Thinking about renting out your home to World Cup fans? Rules changing around KC
As the Kansas City area prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of fans for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, many local cities are discussing whether – and how – to make it easier to house them.
Portions of the 2026 World Cup will take place in Kansas City between June 11 and July 19, 2026. Jackson County leaders estimate that 650,000 people will travel to the Kansas City region during the hotly anticipated global soccer championship. However, legislators noted, as of June 2025 only about 65,000 hotel rooms exist within a hundred-mile radius of the city.
And in recent years, cities across the metro have been cracking down and creating new policies to regulate the amount of available lodging listed on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo.
The restrictions follow an international trend aimed at preserving housing for long-term residents, preventing neighborhood disturbances and collecting tax revenue from the booming short term rental market. They vary from strict licensing requirements to outright bans. City-imposed taxes and fees are common, as are limits on how many short-term rental properties can operate in one building, block or neighborhood, and on how far away the property owner can live from the unit.
But that all could change — even if just temporarily — as area officials consider whether to make more spaces available for tourists over the next year ahead of the World Cup.
The Star checked in with dozens of cities and towns in the Kansas City metro to learn which municipalities are considering relaxing their restrictions on short-term rentals for the World Cup, either temporarily or permanently, and which have made the most progress as of July.
Here’s what to know if you’re thinking about cashing in on the influx of visitors and renting out your house.
Cities opening more rentals
Ahead of the World Cup, expanded short-term rental policies are in the works in multiple cities, increasing the availability of housing options across the metro during the tournament and making it easier for homeowners to list their houses for visitors.
Parkville, Missouri was one of the first cities in the metro to roll back its rental regulations. The city will temporarily allow additional rentals to operate in the city between May 1 and July 31, 2026, which a city spokesperson attributed directly to the increased travel around the World Cup.
For these two months, the city will allow unlimited short-term rentals to operate per ward, with owners allowed to live off-site and offer more than one rental unit per residence.
Short-term rental owners in Parkville will still need a business license with the city and a dedicated parking space off-site, and will still be responsible for both a $300 fee and a 5% tourism tax monthly.
Most of the other area cities implementing changes are in Jackson County, east and south of Kansas City.
In Independence, the city council is currently working with a special FIFA advisory committee to implement a more relaxed set of rental regulations based on those recently passed in nearby Liberty. The planned new rules, which are currently under discussion, would allow more short-term rentals per block in residential areas, loosen licensing requirements and prevent homeowners’ associations from blocking new short-term rentals.
Further south in Belton, Missouri, the international soccer tournament is expected to end a longstanding ban on short-term rentals by October.
“We are currently working on a code amendment that would accommodate short-term rentals in the city,” Belton spokesperson Aaron Smullen said. “The intent is that these changes would become permanent.”
Forty miles northeast in Buckner, city council members recently passed an ordinance allowing short-term rental owners to live as far as a 45-minute drive from their properties, rather than the previously mandated 30 minutes and 30 concentric miles.
Cities discussing new policies
Kansas City, Missouri, has not passed any new policies expanding short-term rental permissions as of July.
However, City Manager Mario Vasquez told The Star in June that city officials have been talking about relaxing the restrictions for the World Cup. This could take the form of a targeted and specific moratorium on some of the rules regulating these properties.
Currently, short-term rental owners in the city must register their properties with a permit and pay a 7.5% tax, with a $3 nightly fee on stays. Without an owner on site, short-term rentals in commercial areas cannot be within 1,000 feet of each other. Those in multi-family units have tighter restrictions, and those in residential areas can’t be established at all.
Some of these restrictions were passed in 2023, with pre-existing short-term rentals grandfathered in.
Across the state line, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas said that any discussion of changes to short-term rental policy have been preliminary. However, short-term rentals could be one of several city policies up for discussion ahead of the World Cup, according to assistant county administrator Alan Howze.
For now, short-term rental properties in KCK are up for administrative review annually and must pay occupancy taxes and provide off-street parking. Different sized multi-unit buildings have different limits on how many units inside can be short-term rentals, but no more than one parcel can include a short-term rental on each block.
The Unified Government has begun discussing an increase to its Transient Guest Tax during the World Cup, which would impact short-term rental owners. The UG also plans to discuss regulations for new business licenses and food trucks, Howze said.
Other nearby municipalities have also opened discussions among city leadership on temporary solutions for increased tourism.
“We do recognize the need for additional housing options for the World Cup and are certainly open to reviewing options,” said Jennifer Jones-Lacy, assistant city administrator of Roeland Park, Kansas.
In Harrisonville, Missouri, short-term rentals are currently limited by the way that each parcel of land is zoned, and are banned in mobile home and apartment districts. While no formal changes to the city’s short-term rental policy have been discussed, Harrisonville aldermen are considering letting visitors camp in tents in City Park in June 2026, a city spokesperson told The Star.
Cities not planning new policies
For some area cities, the arrival of World Cup spectators isn’t reason enough to rehash the short-term rental debate.
Most of these municipalities require short-term rental owners to apply for business licenses and remain accountable to their cities through special taxes or regular inspections, with strict limits on the density of short-term rentals in neighborhoods.
In Lee’s Summit, for instance, short-term rentals are only allowed in single-family homes or duplexes, and are capped at two rooms and four guests. Additionally, they must operate out of parcels of land that are either less than an acre in size or located in a specially zoned neighborhood known as the “Old Town Development Plan Area.” Owners need a business license and must either live on the property or next door.
Unless officials later decide otherwise, similar limits will continue to exist in Excelsior Springs, North Kansas City and Smithville in Missouri; as well as in Fairway, Gardner, Leavenworth, Merriam, Mission, Shawnee and Westwood in Kansas.
Cities with short-term rental bans
Some smaller municipalities around the metro have banned short-term rentals outright, requiring that all rental contracts in city limits are longer than a fixed amount of time, most commonly 30 days.
Most of these no-rental areas have no plans to suspend their bans for the World Cup, according to local officials.
“It’s such a small town, and our residents like their peace and quiet,” said a spokesperson for Northmoor, Missouri, a small Platte County city about 10 miles north of downtown.
Other Missouri cities including Gladstone, Weston, Weatherby Lake and Lake Waukomis plan to maintain their short-term rental bans, as do Leawood, Mission Woods and Westwood Hills in Kansas.
In Prairie Village, a short-term rental ban is slated to go into effect on November 1, mandating a minimum 30-day stay in all rental properties citywide. There are currently no plans to revisit or revise the upcoming ban ahead of the World Cup, according to Ashley Freburg, a city spokesperson.
Chris Higgins, Madeline King, Taylor O’Connor and Sofi Zeman contributed reporting.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 1:41 PM.
