Top 5 short-term rental markets in Montana for 2026

Short-term rentals can combine nightly income with personal-use flexibility. Travelers create dual-season demand in several Montana markets, while remote workers and digital nomads increasingly extend shoulder-season stays in mountain towns. The comparison question is where operators can convert that demand into the strongest return, because gross yields across Montana's top five markets differ by more than a factor of four.

The NPS visitor data lists 3,208,755 visits to Glacier National Park in 2024 and 4,744,353 visits to Yellowstone, its second-highest year on record. The University of Montana's BBER report counted 21,050 Montana STR listings and 436,988 reservations in 2025. It also attributed $754.5 million in visitor spending to STR guests. Ski demand at Big Sky and on Whitefish Mountain adds a winter peak that most summer-only vacation states never get.

What makes a strong Montana short-term rental market

A market that cash-flows and a market that only appreciates can look identical in listing photos. Before comparing cities, weigh these variables:

• Occupancy and average daily rate (ADR) together set gross revenue, and Montana markets trade them off sharply: high-occupancy cities run low rates, and the highest-rate market fills barely half its calendar.
• Gross yield ties revenue to entry price. A $73,800 revenue number means little against a $4.95 million purchase.
• Proximity to a national park or destination ski resort determines both the shape and height of your demand curve.
• Seasonality determines financing risk. Gateway towns earn most of the year's income in three months, and your mortgage payment arrives in all twelve.
• Permit and zoning rules, including primary-residence requirements, can bar you from a market entirely or protect you from new competition once you're in.
• Supply growth signals where competition is headed. Several Montana markets shed listings in the past year while a few submarkets more than doubled.

The best Montana STR markets at a glance

The table pairs AirDNA market data for the trailing 12 months through mid-2026 with full-year 2025 median sale prices; where data platforms diverge, revenue and yield appear as ranges rather than blended averages:

• Market | Median property value (2025) | ADR | Occupancy | Annual revenue per listing | Gross yield (pre-expense) | Key demand driver
• Whitefish | $996,000 | $563 | 52% | $40,600–$66,005 | ~3.7–4.1% | Glacier National Park and Whitefish Mountain skiing
• Big Sky | $1.57M (condo) to $4.95M (single-family) | $995 | 53% | $73,800 | ~4.7% condo / ~1.5% single-family | Big Sky Resort ski season
• Bozeman | $795,000–$925,000 | $278 | 61% | $35,100–$43,614 | ~3.7–4.5% | Yellowstone routing, university, year-round travel
• Missoula | $550,000 | $220 | 58% | $23,700–$40,849 | ~4.3–5.3% | University of Montana, summer recreation
• Billings | $396,398 | $144 | 64% | $18,800–$28,668 | ~4.7–7.2% | Business and medical travel

The low end of each revenue range comes from AirDNA's multi-platform average, which includes underperforming listings; the high end reflects Airbnb-only datasets from Rabbu or StaySTRA that skew toward stronger performers. Demand for Montana short-term rentals is also geographically lopsided: BBER researchers report that the Bozeman and Kalispell regions account for over two-thirds of the state's reserved STR nights.

Best for national park proximity: Whitefish and the Glacier corridor

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Whitefish is the highest-rate market in the Flathead Valley, the corridor feeding Glacier's west entrance, and the county around it produced $207 million in STR revenue in 2025, the most of any Montana county. STRs make up 6.08% of Flathead County's housing stock against a 2.4% state average. Park visitors book Whitefish properties in summer, while skiers book them in winter on Whitefish Mountain, whose resort-residential district expressly permits STRs. The Whitefish Pilot's economic update put July 2025 STR occupancy at 80% with a $672 ADR, while hotels ran 76.22% at $364.

