Hotel CO Detector Laws: Operator, Host and Guest Requirements by State
A guest checks into a third-floor room with a gas water heater in the closet at the end of the corridor and no alarm anywhere on the wall. Whether that room is legally required to have one almost never turns on a law with the word hotel in its title. It turns on which code the state adopted, which edition, whether the adoption reached the building already standing or only the one being built, and whether a guest room counts as a sleeping unit or a dwelling unit in the section that applies. Hotel carbon monoxide detector laws are a code question wearing a statute's clothes, and reading the statute alone produces the wrong answer more often than not.
This page is the lodging half of our state law records: which instrument reaches a hotel or a short-term rental in each jurisdiction, where the duty is written down, and what follows when nobody meets it. It is not the safety guide, which lives on our hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide page with the documented incidents and the traveller checklist, and it is not the rental hub, whose landlord-and-tenant machinery does not exist for someone sleeping in a room they booked for two nights. Below, the national picture from our own records, then a card for every state where we have written the lodging rule out in full.
In 60 Seconds
- A hotel is usually reached by an adopted building or fire code rather than by a carbon monoxide statute, and which of the two a state adopted decides whether the rule touches the hotel already standing.
- Section 915 of the building code answers new work and permitted renovation. Section 1103.9 of the fire code answers the building that is already open. A state that adopted only the first has a rule most of its hotels never meet.
- A guest room is a sleeping unit, not a dwelling unit, and the two take different placement rules in the same section of the same code.
- The operator carries the duty. A short-term rental host is often reached by a different instrument entirely, and in a handful of states by one that the hotel down the road does not answer to.
- A guest has no lease, no written-notice clock and no repair-and-deduct. Every remedy that makes the rental hub work is absent, and the routes that remain run through the fire marshal, the local code office and the licensing authority.
- A local rule usually adds to the state one and is not obliged to. One South Dakota town deleted the carbon monoxide section from the code it adopted, lawfully, so read the state answer as where the question starts rather than as a floor.
Which Instrument Actually Reaches a Guest Room
Start with the instrument, because the instrument decides everything downstream. Very few states have written a carbon monoxide statute that names hotels. What almost every state has done instead is adopt a model code, and the carbon monoxide duty arrives inside it. That makes three questions load-bearing before any placement rule matters: which code was adopted, which edition, and which parts of it the adopting authority left out.
The building-code route is Section 915 of the International Building Code. It catches a sleeping unit on four separate triggers rather than one: a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace inside the unit, service by a fuel-burning forced-air furnace, fuel-burning equipment anywhere in the building, or an attached private garage. Read that list carefully, because the third trigger is the one operators miss in practice. A guest room with nothing but a bed and a bathroom is still caught if the boiler two floors down is gas-fired and there is a communicating opening.
The fire-code route is Section 1103.9 of the International Fire Code, which sits in the chapter about buildings that already exist. It applies the same triggers and the same placement rules to a Group R-1 building with no permit and no construction work in front of it, and it usually permits a battery-only alarm where the code in force at construction required nothing.
The third route is NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code, which reaches lodging through its own occupancy chapters rather than through a numbered carbon monoxide section, and the states that use it read differently from the states that adopted an I-code. Where a state has adopted more than one of these, they do not cover the same buildings, and the answer for a given property is whichever one reaches it.
Two things then narrow or widen the result. Some adoptions carry a size threshold, so an inn below a stated number of bedrooms falls outside the code that would otherwise catch it, and the state's other adoption may or may not close the gap. And some adopting authorities strike sections on the way in, which is not a technicality: a state that deleted the carbon monoxide section from the code it adopted has no code duty at all, whatever the code says on the publisher's website.
Some states answer with a test instead of an answer, and that is a resolved position rather than an open question. A summary that gives you a yes or a no for every state is compressing something the instrument did not compress. Where a page here says the coverage is conditional, somebody read the instrument and wrote down the test they found inside it; where nobody has established the answer, the page says that instead, and the two are kept apart in the data rather than blurred.
