Short-term rental permit rules in Clark County, WA — also called Airbnb permits, vacation rental licenses, or STR registration — list the application steps, fees, and operating requirements for hosting.
Unincorporated Clark County does not license whole-home short-term (vacation) rentals; no county STR permit exists. Any rented space must have a valid building permit on file. Owner-occupied bed-and-breakfast use is the only overnight-lodging use with a county land-use permit (CCC 40.260.050).
The county's Community Development staff advise that Clark County does not currently regulate short-term rental of property, but it does require that any structure rented for those purposes has a building permit on file for the habitable space being rented. Whole-home vacation rentals (Airbnb/VRBO) therefore need no separate county STR license in unincorporated areas. The exception is a bed-and-breakfast establishment, an owner-occupied use permitted under CCC 40.260.050 through a Type I or Type II-A land-use review. Cities inside the county (Vancouver, Camas, Battle Ground, Washougal) set their own STR rules, so a property inside city limits follows that city's code, not the county's.
Renting habitable space with no building permit on file, or operating an unpermitted bed-and-breakfast, is a code violation subject to Clark County code-enforcement action, correction orders, and civil penalties.
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