Read the trend lines cautiously. Over the trailing twelve months through July 2026, AirDNA's Whitefish data reports occupancy down 1.9%, ADR down 0.6%, RevPAR down 7.4%, and revenue per listing down 14.9%, with active listings contracting 7.3%. All four headline metrics falling at once is a saturation signal, and a 73% drop in Canadian hotel bookings in early 2025 added a demand headwind. On the other side of the ledger, Whitefish's zoning caps competition hard: STRs are legal only in the WB-3 and Resort Residential districts, as well as the Resort Business district. Single-family residential zones prohibit them outright. The city counted 396 active permits at year-end 2024, roughly 7–8% of housing units.

Bigfork and Flathead Lake investors accept lower rates while taking on greater seasonal risk. AirROI reports a $376 ADR and 34.9% occupancy across 336 Bigfork listings. Average annual revenue is $21,113, with 36% of listings offering lake access and 21% sitting waterfront per Rabbu. Rabbu also flags 167% year-over-year supply growth there, and Natural Retreats reported in Q1 2026 that "the more outlying homes and lake properties saw the softest performance this past quarter, as they are more attractive to summer visitors."

If you have roughly $1 million to deploy, Whitefish offers the strongest Glacier-adjacent nightly rates among the markets reviewed. Before closing, verify that the property sits in a permitted zoning district and carries no covenant restrictions. The Montana Supreme Court's 2025 Brandt decision enforced subdivision covenants against an STR near Whitefish, so title and CC&R review belongs in every offer.

Best for ski season demand: Big Sky

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Big Sky produces the highest gross revenue per listing among the five markets reviewed at $73,800, on a $995 ADR that rose 13.9% year over year even as occupancy slipped 4.1%. AirDNA's Big Sky data covers the trailing twelve months through June 2026. February is the engine: Visit Big Sky reported 84.3% occupancy at a $1,029 ADR in February 2025, against 25.5% occupancy at $529 in May. Ski-in/ski-out access shows up in a third of listings, per Rabbu, and appreciation has been steep; Big Sky residential price per square foot has climbed more than 140% since winter 2018/2019, from about $370 to about $891.

Yield is the problem for single-family properties. Against a 2025 single-family median of $4,950,000, gross yield runs roughly 1.5%. Applying the same marketwide $73,800 revenue figure to the $1,570,000 condo median produces an illustrative gross yield of about 4.7%, though the data providers do not publish condo-specific revenue. Key Data's Q3 2025 commentary states that "short-term rental supply growth continues to outpace demand growth," and the Big Sky Resort Area District (BSRAD) counted 1,365 registered STRs as of April 30, 2025, up 7% over 2024. Because Big Sky has no incorporated city government, it has no city permit regime, but it sits inside a resort-tax district: every operator must register annually with BSRAD through the free MUNIRevs portal, even when Airbnb or Vrbo remits the tax. The district's levy stacks on top of state lodging taxes (rates below).

Choose Big Sky if you have substantial capital and prioritize gross revenue and appreciation over cash-on-cash return. You also need to carry the mortgage through a shoulder season when occupancy drops below 30%. If you target club communities like Moonlight Basin or Spanish Peaks, read the governing documents closely; the same covenant case law that binds Whitefish subdivisions applies here.

Best for year-round balanced demand: Bozeman

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Bozeman posts 61% occupancy, second only to Billings among the five markets reviewed, and the lowest peak-to-trough revenue swing among the six markets in the seasonal table below. The BBER report puts the Bozeman region first in Montana with $222.66 million in STR lodging expenditure, fed by Yellowstone-bound travelers and university-driven, year-round travel. StaySTRA shows February occupancy at 63% and even the November trough at 38.7%, a floor gateway towns can't match.

Regulation is the constraint, and it is severe for pure investors. Bozeman stopped issuing new Type 3 (non-owner-occupied) STR permits on December 14, 2023. Types 1 and 2A require an annual primary-residence certification confirming you live at the property 70% or more of the calendar year. Type 2B requires the same certification and extends only to a permitted ADU or one unit of a duplex on the same lot. Existing Type 3 permits renew but cannot transfer to a new owner, so you cannot buy your way into one. The city counted 422 permitted STRs in November 2024, including 68 Type 1 and 178 Type 2 permits. The remaining 176 were Type 3 permits. A new development code effective February 1, 2026 further restricts Type 1 in the RA district. A group of property owners sued Gallatin County (not the city) in February 2025 over its separate county-level restrictions, with no final ruling in the available sources.

