Boone County, MO Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)
Key Facts
- Max guest bedrooms
- Five bedrooms
- Residency requirement
- Operator's primary residence
- Approval needed
- Conditional use permit
- Districts allowed
- A-1, R-S, R-M only
Summary
Boone County's zoning ordinance defines a bed and breakfast as lodging inside the owner's own home, capped at five guest bedrooms, and treats it as a Conditional Use requiring Board of Adjustment approval.
Bed and Breakfast: A dwelling unit that has been converted or built for and is intended to provide overnight lodging to the public for compensation, and which is open to overnight guests in not more than five guest bedrooms, and is not a rooming or boarding house and is the primary residence of the owner or operator.
Bedroom: A room intended or used for sleeping purposes that meets all applicable code requirements for habitable space.
Best Management Practice (BMP): Activities, practices and procedures which control soil loss and reduce or prevent water quality degradation caused by nutrients, animal wastes, toxins, organics and sediment in the runoff. BMPs may either be structural (grass swales, terraces, retention and detention ponds, and others); or non-structural (disconnection of impervious surfaces, directing downspouts onto grass surfaces, ordinances and educational activities).
Billboard: Any sign that is greater than 120 square feet in area.
Blade Glint: The intermittent reflection of the sun off the glossy surface of wind turbine blades.
Board: Means Board of Adjustment established in Section 15.
Boarding House or Rooming House: A building other than a hotel, occupied as a single housekeeping unit, where lodging or meals are provided for five or more persons for compensation, pursuant to previous arrangements, but not for the public or transients.
Boone County Stormwater Design Manual: The engineering and/or project review
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: the cited page had not changed since it was quoted.
Full Breakdown
The zoning ordinance's Section 2 definitions require a bed and breakfast to be 'the primary residence of the owner or operator,' with no more than five guest bedrooms, which is what separates it from a rooming or boarding house. In unincorporated Boone County the use is listed only as a Conditional Use, in the A-1 Agriculture, R-S Single-Family and R-M Moderate Density Districts, so operating one needs a public hearing and Board of Adjustment approval, not just a building permit.
Violations & Fines
Running a bed and breakfast without Board of Adjustment approval, or without living there as your primary residence, violates the ordinance; Section 18 makes any zoning violation a misdemeanor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I rent my Boone County home on Airbnb without living there?
Do I need county approval to run a bed and breakfast?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Boone County
Compare Boone County to another location·View the Missouri short-term rentals overview
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