Four kinds of test do the work, and an operator can run every one of them against a single property without leaving the desk. Where the building stands decides it in Texas, where the requirement arrives through a code the state makes municipal, and in Colorado, where the state instrument fills the gap only in places with no building standards of their own. When it was finished decides it in Idaho, where a hotel built since the fire code took effect is covered outright and an older one waits on the fire code official's judgment. What is inside the guest room decides it in Georgia, whose fire code sends the question to the occupancy chapters of NFPA 101. And what the building is decides it in Mississippi, where the state code reaches a hotel over seventy-five feet tall or one holding public assembly space and stops short of a low-rise motel.
Run them in that order and stop at the first one that answers. Location and building type come first, because either can put the property outside the instrument altogether and nothing further needs reading. The construction date comes next, because it decides whether you are reading the new-work rule or the existing-building one. Equipment comes last, and it is the only one of the four you can change.
Across the 47 state lodging pages on this site, 35 cite Section 915 of an adopted building code, 24 cite Section 1103.9 of an adopted fire code, 9 route through NFPA 101, and 25 decide the answer by naming an occupancy class outright. The totals overlap because most jurisdictions are reached by more than one of them at once, and that overlap is the point: the codes do not cover the same buildings.
7 of the 51 jurisdictions answer lodging with a condition rather than a yes or a no, and each one carries the test in writing. In 2 of them the hotel half and the short-term rental half do not agree, so an operator and a host in the same state are answering different questions.
Operator, Host, Guest: Who Carries the Duty
The duty falls on the operator, and it falls there in a way that is easier to point at than the equivalent duty in a rental.
That is worth stating precisely, because it runs against the assumption that lodging is the loosely regulated corner. In a rental, a substantial minority of landlord duties arrive through a habitability clause that never mentions carbon monoxide, so a tenant who wants to cite something is citing a general obligation to keep the premises fit. On the lodging side of the same records that pattern does not appear at all: every established operator duty we hold cites a provision that names the device. An operator who wants to know what they are on the hook for has a section number to read. So does a guest who wants to complain about its absence.
The short-term rental host is the harder case, and the reason this page treats hosts and hoteliers together rather than apart. A host is frequently reached by an instrument neither a hotel nor a long-term landlord answers to: a real estate commission rule, a transient-lodging licence condition, a residential code applied to a dwelling that happens to be let by the night. Those instruments often trigger on different facts than the hotel one, most commonly on the presence of a fuel-fired appliance or an attached garage rather than on an occupancy class, which means a host can carry a duty in a state where the hotel across the street does not, and the reverse.
The guest carries nothing. There is no lodging equivalent of the tenant's maintenance duty, no obligation to test the alarm or report a defect, and no consequence for doing neither. The law leaves it out on purpose. Duties like those attach to possession of the premises, and a guest has none. The practical consequence is that everything a guest does about a missing alarm is voluntary, which is the subject of the section on what happens when compliance fails.
The hotel operator's duty is recorded in 47 of the 51 jurisdictions through a provision that names carbon monoxide, and in 0 through a general clause that does not. The landlord's duty does not divide the same way: 35 named, and 9 arriving through a habitability clause that never mentions the device. The remaining 4 are Colorado and Indiana, where the body of law was read and carries no operator duty, and Georgia and Mississippi, where nobody has established it here.
In 48 of the 51 jurisdictions the answer for a hotel and the answer for a short-term rental are identical, so for most of the country they are one question rather than two. 3 are the exception, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas, and they are the jurisdictions where a host and a hotelier cannot read each other's answer.
New Work, Permitted Renovation, and the Hotel Already Standing
In 35 of the 51 US jurisdictions the carbon monoxide requirement reaches a lodging building that already stands, not only one being built or permitted. 11 more reach an existing building only where a stated condition holds. In 4, Colorado, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia, the rule was read and does not reach one: what gets built is covered and what stands is not. 1 is not established here, Illinois, which is a gap in our research rather than a finding.
This is the question with no rental analogue, and it is the one most likely to produce a wrong answer with a correct citation.
A rental compliance timeline runs through moments a tenancy creates: the unit turn, the move-in inspection, the written notice, the cure period. None of those exist for a hotel. What replaces them is a single structural question about the building: did the requirement ever attach to it at all?
A building code attaches at construction and at permitted renovation. It is enforced by plan review and by the certificate of occupancy, and once the building is finished and occupied the building official has no further occasion to look at it. So a state whose only carbon monoxide instrument is a building-code adoption has a rule that reaches the hotel being built this year and says nothing about the one that opened in 1994, which is most of them. A fire-code adoption is what closes that gap, because the existing-buildings chapter is enforced on the operating building by inspection, on the fire marshal's schedule rather than the developer's.
