Fitchburg, WI Short-Term Rentals: Night Caps (2026)

The bulk of Fitchburg's short-term rental division, §§ 10-284 through 10-288, requires an annual license, but § 10-284(j) carves out a narrow exception: no license shall be required for any short-term rental operated for a total of ten or less nights in a calendar year. That threshold is measured in total nights of actual rental activity within a single calendar year, not consecutive nights, so a host who rents a room across several separate weekends totaling under ten nights stays outside the licensing, application-fee, primary-residence-affidavit, and annual-inspection requirements that otherwise apply under § 10-284(a) through (i).

The exemption is referenced directly in the enforcement section: § 10-287(a) makes it unlawful to operate a short-term rental without a license unless exempted by section 10-284(j), and § 10-287(b) applies the same exemption to listing or advertising the rental. Once a host exceeds ten nights of short-term rental use in the calendar year, the full licensing chapter applies to that year's operation, including the requirement to hold a current Wisconsin tourist rooming house license and pass a city building inspection before continuing to rent.