Buying Land for Short-Term Rental Income in Teton County

The default rule: 31 days, countywide

Teton County's Land Development Regulations set a blanket rule for almost all residential property: no unit or portion of a unit may be rented for occupancy of less than 31 days. Every residential property in the county can be rented long-term without restriction, but true short-term, nightly-style rentals (the kind marketed on Airbnb or VRBO for a weekend or a week) are illegal outside a specific list of mapped exceptions. This is one of the more restrictive short-term rental frameworks in the country by design, not an oversight -- it grew out of the same broader housing-pressure concerns that shape the county's mitigation and zoning rules.

Where nightly rentals are actually legal

Short-term rentals under 31 days are permitted only within a specific set of designated resort and lodging areas. As of current LDRs (Section 6.1.5), those areas include The Aspens, Teton Shadows, Teton Village, Golf Creek, the Jackson Hole Racquet Club Resort Commercial Area, Spring Creek Ranch, and the Crescent H "Fish Lodges" -- plus separately designated Resort Zones such as Teton Village, Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis, Snake River Sporting Club, and Grand Targhee Resort. That's the entire list of places where a true short-term rental is currently legal in the county; everywhere else, a rental has to run 31 days or longer regardless of what a listing or a prior owner's marketing implied.

• Named short-term-rental-permitted residential areas: The Aspens, Teton Shadows, Teton Village, Golf Creek, Jackson Hole Racquet Club Resort Commercial Area, Spring Creek Ranch, Crescent H "Fish Lodges"
• Separately designated Resort Zones: Teton Village, Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis, Snake River Sporting Club, Grand Targhee Resort
• Everywhere else in the county: 31-day minimum rental period, no exceptions for nightly or weekly stays

The permit process, if a property does qualify

Even inside a qualifying zone, operating a short-term rental isn't automatic -- it requires its own permit. A property owner first needs a Zoning Verification/Compliance certificate confirming the parcel actually sits within an approved short-term-rental zone, applied for through the Teton County Planning Division. The short-term rental permit application itself, filed with Planning & Building, generally requires a floor plan, a parking plan, and proof of ownership or a lease agreement, carries a $100 application fee, and must be renewed annually for $50. Build the timeline into a purchase: a planning review has up to two weeks to check an application for sufficiency and then up to 45 days to complete review once it's deemed sufficient, so this is not a same-week approval.

Enforcement is real, and lodging tax is in flux

Teton County's Board of County Commissioners has directed Planning and Building to actively enforce short-term rental violations. Under Wyoming statute, the county can seek abatement and fine violators up to $750 per offense, with each day a violation continues counting as a separate offense -- a meaningful deterrent against simply listing a property outside an approved zone and hoping it goes unnoticed.

Separately, lodging tax in the county currently totals 5% on qualifying stays (3% flowing to the Wyoming Office of Tourism, 2% staying with the county), and as of mid-2026 local officials have been actively discussing whether to put an additional local-option lodging tax on the November 2026 ballot. A short-term rental operator should expect the tax landscape here to be genuinely in motion, not settled.

What this means before you buy

If a short-term rental income stream is part of your reason for buying in Teton County, confirm the parcel's zoning against the specific list above -- through a Zoning Verification request to Teton County Planning, not a listing agent's description -- before you're under contract. A property just outside The Aspens or Teton Village boundary, no matter how similar it looks to one inside it, is subject to the full 31-day minimum and the $750-per-day enforcement penalty for violating it. If the parcel does qualify, budget the permit fees, the floor-plan and parking-plan documentation, and a multi-week review timeline into your plans, and expect lodging-tax rules to keep evolving through at least the 2026 election cycle.