The counted answer for every jurisdiction is above, and it puts a substantial minority of the country on the wrong side of that line. Where the answer is that the rule does not reach an existing building, the mechanism is usually one of two: the state adopted a building code and no fire code, or it adopted the fire code and then struck the chapter that would have applied. Both produce the same result for a guest, which is that the alarm in the room, if there is one, is there because somebody chose to put it there.
Retrofit deadlines are the third pattern and they behave differently again. A state that legislated a compliance date for existing lodging created a one-off duty that has usually long since passed, so the question for an operator is not whether the deadline applies but whether the building met it, and the record of having met it is the thing an inspector asks for. Where an existing-building duty exists, the ongoing obligation that comes with it is maintenance and replacement, and a device past its manufacturer's stated service life fails an inspection whether or not it still responds to the test button.
Guest Room, Sleeping Unit, Dwelling Unit
A guest room is a sleeping unit. That sentence is the whole placement rule, and getting it wrong is the most common technical error in lodging compliance.
Section 915.2 of the building code carries two placement rules side by side, and they are not interchangeable. The dwelling-unit rule places the alarm outside each separate sleeping area, in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms, which is the corridor-side rule most people picture. The sleeping-unit rule requires detection inside the sleeping unit itself. A hotel guest room takes the second one. An apartment in the same building takes the first, which is why a mixed-use property can be correctly fitted two different ways on two different floors.
The sleeping-unit rule has one exception and it closes more often than operators expect. Detection may sit outside the unit, in its immediate vicinity, only where two things are both true: the unit and its attached bathroom contain no fuel-burning appliance, and no forced-air furnace serves the unit. A room served by a forced-air furnace is outside the exception even when the room itself contains nothing that burns, so a property with central forced-air heating generally cannot use the corridor position anywhere.
The other exceptions in Section 915.1 are relief provisions rather than mounting rules, and they are frequently misread as the latter. Where a unit is caught only because the building contains fuel-burning equipment, the code will excuse it if there is no communicating opening, or if a detector is placed between the equipment and the unit, or on the ceiling of the room holding the equipment. Where a unit is caught only by an attached garage, it is excused if it sits more than one storey above or below the garage, has no communicating opening, or reaches the garage only through an open-ended corridor. These are alternatives to fitting every guest room. They are not instructions about where the guest-room device goes.
Device rules are the same on either route. Alarms are listed to UL 2034; a combination carbon monoxide and smoke alarm is acceptable and is listed to UL 217 and UL 2034 together. A detection system may be used instead of alarms, with detectors listed to UL 2075. Primary power comes from the building wiring where the building is served from a commercial source, with battery backup, and the circuit carries no disconnecting switch other than its overcurrent protection. The standing exception is the existing-building one: a battery-only alarm is generally permitted where the code in force when the building was built required no carbon monoxide detection at all.
What a Guest Can Actually Do
Everything that makes the rental side work is missing here, and the honest version of this section starts by saying so rather than by offering a guest the wrong tool.
A tenant has a lease, a written-notice mechanism that starts a clock, a cure period at the end of it, and in many states a statutory remedy after that: rent withholding, repair-and-deduct, termination. A hotel guest has none of these. There is no notice period because there is nothing to give notice under. There is no repair-and-deduct because there is no rent to deduct from and no possessory interest to protect. A guest who finds no alarm in a room with a gas appliance has one immediate remedy, which is to ask for a different room or a different hotel, and it is a better remedy than it sounds because it costs the operator something and can be exercised in ten minutes.
What exists beyond that is enforcement rather than remedy, and it runs through three channels. The fire marshal or the local fire authority enforces the fire-code route on the operating building, and in most states this is the office with the statutory power to enter and inspect. The local building department enforces the construction route, which matters if the property is mid-renovation or newly opened. And where the state licenses lodging, whether through a health department, a hotel licensing board or a short-term rental permit, the licence condition is often the fastest lever, because a licence can be held at renewal without anyone proving a code violation.
Penalties, where they exist, are owed to the state and not to the guest. Some states adopted the model code's penalty schedule and can assess a per-day amount. Others adopted the code and left its enforcement chapter out, which means an inspection failure produces a correction order under the authority's own statute rather than a fine. Either way the money does not come to the person who slept in the room, and the practical value of reporting is that it changes what the next guest walks into.
