Portage County, WI Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Sec. 4.3.5 makes it unlawful to run any hotel, motel, tourist rooming house or bed and breakfast in Portage County without a permit from the Health and Human Services Department, and bars transferring that permit either to a new address or to a new operator at the same address. Most lodging permits run on the county's fiscal cycle and expire every June 30, with a permit first issued between April 1 and June 30 extended to the following June 30; bed and breakfast establishments, alone among the four lodging types, get a biennial permit that only needs renewing every two years.

Sec. 4.3.6 requires a written application naming the applicant and the property's address, and Sec. 4.3.7 lets the Health and Human Services Board set the permit fee, plus a separate pre-licensing inspection fee whenever a new operator takes over an existing establishment. Sec. 4.3.8 requires the permit itself to be displayed at all times where the public can see it. The Department can temporarily or summarily suspend a permit for any Sec. 4.3 violation, or revoke it after repeated violations, but only after the operator gets ten days' written notice and a hearing before the county Appeals Board under Sec.

4.3.9. Wisconsin Administrative Code chapters HSS 195 and HSS 197 are adopted by reference into the same section, and the county's own rule controls wherever it is stricter than the state rule.