Hosts appear to be cutting rates to preserve occupancy: revenue per listing rose 1.9% year over year while ADR fell 6.0% and RevPAR fell 8.4%. If you occupy the property or house-hack by living in the main house and renting an ADU or duplex unit, Bozeman may fit. If you invest remotely, look at surrounding submarkets or other cities entirely.

Best for value entry: Missoula and Billings

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These two cities offer the two lowest entry prices and two highest gross yields among the five markets reviewed, with demand bases that owe less to national parks and more to universities and regional business or healthcare travel.

Missoula

Missoula's $550,000 median (full-year 2025, down 2% from 2024) pairs with a 5.3% gross yield by Rabbu's math, the second-best among the five markets reviewed. A single University of Montana home football weekend generates $5.2 million in nonresident visitor spending, including roughly $1.6 million in lodging, per BBER's athletics impact study. AirDNA's Missoula data reports revenue per listing up 8.4% year over year while active listings contracted 10.5%, a favorable supply-demand crossing.

The city regulates but does not choke the market. Registration under Ordinance 3732 costs $636 for a new STR and $235 to renew, and by February 2025 the city had replaced onsite building inspections with a self-inspection checklist, and 335 operators had registered their STRs. Renting a room in your own occupied home requires no registration at all, and in February 2024 the City Council voted 10-2 against banning residential tourist homes. Full-unit tourist homes do face neighbor notification and zoning review.

Billings

Billings is the outlier among the five markets reviewed: the lowest entry price ($396,398 in early 2025), the highest AirDNA occupancy at 64%, the lowest ADR at $144, and the strongest momentum, with revenue per listing up 29.2% and occupancy up 14.3% year over year. Business and medical travelers produce reservation days that peak at 2.5x the low season, far flatter than the 3x–10x swings in gateway markets. StaySTRA pegs gross yield around 7.2%.

City requirements total $355 in first-year fees: a $300 STR permit plus a $55 business license. The city requires operators to renew both annually. There is no blanket primary-residence rule; the code distinguishes owner-occupied "guest homes" from unoccupied "tourist homes" and permits both in the N1, N2, N3, and RMH districts. If you are eyeing multi-unit properties, Billings officials specifically allow owners of multiple-unit buildings under single ownership in mixed-use and commercial districts to operate up to 20% of the units as STRs, though a standard property maxes out at two permits and an ADU-plus-house lot gets only one. Two cautions: Rabbu recorded 81% year-over-year listing growth in early 2025, and the city identified more than 300 properties operating in violation that year, sending 60-day compliance letters. Register before you list.

Other Montana STR markets worth considering

West Yellowstone is the purest Yellowstone gateway play: AirROI reports peak months averaging $9,656 in monthly revenue at 61.3% occupancy, with revenue falling to $2,347 in winter. It carries its own 4% resort tax with stricter mechanics than Big Sky's, covered below. Gardiner, at the park's north entrance, peaks at $8,898 per month at 73.6% occupancy. In the Flathead, Columbia Falls has a $339 ADR and 43.5% occupancy, with $28,535 in revenue. Kalispell has a $306 ADR and 42.3% occupancy, with $27,832 in revenue. Both trade Whitefish's rate premium for higher fill. Great Falls and Helena lack a national park or destination ski anchor, and the data platforms reviewed for this article don't publish comparable performance depth for either city; underwrite them on local comps rather than gateway assumptions.

Niche property types are a small but growing slice: BBER counted 1,787 unique-stay listings (glamping, domes, treehouses, yurts, tipis) statewide in 2025, 8.5% of all listings and 7.7% of reservations. Highland Ranch near Whitefish ran its ten Jupe dome units at 80% occupancy and a $232 ADR in its first season, and the Dreamcatcher Tipi Hotel near Gardiner sold out much of August 2025 at roughly $500 a night. National benchmarks from Sage Outdoor Advisory put domes at $257 and treehouses at $217 per night, with glamping ADR industry-wide up 21% since 2023 to $251.

