Walworth County, WI Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

This occupancy cap sits in Article VII, "Offering a Residential Dwelling as a Short Term Rental" (§§ 26-334 to 26-346), adopted by Ord. No. 1099-04/18 and amended by Ord. No. 1156-01/19. Anyone renting a residential dwelling in unincorporated Walworth County for a fee for less than 29 consecutive days must first hold a Land Use and Resource Management (LURM) Department license under § 26-334; rentals of under seven days are barred outright except in the B-5 zoning district, though a single rental of ten days or less in a calendar year needs no license at all.

Section 26-335 states the purpose is protecting public health, safety and welfare by setting minimum occupancy and sanitation standards for short-term rentals. Section 26-336 exempts hotels, motels, tourist courts, lodging houses and bed and breakfasts defined elsewhere in the zoning chapter. Before occupancy can even be measured, § 26-338 requires adequate sanitary facilities, banning cesspools, composting or incinerating toilets, privies and portable restrooms, and requiring a compliant POWTS where there is no public sewer. The occupancy figure itself, under § 26-339, then follows whichever sanitation path applies: the state tourist rooming house license count on sewer, or the lower of that count and the POWTS design capacity on septic.

LURM reviews applications for completeness under § 26-337 and issues one-year licenses running July 1 to June 30. The property's posted rules, required by § 26-343(a), must state the maximum occupancy on site for guests and inspectors to see. Renting over the licensed headcount is treated as noncompliance with the article and can trigger the revocation steps in §§ 26-345 and 26-346.