Airbnb Tax Contribution Growing In Montana
By: Bret Anne Serbin | Published on May 1, 2023
Bryan Wells and his wife have operated short-term rentals in Pray, Montana, since 1997. Wells said the business has been a lifeline for the couple, who struggled to make ends meet in the rural area outside the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
“We never inherited a nickel,” said Wells, who believes he has about a seventh-grade education.
The Wellses lived for nine years without indoor plumbing, performing various odd jobs including building fences and maintaining a Montana Department of Transportation rest stop.
“We had to work hard,” he said. “Really, really hard.”
Eventually, the pair managed to save enough from their efforts to buy an 1800s schoolhouse in Pray, the same school his wife’s mother attended in the 1920s. They decided to renovate the schoolhouse and use it as a short-term rental, and that’s when everything changed.