Civil liability sits outside all of this and behaves differently. An operator who failed a requirement that applied to the property is in a materially worse position after an incident than one who met it, and the documented lodging cases in this country turn on that. So the consequence of non-compliance arrives after an incident rather than during an inspection, which is why a guest with no remedy still sits inside a scheme that costs an operator something.
For a guest with a concern right now, the useful record is the one taken at the time: a photograph of the wall where the alarm is not, the model and date sticker on the water heater or fireplace, the room number and the time, and any reading from a portable monitor. Reported to the fire authority rather than only to the front desk, that record is what an inspection is opened on.
Before any of that, work out what the empty wall means, because three different situations look identical from inside the room and they call for different things. The property may sit outside the trigger: the state rule reaches lodging, and this building has no fuel-burning equipment and no attached garage, so no alarm was ever owed. The rule may reach what gets built and not what stands, which is the existing-building answer above and the reason the year on the building matters more than the state does. Or the state answer may be conditional and this property may fall outside the test. Only the first of those means the room is low risk, mind you. The second and third mean the risk is the same as anywhere else and nobody was required to tell you about it.
Nothing federal closes the gap. There is no national rule requiring a carbon monoxide alarm in a hotel room, and the bill that would create one has been introduced and has not passed: Representative Angie Craig introduced the Stay Safe Act in 2020 and reintroduced it with Representative Mike Levin in 2025, and it was referred to committee without advancing. Smoke alarms in a guest room are a different matter and are required almost everywhere. So the state answer on this page is the whole answer, which is why it is worth knowing which one applies to the room you are standing in.
Verifying the State Rule and the Local Overlay
Two layers, and the local one can move the answer in either direction.
For the state layer, the state page linked in the card below is the place to start, because it names the instrument, the edition, the sections the adopting authority struck, and the enforcing office. Check the edition specifically. A state that adopted a 2012 code and a state that adopted a 2021 code are not applying the same section numbers or the same triggers, and a citation copied from the publisher's current text can be a citation to a rule that state never adopted.
For the local layer, the figure counted above is the reason not to stop at the state answer. Cities and counties add carbon monoxide conditions through short-term rental licensing far more often than through their building codes, and a licence condition can reach a property no state instrument touches, an all-electric one included, because it attaches to the permit rather than to a fuel source. Where a state's own rule says the most stringent requirement prevails, the local rule survives rather than being displaced by the state baseline.
The assumption underneath that paragraph, and underneath every national guide on this subject, is that a state rule sets a floor and a town can only build on it. Spearfish, South Dakota is where it fails. Its building code amendments at Section 150.016 item (4) read, in full: "IRC Chapter 3, Section 315 Carbon Monoxide alarms is hereby deleted." Not narrowed, not replaced with a local alternative. The section goes, and the model code's trigger, locations, interconnection rule and power source rule go with it. The authority is not in doubt either. SDCL 11-10-12 lets a governing body amend any provision of the International Residential Code and forbids only requirements more stringent than it, which puts deletion inside the permission. The same list of amendments drops the fire protection of floors and relaxes frost protection for small accessory structures, so the carbon monoxide deletion sits among other reductions rather than standing alone.
Read the scope before you carry that anywhere. Section 315 sits in the residential code, so what Spearfish removed governs a house, which reaches a host letting a whole house by the night and does not reach a hotel, whose guest rooms answer the building and fire codes as a Group R-1 occupancy. Spearfish is a Black Hills visitor town, which is why the deletion is worth knowing rather than merely odd. One wrinkle sits under it and belongs to the city rather than to us: the ordinance deletes "Chapter 3, Section 315", and carbon monoxide alarms are Section R315 in the 2018 and 2021 editions while the 2024 edition renumbers them to R311 and gives R315 to sleeping lofts. The same words delete the alarm rule under one edition and the sleeping loft rule under another. Ask Spearfish which edition it adopts before relying on either reading.
Call the office that enforces, not the office that publishes. For an operating hotel that is the fire marshal or the local fire authority; for construction or renovation it is the building department; for a short-term rental it is usually whichever body issues the permit, and that body is often neither of the first two.
