Kootenai County, ID Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Kootenai County Code 3-2-2 makes it unlawful to conduct, operate or maintain a massage establishment or bathhouse anywhere in unincorporated Kootenai County without a current license posted in a conspicuous location on the premises, alongside the license of every employee working there. One license covers the entire premises and everyone who gives massages or baths on it. Applications go to the county clerk under 3-2-2(B) and must include two 2x2 photographs taken within six months, two complete sets of fingerprints, five years of prior residences and employers, and disclosure of any prior criminal conviction; corporate applicants must list every shareholder, officer and director.

Massage or bathhouse employees file a nearly identical application under 3-2-3, plus a physician's certificate, renewed annually, showing they are free of infectious or communicable disease. License fees are set by resolution of the board of county commissioners under 3-2-4; anyone licensed after July 1 in a given year pays only half the annual fee, and an employee's fee is waived if that person already paid the establishment fee. Under 3-2-5, licenses run only until January 1 of the following year, cannot be transferred between owners or locations, require ten days' advance written notice to the sheriff before relocating, and a temporary license can run up to thirty days.

Section 3-2-6 exempts family members giving a home massage, physicians, state-licensed institutions, accredited school athletic programs, licensed barbers or estheticians working within their own license, and any athletic club with a paid membership over two hundred people. The sheriff can deny, suspend or revoke a license under 3-2-7 for fraud in the application or a felony, sex-offense, drug or alcohol-sale conviction within the past five years.