Key STR performance metrics

AirDNA calculates occupancy by dividing booked nights by available nights, and the definition varies enough to distort your underwriting. AirDNA's calendar-based method shows Big Sky at 53%, while Key Data's adjusted paid occupancy for professionally managed Big Sky properties shows 32% over a similar period. Neither is wrong; they count different things. Never blend figures from different platforms into one pro forma.

ADR is revenue per booked night, and Montana's spread runs nearly seven to one between Billings and Big Sky. ADR alone misleads, which is why RevPAR (ADR x occupancy) is the cleanest single cross-market comparison: AirDNA puts Big Sky at $506, Whitefish at $280, Bozeman at $158, Missoula at $120, and Billings at $88.

Gross yield is annual gross revenue divided by purchase price, and every yield in this article is pre-expense. It excludes operating expenses and ownership costs, and it ignores tax effects like depreciation that can meaningfully shift the after-tax picture, so net yield lands materially lower. As the comparison table shows, mid-4% gross is the center of gravity for Montana's top markets; Billings clears it and Big Sky single-family properties fall far below it. Run your debt-service math on net figures, using the expense percentages in the management section below.

Seasonal demand and pricing trends in Montana

Montana's summer concentration is extreme: ITRR data shows Q3 (July–September) captured 46% of the state's 13.8 million nonresident visitors and 48% of expenditures in 2024, while Q1 drew 11% of visitors and 8% of spending. In gateway markets, the swing is wider still. West Glacier averages $10,980 in monthly revenue at 77.5% occupancy in July–September, then $2,055 at 21.3% occupancy in the depth of winter.

Peak-to-trough monthly revenue premiums by market, per AirROI, show how market type maps to volatility:

• Market | Market type | Peak vs. low monthly revenue premium
• West Glacier | Glacier gateway | +434%
• Gardiner | Yellowstone gateway | +320%
• West Yellowstone | Yellowstone gateway | +311%
• Whitefish | Glacier/ski dual season | +182%
• Missoula | College town | +154%
• Bozeman | College/ski mixed | +93%

Occupancy drives most of these premiums: ADR gaps between peak and low season run +10% to +43%, while occupancy gaps run +57% to +264%. Big Sky inverts the pattern with a winter peak, and its February-to-May collapse (detailed in the Big Sky section) is the steepest shoulder drop among the markets reviewed. Business and medical travelers book Billings properties more consistently throughout the year, giving the city the flattest demand curve reviewed.

Model your cash flow against the trough, not the average. A West Yellowstone property earning $9,656 in August must carry its mortgage through $2,347 winters. Shoulder seasons are improving in some corridors: Flathead Valley STR occupancy rose 34% year over year in spring 2026, and Glacier Park International Airport moved 86,954 passengers in July 2025 against 26,391 the prior November, a useful proxy for the demand you can count on outside summer.

Montana STR laws, licensing, and lodging taxes

MCA 50-51-102 classifies a private home or condominium as a "tourist home" when an owner or manager does not occupy it and rents the entire property to transient guests on a daily or weekly basis. A tourist home needs an annual Public Accommodation License from the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS). Operators submit applications through their county environmental health department; DPHHS will not accept them directly. Before DPHHS issues the license, you must submit plans to the local health authority and pass a prelicensing inspection. Local officials conduct annual inspections thereafter. Licenses expire December 31, and a late renewal triggers a $25 statutory penalty. Violations carry civil penalties up to $500.

State license fees, effective May 13, 2025 under HB 853, scale by unit count:

• Category | Units | Annual state fee
• Small (A) | 1–10 rooms/units | $100
• Medium (AM) | 11–25 rooms/units | $175
• Large (AL) | 26+ rooms/units | $250

Counties add their own plan-review and inspection fees: $294 in Gallatin County and $285 base in Missoula County. Flathead County's published figures ($280 base plus $100 per well or septic review) come from a 2022 form and are not confirmed current.