42 of the 51 jurisdictions have at least one municipality that adds to or departs from the state rule, and in 9 the sweep ran and found none. In those 42 the state answer is the floor and not the answer.
How to Use the State Lodging Pages
Each card below links to a page carrying that jurisdiction's lodging rule in full: the instrument and the edition, who is covered and on what trigger, the operator's duties, the placement and device rules, the enforcing office, the penalties where any exist, and the local overlay warning naming the municipalities the sweep read. Each page also answers the existing-building question explicitly rather than leaving it to be inferred, because a page that states a duty and stays silent on whether it reaches a building already standing is read as a yes.
The card text is a summary of the page and not a substitute for it. Use the cards to find your jurisdiction and read the page before acting on anything, particularly if the property is near a size threshold, sits outside a city limit, or was built before the adoption the state is currently on. States without a card are either reached only by a condition their own state page sets out, or have not had a lodging page written here yet.
Hotel and Short-Term Rental CO Detector Laws by State
Every card names the route the state takes to a guest room, the caveat that most changes the answer, and what the finding means for someone who has to sleep there. The three lines are written against that state's own page rather than to a template, so where a state answers hotels and short-term rentals differently the card says so, and where the rule stops short of the building already standing the card says that too.
Alabama hotel and Airbnb CO detector requirements
Alabama answers hotels through two code adoptions. The State Building Code adopts the 2021 IBC and its Section 915 for new work and permitted renovation, but only at hotels of fifteen or more bedrooms. The State Fire Marshal separately adopts the 2021 IFC, whose Section 1103.9 reaches existing Group R-1 buildings on the same triggers with no permit and no size threshold. STR hosts with fuel-fired appliances or attached garages answer Rule 535-X-10-.03 instead.
The caveat: Alabama has no hotel CO statute, so coverage turns on which code you are under and on whether a CO source is present. The building code stops below fifteen bedrooms; the fire marshal's fire code does not. Cities may add more, and under Rule 355-12-1-.05 the most stringent requirement prevails.
If you are staying there: An Alabama hotel with fuel-burning equipment should have alarms whether it is new or old, because the state fire code reaches existing buildings too. If no detector is visible in a room with a gas appliance, ask the front desk.
Alaska hotel and lodge carbon monoxide detection rules
Alaska answers the hotel question in its scope exception rather than its occupancy list. 13 AAC 50.020 adopts the 2021 International Building Code to regulate all occupancies and buildings, releasing only detached homes of three families or fewer and low townhouses, so a hotel or lodge stays inside Section 915. Alaska rewrites thirteen sections of the chapter that holds it and leaves Section 915 alone, the fire code adoption at 13 AAC 50.025 brings Section 1103.9 for buildings already standing, and oil-fired central heating puts more Alaskan rooms inside the triggers than in most states.
The caveat: A detached cabin or house of three families or fewer falls into the scope exception and works from AS 18.70.095 and the residential code instead. Plan review runs through the Division of Fire and Life Safety, with deferred jurisdictions reviewing their own; confirm which office covers your property.
If you are staying there: Oil-fired heating is ordinary across Alaska, so a guest room served by a central furnace or connected to a boiler space is more likely to require detection here than the same room would in a milder state.
Arizona hotel and motel carbon monoxide detection rules
Arizona has no carbon monoxide statute, so the duty comes from the State Fire Code, and the adopting rule binds any person doing business in the state rather than gating on a permit. Ariz. Admin. Code R4-36-201 incorporates the International Fire Code whole, the 2024 edition since 13 April 2026, modified only by Article 3, which leaves Section 915 intact and brings Chapter 11 on existing buildings with it. An older Arizona hotel is inside the scheme rather than grandfathered out of it.
The caveat: Arizona adopts the fire code statewide but leaves the residential code governing houses to municipal adoption, so a whole-house short-term rental takes its answer from the city rather than the state. Local fire code amendments are possible and penalties are set locally.
If you are staying there: In Arizona the equipment that triggers a room's requirement is more often a gas water heater, pool heater or laundry than a furnace, and rooms above or beside enclosed hotel parking are covered through the attached-garage condition.
Arkansas hotel and Airbnb CO detector requirements
Arkansas requires CO detection in hotels and motels under the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code (AFPC), which adopts IBC 2021 Section 915 statewide. The requirement applies when sleeping units contain a fuel-burning appliance, are served by a fuel-burning system, or are contiguous to an attached garage. Arkansas's earlier standalone CO statute was repealed in 2013. STR hosts in residential properties are covered by AFPC Volume III (IRC 2021).
