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

28(9) as lodging places, tourist cabins, and cottages, other than hotels and motels, in which sleeping accommodations are offered for pay to tourists and transients; it excludes private boarding houses not serving tourists and bed and breakfast establishments, which are regulated separately under ACTP 73. The use is permitted by right in all zoning districts, but only as an accessory land use within a residential land use, meaning it must ride along with an existing home rather than stand as its own commercial use. b sets the occupancy ceiling: the maximum number of occupants shall not exceed the total number licensed by the State of Wisconsin, or two occupants per bedroom plus two additional occupants, whichever produces the lower number.

The section also draws a category line based on rental duration: facilities where the residential space is available for less than four days, more than 180 days, or throughout the year fall into a different land use, indoor commercial lodging or vacation rental home, rather than the tourist rooming house category this occupancy cap governs. Parking requirements track the same occupant math, requiring two off-street spaces plus one more for each bedroom beyond two, so a larger, higher-occupancy rental needs more on-site parking to match.