On taxes, Montana levies two lodging taxes totaling 8%: a 4% Lodging Facility Use Tax and a 4% Lodging Facility Sales Tax. Timely filers may claim a 5% vendor allowance against the 4% Lodging Facility Sales Tax only; the Lodging Facility Use Tax is not eligible for this allowance. Montana law exempts documented stays of 30 consecutive days or more, and operators cannot combine nonconsecutive agreements to reach 30 days. If you pivot to monthly stays, review Montana landlord-tenant laws.

Under MCA 15-68-110, Airbnb and Vrbo must collect and remit lodging taxes on the bookings they facilitate, and both do. You must obtain a seller's permit before operating. You retain these filing duties:

• Collect and remit taxes on direct bookings.
• File quarterly returns by April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31, including zero-revenue quarters unless you hold a seasonal permit.

Our guides to Montana rental property tax laws and regulations and Airbnb and short-term rental laws cover the filing mechanics in more detail, and if you materially participate in operations, the short term rental loophole is worth reviewing before tax season.

Resort-tax districts stack on top of the state's 8%. Big Sky's BSRAD levies 4% (a 3% base plus a 1% infrastructure tax added July 1, 2020, the statutory maximum), for a combined 12% burden on lodging. Filers remit monthly if they collect $5,000+ in resort tax annually and quarterly otherwise. Timely filers keep a 5% allowance. West Yellowstone also charges 4% but on tougher terms: monthly filing due by the 20th, a $500 refundable bond with the town business license, and only a 2.5% collector's allowance. Whitefish operators remit a 3% city resort tax monthly. A 2025 bill (SB 172) lets Big Sky's infrastructure tax fund workforce housing but adds no new percentage point.

City-by-city STR regulations: Bozeman, Missoula, Whitefish, and Billings

Montana has no statewide preemption of local STR rules; SB 336, which would have protected the right to rent a primary residence, passed the Senate 36-14 in March 2025 but died in a House committee that May. Each city's regime stands on its own:

• City | Permit and fees | Primary-residence rule | Occupancy and use limits
• Bozeman | Type 1/2A/2B permits; Bozeman stopped issuing new Type 3 (non-owner-occupied) permits on Dec. 14, 2023 | Types 1, 2A, 2B require annual certification of primary residence (70%+ of the year) | Type 1: two persons per bedroom, max two bedrooms rented; Types 2–3: two per bedroom plus two, reduced by available parking
• Missoula | Registration $636 new / $235 renewal, plus health-department license and business license if grossing $6,000+ | None citywide; room-only rentals in occupied homes are exempt from registration | Registration number required in every listing; tourist homes need neighbor notification and zoning review
• Whitefish | Combined STR and business license, $400, plus annual Fire Marshal inspection | None, but non-resident owners must designate a local contact | Whitefish permits STRs only in WB-3, Resort Residential, and Resort Business districts; fines of $300 first violation, $500 thereafter, per day
• Billings | STR permit $300 plus $55 business license; Billings operators renew both annually | None; owner-occupied guest homes and unoccupied tourist homes both allowed | Two guests per bedroom; max two permits per property

City code is only the first layer. Two Montana Supreme Court decisions now bind STR buyers regardless of what a city permits: Myers v. Kleinhans (2024) held that operating an Airbnb is a commercial business violating covenants that prohibit commercial activity, and Brandt v. R&R Mountain Escapes (2025) held that subdivision covenants "unambiguously prohibit the commercial business of renting out a home on a short-term basis." A county conditional-use permit does not override a covenant. Pull the CC&Rs and HOA documents on any platted-subdivision property before you write an offer, and pair that review with the statewide rules on what landlords cannot do in Montana.