The caveat: Arkansas CO requirements flow through the AFPC (IBC 2021 §915), not a standalone hotel statute. Under AFPC §101.2.2 a local jurisdiction may adopt more stringent provisions, but only built on the AFPC as the foundation document. Coverage depends on CO source presence and construction trigger.
If you are staying there: Arkansas hotels with fuel-burning equipment must have CO detection under AFPC statewide. If no detector is visible in your room, ask the front desk whether the property has fuel-burning appliances.
California hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
California hotels, motels, and short-term rentals, including Airbnb and VRBO listings, must install State Fire Marshal-approved CO detectors in any unit with a gas appliance, fireplace, or attached garage under Health and Safety Code § 17926. Hotels had a compliance deadline of January 1, 2017. Violations carry fines and potential civil liability for operators.
The caveat: California's CO alarm requirement applies where fossil fuel appliances or attached garages are present. All-electric units without attached garages may qualify for an exemption. Always verify current obligations with your local building department or fire marshal.
If you are staying there: If your California hotel or Airbnb has gas appliances or a fireplace, a CO detector is legally required. Report missing or non-functioning devices to hotel management or your host immediately.
Connecticut hotel and motel carbon monoxide detection rules
Connecticut is the state where reading the statute produces the wrong answer. Conn. Gen. Stat. 29-292(a)(2) gives hotels a smoke detection requirement and says nothing about carbon monoxide, while Section 915.1.1 of the 2022 State Fire Safety Code and State Building Code covers Group R-1 lodging wherever a fuel-burning appliance, forced-air furnace, communicating appliance space or attached garage is present. Retrofit duties split: a bed and breakfast upgrades throughout on a permit, a larger hotel covers only the work area.
The caveat: The duty runs on new construction and permitted alteration rather than as a blanket retrofit, and it reaches only buildings with a fuel-burning appliance, fireplace or attached garage. How a local fire marshal draws the "work area" boundary on a renovation varies between towns.
If you are staying there: A Connecticut guest room with a gas fireplace, or one served by a fuel-fired forced-air system, takes the alarm inside the room under Section 915.2.2 rather than out in the corridor. A device chirping an end-of-life signal has not been maintained either: Section 915.6 requires replacement rather than repair once a device reaches that point.
Delaware hotel and Airbnb CO detector requirements
Delaware requires CO detectors in all hotels and lodging establishments with fuel-burning appliances or attached garages under 16 Del. C. § 6602C. The law covers both new and existing properties, existing hotels were required to comply by December 31, 2020. Short-term rental operators are covered under the same statute through the broad "lodging establishment" definition. Non-compliance carries civil fines of $100 to $500 per offense.
The caveat: Delaware's § 6602C applies statewide to all lodging establishments. Two unit-level exemptions apply based on floor separation and ductwork. Local county building codes may add construction requirements beyond the statute's baseline.
If you are staying there: All Delaware hotels with fuel-burning appliances should have had CO detectors installed since December 31, 2020. If no detector is visible, the hotel may be in violation of state law.
DC hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
A District hotel room with a fuel-burning appliance, a fuel-fired forced-air furnace or an attached private garage takes a carbon monoxide alarm inside the room, under 12-G DCMR §310.2.2 and again under Fire Code §915.2.2. The Fire Code also reaches buildings already standing, at §1103.9, and it gave owners twenty-four months from 29 May 2020 to file the permit application. Airbnb hosts answer a separate statute that wants a detector on every habitable floor with no fuel-burning trigger at all.
The caveat: Three instruments and three enforcers. The Property Maintenance Code and the Fire Code both reach a District hotel, with the Department of Buildings behind one and the fire code official behind the other, and only the Fire Code carries a criminal penalty. The Short-Term Rental Act is a third track, and the District's own definition keeps hotels out of it.
If you are staying there: In a District hotel room with a gas fireplace, or on a fuel-fired forced-air system, the alarm belongs inside the room rather than out in the corridor. A detector visible only by the lifts is the exception being used, and it is only lawful where nothing in your room burns fuel.
