Is a short-term rental legal in Boise, ID?

LIGHTLY REGULATED

Boise has no short-term rental permit, license, or registration requirement as of 2026-07-18.

Verified2026-07-18against official sources

Idaho Code 67-6539(2)(a) explicitly bars cities/counties from requiring owner-occupation, professional property management, extra insurance, inspections, additional parking, signage, night limits, proximity/density limits, or conditional-use permits for STRs. Under 67-6539(3), a city MAY (but is not required to) mandate five safety items (smoke alarms in all sleeping areas, a fire extinguisher and CO detector on each floor, removable escape ladders for above-ground sleeping-area windows, occupancy limits per the international building codes' non-transient residential standard, and an emergency information handout); Boise has not enacted such an ordinance since repealing its STR chapter, so max_guests has no fixed citywide number — it would default to whatever the adopted building code sets for a given unit. 'Short-term rental'/'vacation rental' is statutorily defined (Idaho Code 63-1803(4)) as a rental for a fee of 30 days or less; longer stays fall outside this regime.

What you need to operate

The full picture

Boise has no short-term rental permit, license, or registration requirement as of 2026-07-18. The city repealed its 2022 STR licensing ordinance (which had required an $80/year license) effective May 18, 2026, after Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 583 on March 16, 2026. HB 583 amended Idaho Code section 67-6539, effective July 1, 2026, to bar any Idaho county or city from requiring 'a license, fee, permit, certification, or registration to operate a short-term rental' and from imposing on STRs any rule that would not also apply to an ordinary single-family home (no owner-occupancy mandate, no extra insurance, no inspections, no night caps, no density limits, no professional-management mandate). Cities may still enact only five specific safety measures (smoke alarms, a fire extinguisher and CO detector per floor, egress ladders, IBC-standard occupancy limits, and an emergency information handout), but Boise has not re-enacted any STR-specific ordinance since the repeal, so hosts are governed only by the same general nuisance, noise, parking, and building/fire code that applies to any residence. Whole-home and hosted short-term rentals of any duration are both allowed, with no primary-residence requirement. Hosts owe Idaho sales tax (6%), the Idaho Travel & Convention Tax (2%), and, within district boundaries, the Greater Boise Auditorium District room tax (5%) on stays of 30 days or less — a combined 13%. Idaho Code section 63-1804, also amended by HB 583 effective July 1, 2026, requires short-term rental marketplaces (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) to register with the Idaho State Tax Commission and collect/remit these taxes on hosts' behalf; a host who books directly without a marketplace must register and remit the taxes themselves.

Taxes on guests & hosts

Tax	Rate	Applies to	Platform collects	Official source
Idaho Sales Tax	6%	Short-term lodging rentals of 30 days or less, including cleaning/guest fees	Yes	source
Idaho Travel and Convention Tax	2%	Occupants of hotel/motel rooms, vacation-home rentals, and private campgrounds for stays of 30 days or less	Yes	source
Greater Boise Auditorium District (GBAD) Room Tax	5%	Short-term lodging (30 days or less) at properties located within the Greater Boise Auditorium District boundaries	Yes	source

Enforcement

PenaltiesNo STR-specific penalty framework exists in Boise. Idaho Code 67-6539(6) provides that STR properties, owners, and tenants are subject to the same county/city ordinances and penalties that apply to any other residential use, including noise, parking, nuisance, curfew, and traffic regulations — enforced through Boise's general municipal code rather than a dedicated STR ordinance. Specific dollar fine amounts for those general code violations were not independently verified for this profile (see needs_review).

Platform liabilityCities and counties may not regulate the operation of a short-term rental marketplace (Idaho Code 67-6539(7)). Idaho Code 63-1804, as amended by HB 583 effective July 1, 2026, requires a short-term rental marketplace to register with the Idaho State Tax Commission and to collect, report, and remit state sales tax, state travel and convention tax, and any applicable local-government taxes administered by the Tax Commission (e.g., GBAD) on transactions it facilitates; a marketplace new to Idaho has 45 days after its first Idaho transaction to come into compliance. A host who rents directly without a marketplace must independently register for and remit those same taxes.

NotesLocal governments are additionally barred from levying any sales, use, franchise, receipts, or similar tax/fee on the business of operating a short-term rental marketplace itself (Idaho Code 63-1804(1)).

What we could not verify (2)

Specific dollar fine/penalty amounts for general Boise municipal-code violations (noise, nuisance, parking) that would apply to an STR as an ordinary residence were not verified — the official code portal (codelibrary.amlegal.com, Boise's municode host) returned an HTTP 403 bot-wall on every fetch attempt (direct WebFetch and curl with a browser user-agent), and no Wayback Machine snapshot exists for that page after the May 18, 2026 repeal date to check via that fallback either.
Could not directly inspect the current full text of Boise City Code Chapter 22 (Short-Term Rentals) to confirm exactly how the repeal was codified (e.g., whether the chapter was deleted outright or replaced with a reference to state law) — this profile relies on the City Clerk's official summary page (cityofboise.org) stating the license is 'no longer required' as of 2026-05-18, which is corroborated by the state statute change but is a summary, not the ordinance text itself.

Sources

Idaho Code 67-6539 — Limitations on Regulation of Short-Term Rentals and Vacation Rentalsofficial · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho Code 63-1803 — Definitions (Short-Term Rental Marketplaces)official · accessed 2026-07-18
House Bill 583 (2026) — full engrossed bill text amending 67-6539 and 63-1804official · accessed 2026-07-18
House Bill 583 (2026) — bill status/history pageofficial · accessed 2026-07-18
City of Boise — Short-Term Rental License (current status: license no longer required, effective 2026-05-18)official · accessed 2026-07-18
City of Boise — Legislative Updates 2026 (HB 583 tracking and city testimony)official · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — Travel and Convention Taxofficial · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — Lodging: Short-term Rental Marketplacesofficial · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — Hotels, Motels and Short-Term Rentals (lodging guide)official · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — Sales and Use Taxes: Basics Guide (6% rate)official · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — Auditorium District Taxesofficial · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — press release: STR marketplaces reminded to charge taxes on booking feesofficial · accessed 2026-07-18
Idaho State Tax Commission — City Sales Taxes (confirms Boise has no local-option city sales tax)official · accessed 2026-07-18
Greater Boise Auditorium District — FAQ (5% room tax, district is a public/governmental entity)official · accessed 2026-07-18
BoiseDev/Valley Lookout — Short-term rental reform passes both Idaho statehouse chambersnews · accessed 2026-07-18

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /boise-id.md for AI tools and researchers.

STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, verified against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between our verification passes. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.