Best property types for Montana short-term rentals

Property type sets your rate ceiling as much as market choice does. Four categories dominate Montana's premium tiers:

• Ski-in/ski-out condos and homes: In Big Sky's 2025 closed sales, Moonlight Basin homes averaged $2,144 per square foot against $816 in non-ski-access Meadow Village, a roughly 163% premium, and advertised ski-in/ski-out units rent for $250–$850 a night depending on size and slope position. A third of Big Sky listings market ski access.
• Glacier-corridor cabins: West Glacier cabins command a $470 ADR at 77.5% occupancy through the July–September peak. The trade is a winter that produces a fraction of summer revenue, so cabins price best for buyers who can absorb the swing.
• Flathead lakehouses: Bigfork's luxury tier averages $449 a night, and StaySTRA data shows professionally managed lake listings earning a 23.3% ADR premium over self-managed ones. Waterfront supply is growing fast, which pressures rates.
• Ranch and agritourism stays: Outfitted visitors spend $542 a day in Montana, nearly 5.5x non-outfitted travelers, and the top of the category runs high: the Resort at Paws Up charges a $468 per-adult nightly supplement with four-night summer minimums, while Bar N Ranch near West Yellowstone starts at $296. Only 18% of Montana agritourism operators currently offer guest-house rentals, which leaves room in the category.

Insurance and risk considerations for Montana STR owners

A Georgia host learned the gap the hard way: his rental burned with a calculated loss of $1,286,697, and Airbnb denied the claim because investigators could not establish guest responsibility. The denial letter took four months to arrive. The structural problem starts with the policy most owners already have. The standard ISO HO-3 form defines "business" to include any activity generating $2,000 or more in compensation over twelve months, a threshold nearly every STR exceeds, and it excludes liability "arising out of or in connection with a business conducted from an insured location." The Insurance Information Institute puts it plainly: standard homeowners insurance generally excludes commercial activities including short-term rentals. Operating without commercial coverage can mean denied claims or reduced liability coverage. It can also lead to policy cancellation.

Platform protection doesn't substitute for insurance. AirCover, the host program Airbnb provides, has these limits and requirements:

• It offers $3 million in Host Damage Protection and $1 million in Host Liability Insurance per stay.
• Airbnb's own Host Damage terms state that Host Damage Protection "is not an insurance contract, not insurance, and does not replace personal insurance."
• AirCover excludes normal wear and tear. It also excludes non-guest perils such as hail or a fire while the property sits vacant between bookings.
• It requires you to pursue the guest within 14 days of checkout and file a payment request within 30 days.

Washington's insurance commissioner fined Airbnb $20,000 in 2023 for acting as an unauthorized insurer; Airbnb paid only 3,565 of nearly 13,000 reimbursement requests filed in that state.

What you need is a policy that names short-term rental use as the occupancy type and protects an investment property that most standard homeowners policies would leave exposed, covering guest liability and insuring the furnished contents that make the listing bookable. Steadily writes short-term rental insurance in Montana and names STR use as the property category across all 50 states. Get a quote in minutes at quote.steadily.com. You won't need a phone call.

Property management and booking platform options

Property management fees and platform commissions decide whether a 4% gross yield nets anything at all. Full-service property management companies in Montana publish real numbers:

• Vacay Whitefish charges 25% for properties grossing under $100,000 annually.
• One Fine BnB in Bozeman runs full service from 20%, with a $500 onboarding retainer.
• LocalVR pegs most Big Sky managers at 20–30% of gross.
• Big Sky Resort's own management division takes a 50/50 revenue split.

National benchmarks from HostGenius put full-service commissions at 20–35%, clustering in the mid-20s. Those fees generally cover listing creation and dynamic pricing, along with guest communication and cleaning coordination. They also cover owner reporting.

Self-listing costs less but the platforms raised their take in 2025. Airbnb standardized most hosts onto a single host-only fee of 15.5% by December 1, 2025, retiring the old 3% host / 14–16% guest split. VRBO charges a 5% booking commission plus a 3% payment-processing fee (PMS-connected hosts skip the 3%), and it closed its flat-subscription model to new hosts on August 28, 2025. A hybrid tier exists too: One Fine BnB offers off-site partner management at 10% for owners who handle the physical operation themselves.

