hold a Type 2A or 2B permit in what used to be RS, R1 or R2, that is the sentence that affects you, and it is the one question worth putting to Community Development in writing so you have an answer on file.

Legacy Type 3, and the three ways to lose it

Owners who had a complete Type 3 application in before 14 December 2023 were allowed to keep operating. Those permits are called Legacy Type 3, and they are the most valuable short term rental asset in Bozeman precisely because no more are being made.

They are also easier to lose than most owners expect. The city puts it like this: if a Legacy Type 3 permit expires, is revoked, or is forfeited by transfer of ownership of the property, the property is no longer eligible to operate as a Legacy Type 3 short term rental.

That gives three separate failure modes. It expires, because registrations run for one year and must be renewed before the expiry date, so a missed renewal means the permit is gone rather than late. It is revoked, because the Director of Community Development may revoke a registration if the regulations are not followed. Or it is forfeited on sale, because a transfer of ownership ends it.

The third one is the one that catches people. A Legacy Type 3 permit is not an asset you can sell with the house. A buyer paying a premium for a Bozeman property with an STR permit is, on the city’s own wording, buying a property whose permit ends at closing.

What it costs, and how often

The annual registration fee is $325. Registration runs for one year and has to be renewed through the city’s STR Portal before it expires.

Budget for the fee every year rather than treating it as a setup cost, and put the renewal date on a calendar. Given that an expired permit is a lost permit rather than a late one, the renewal is not an administrative nicety.

Inspections

A fire and life safety inspection is required before the city will approve a permit initially, and then every three years after that.

Three events trigger an inspection outside that cycle: a new host, a change to the area of the property being used as the short term rental, and permitted residential alterations that affect the rental space. A remodel you pulled a permit for can therefore put you back in the inspection queue.

What Airbnb and Vrbo have to report about you

Since 11 August 2023, any platform that lists a Bozeman short term rental has to display the active STR Hosting Permit Number on every publicly available listing. A listing with no permit number on it is visible to the city, not just to guests.

Platforms also file a quarterly report with Community Development giving the owner or responsible person and the property address for every booking transaction. In practice the city can cross reference bookings against its permit list without anyone filing a complaint.

What the state requires, on top of the city

Montana charges a Lodging Facility Use Tax of 4 percent and a Lodging Facility Sales Tax of 4 percent, 8 percent combined on the accommodation charge.

Under SB 52, short term rental marketplaces register with the Montana Department of Revenue and collect, report, and pay those taxes on the bookings they process. Returns are quarterly, due 30 April, 31 July, 31 October, and 31 January. If you take bookings outside a marketplace, direct bookings included, that filing is yours.

Where this leaves most owners

If you live in the home, a Type 1 or Type 2 permit is straightforward and the 70 percent rule is the number to watch.

If you were hoping to buy a Bozeman property purely as a short term rental, the honest answer is that the city has closed that door for new applicants outside the narrow cases above. The remaining paths are a legacy Type 3 property bought carefully, a mid term rental of 30 days or more, which sits outside the STR rules entirely, or a property in Belgrade, Livingston, Big Sky, or Ennis, where the rules are different.

If you already hold a Legacy Type 3 permit, it is the most valuable thing about the property. Do not let it lapse, do not leave it unused for a year, and do not assume it survives a sale unless the contract says so.

Talk to someone who does this every week

We manage short term rentals across Bozeman, Belgrade, Big Sky, Livingston, and Ennis, and we deal with permits, renewals, and inspections as part of the job. If you are weighing a purchase, sitting on a legacy permit, or trying to work out whether your property qualifies at all, we are happy to walk through it with you.

Sources

City of Bozeman Community Development, short term rentals: bozemanmt.gov/departments/community-development/planning/short-term-rentals

Montana Department of Revenue, lodging facility taxes: revenue.mt.gov/taxes/miscellaneous/lodging-facility

Verified 5 September 2026.