Bellevue, WA Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

BCC 10.06.090 makes it unlawful for any person to practice or represent themselves as a massage practitioner in Bellevue without first applying for and receiving a license from the State Department of Licensing under RCW 18.108.030. There is no separate Bellevue massage-establishment license: the city's own parlor licensing chapter, BCC 5.28 (Massage Parlors and Public Bathhouses), was repealed by Ord. 4890, so the state practitioner license carries the regulatory weight for both individual practitioners and the businesses that employ them. Failure to hold the required state license is charged directly as a misdemeanor under the city code, giving Bellevue police and municipal court jurisdiction over an unlicensed-practice case rather than leaving it purely to the state licensing board.

The ordinance also builds in an enforcement tool aimed squarely at the business premises: to the extent RCW 18.108.190 authorizes it, Bellevue law enforcement personnel may inspect the premises of any business where massages are given, which lets officers check for licensed practitioners on-site without a separate administrative warrant process. The section pulls its definitions of "massage" and "massage practitioner" directly from RCW 18.108.010, so the same scope questions that apply under state law (what counts as massage versus other bodywork, who is exempted) control locally as well. The ordinance traces to Ord. 5622 § 2 (2005), when Bellevue consolidated a range of licensing and nuisance offenses into BCC Title 10.