Stack the costs before you buy. On Whitefish's average revenue from the comparison table, a 25% management fee plus Airbnb's 15.5% platform fee consumes roughly 40% of gross before fixed costs or repairs.

Which Montana market should you choose?

Match the market to your capital and your tolerance for empty winters. Then account for permit paperwork:

• Under $450,000 and cash-flow first: Billings. Flattest demand curve, cheapest permits, strongest recent growth, and a hard ceiling on nightly rates you should price in from day one.
• $500,000–$800,000 with moderate seasonality: Missoula. University-anchored demand, a workable registration process the City Council has declined to tighten into a ban, and the second-best gross yield among the five markets reviewed.
• Owner-occupant or house-hacker: Bozeman, and essentially only if you'll live there. The 70% primary-residence rule and the Type 3 ban lock remote investors out of city limits.
• Around $1 million, chasing park-driven rates: Whitefish, with zoning-district and covenant diligence done before the offer, and eyes open about the market's declining per-listing revenue.
• $1.5 million-plus, revenue and appreciation over yield: Big Sky, underwritten against a sub-30% shoulder-season occupancy and a 12% combined lodging tax.

If Montana's seasonality or entry prices give you pause, compare the profile against the Top 5 short-term rental markets in Arizona, where the demand calendar runs nearly opposite.

FAQ

These answers summarize Montana licensing, taxes, expected yields, seasonality, and STR insurance requirements.

What licenses and permits does a Montana short-term rental require?

MCA 50-51-102 classifies a private home or condominium as a tourist home when an owner or manager does not occupy it and rents the entire property to transient guests on a daily or weekly basis. The property needs an annual Public Accommodation License from DPHHS. Operators apply through their county environmental health department and complete a prelicensing inspection. The state fee starts at $100 for 1–10 units. Cities layer their own requirements on top: Bozeman's type-based permits, Missoula's $636 registration, Whitefish's $400 combined license with a Fire Marshal inspection, and Billings' $300 permit plus $55 business license.

How do Montana lodging taxes and the 30-day exemption work?

Montana charges 8% in state lodging taxes (a 4% use tax plus a 4% sales tax), and resort-area districts add up to 4% more in Big Sky and West Yellowstone, or 3% in Whitefish. Montana law exempts documented stays of 30 consecutive days or more to the same guest, and operators cannot add separate shorter stays together to qualify. Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit on platform bookings, but you still need a seller's permit and must file quarterly returns covering any direct bookings.

What gross yield can a Montana STR realistically produce?

Pre-expense gross yields in the top five markets run from roughly 1.5% for Big Sky single-family properties to 4.7–7.2% in Billings, with Whitefish, Bozeman, and Missoula clustered between about 3.7% and 5.3%. Applying Big Sky's marketwide $73,800 revenue figure to its $1.57 million condo median produces an illustrative yield of about 4.7%, but the data providers do not publish condo-specific revenue. Subtract 20–35% for management and 15.5% for Airbnb's host fee. Then account for fixed costs and upkeep to reach a net figure.

How much does proximity to Glacier or Yellowstone lift revenue?

Gateway towns earn the biggest rate premiums and wildest swings among the markets reviewed: West Glacier's peak months out-earn its slowest by 434%, and West Yellowstone's by 311%. Whitefish rents at nearly four times Billings' nightly rate on the strength of Glacier traffic and ski season combined.

How big are Montana's seasonal pricing swings?

Third-quarter travel accounts for nearly half of Montana's annual visitor spending, and Big Sky flips the calendar with a winter peak: February 2025 ran 84.3% occupancy at a $1,029 ADR versus 25.5% at $529 that May. Underwrite mortgage coverage against your market's worst three months, not its annual average.

Does landlord insurance cover an Airbnb in Montana?

Standard homeowners policies generally exclude short-term rental activity as a business use. Airbnb's own terms say AirCover does not qualify as an insurance contract, and AirCover excludes vacancy-period perils. You need a policy that explicitly names STR occupancy; Steadily covers short-term rentals in all 50 states, including Montana.