Short-Term Rental Rules in Kane County, Utah

Unincorporated Kane County: a $200 license, safety inspections, and a hard activity cap

A property owner operating a short-term rental in unincorporated Kane County must obtain a registration and license through the county, starting with an initial $200 registration and license fee. Annual renewal costs $100. The license isn't just a paperwork formality -- applicants must provide proof of liability insurance and pass required safety inspections, and the ordinance sets specific requirements for smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and a posted emergency plan.

The ordinance also caps how intensively a licensed property can actually be rented: occupancy is limited to two guests per bedroom with a hard maximum of 16 guests per property, and total rental activity is capped at 12 rental contracts or 180 rental days per calendar year, whichever is greater. That activity cap is a meaningful planning number if short-term rental income is central to your purchase decision -- it puts a real ceiling on how many separate bookings or total nights a licensed property can generate in unincorporated Kane County, regardless of demand.

Kanab City runs its own, separate system -- the county's rules stop at the city line

Kane County's ordinance explicitly does not regulate properties located within local municipalities, including Kanab City -- each incorporated city sets its own rules. Kanab City requires a business license for any short-term rental operating in a residential zone, with applicants required to submit a site plan and meet parking requirements, and to post the city-provided rental rules inside the property. Kanab limits short-term rentals to two per property in single-family zones, restricts occupancy to one private renter group at a time, and requires the property to pass an annual Kanab City Fire Inspection.

The practical upshot: a Kanab-area parcel's actual short-term-rental rules -- the license type, the fee, the occupancy and activity limits -- depend entirely on whether it sits inside Kanab City limits or in the surrounding unincorporated county, and those are two different offices with two different ordinances, not two versions of the same rule. Confirm which jurisdiction governs a specific parcel with the Kane County Recorder or Kanab City directly before assuming either set of terms applies.

Confirming current terms before you buy for rental income

1. Confirm whether the specific parcel sits inside Kanab City limits or unincorporated Kane County -- this determines which entire regulatory system applies, not just which fee schedule.
2. For unincorporated county parcels, contact the Kane County Land Use Authority to confirm the current $200 initial/$100 annual license fees, insurance and inspection requirements, and whether the 12-contract/180-day activity cap has since changed.
3. For Kanab City parcels, contact the city's business licensing office to confirm the current site-plan, parking, and per-property rental limits, and to check the property's zone for whether short-term rental is a permitted use at all.
4. Ask either office whether Grand Staircase-Escalante's litigation-affected tourism patterns (see the hub) have prompted any recent change to short-term-rental policy, since both offices administer rules for a market tied heavily to monument-adjacent visitation.
5. Get current fee schedules and activity caps in writing rather than relying on a listing description or a general vacation-rental-industry summary, since both the county and city ordinances are locally set and can be amended.