Florida hotel and vacation rental carbon monoxide detector laws
Three instruments reach a Florida hotel and the two statutes are only half of it. Section 553.885 turns on a permit date, reaching a building permitted on or after 1 July 2008 and putting an approved alarm within ten feet of each room used for sleeping. Section 509.211(4) carries no date at all: it covers any public lodging establishment with a chapter-554 fuel-combustion boiler in a part of the building holding sleeping rooms, and asks for a device listed to ANSI/UL 2075. The older hotel with neither is answered by the fire code, where Fla. Stat. 633.202 and Rule 69A-60.004 fix NFPA 101 at the Florida 2021 edition and Section 29.3.4.6.1 reaches a guest room with a communicating attached garage or a permanently installed fuel-burning appliance or fireplace.
The caveat: The permit date decides less than it appears to. Section 553.885 reaches a new building or an addition as the statute defines one, so alterations and repairs to an existing hotel do not pull it in, and Section 509.211(4) answers a boiler room rather than a guest room. Chapter 29 of NFPA 101, as Florida adopts it, is what answers the hotel already standing, and enforcement splits three ways between the local building official, the State Fire Marshal and the DBPR.
If you are staying there: An older Florida hotel is not outside the question, whatever the permit date says. A guest room or suite with a permanently installed fuel-burning appliance, a fuel-burning fireplace or a communicating attached garage is covered by NFPA 101 chapter 29 as Florida adopts it, and the devices belong on every occupiable level of the room and in the immediate vicinity of where you sleep.
Hawaii hotel and transient vacation unit carbon monoxide rules
Hawaii has no carbon monoxide statute, so the rule comes from the building code. The State Building Code Council adopted the 2018 International Building Code on 20 April 2021 with amendments that leave Section 915 alone, covering Group R-1 lodging on four fuel and garage triggers. Each county then adopts and may amend it, and Honolulu went further: a permit-value trigger for renovation of existing guest rooms, plus a per-bedroom detector rule for transient vacation units and bed and breakfast homes.
The caveat: HRS 107-28 hands adoption to the counties and lets each amend what it adopts, so four codes decide the whole state. Two of the four were read: Honolulu, which goes further than the state floor, and Maui, which adds nothing. Hawaii County and Kauai County are on none of the publishers this survey uses and remain unread, which leaves the Big Island and Kauai unanswered rather than clear.
If you are staying there: Requirements differ by island rather than across Hawaii as a whole, and a Honolulu vacation rental owes detectors in every transient occupant bedroom, which is more than a hotel guest room on the same island is owed.
Idaho hotel carbon monoxide rules and the construction date test
Idaho covers hotels through the State Fire Marshal, whose code applies in every town. Idaho Code 41-253(1) adopts the International Fire Code as the minimum standard for the state and IDAPA 18.08.01 carries it, with Section 915 unamended and Group R-1 inside its reach. A hotel built since the code took effect needs detection in every county. An older one is reached where the fire code official considers it a distinct hazard, because Idaho deleted the item in IFC 102.1 that would otherwise have applied the retrofit chapter.
The caveat: The date the building was finished decides more than the town does. Both Idaho adoption statutes name editions with no carbon monoxide section, 39-4109(1)(a) the 2006 IBC and 41-253(1) the 2000 IFC, and the rules underneath them supply the editions that carry Section 915.
If you are staying there: An Idaho hotel built since the fire code took effect is covered wherever it stands, including counties with no building department. The gap worth packing an alarm for is the older property, where detection turns on the fire code official's opinion rather than on an automatic rule.
Illinois hotel and short-term rental carbon monoxide rules
Illinois answers a hotel and a short-term rental from different instruments, and the host gets the stricter one. 430 ILCS 135 reaches dwelling units and never names a hotel, so an Illinois Airbnb owes an alarm within 15 feet of every sleeping room, plus written testing information at every arrival, backed by a Class B misdemeanor and a felony provision for repeat tampering. A hotel reads NFPA 101 (2015) as adopted at 41 Ill. Adm. Code 100.7, where the duty turns on a communicating attached garage or a permanently installed fuel-burning appliance in the guest room, and carries no criminal penalty.
The caveat: The existing-hotel answer cannot be read from the published record. Chapter 29 of NFPA 101 carries no carbon monoxide section in the 2006 and 2012 editions and carries one at 29.3.4.6 in 2021 and 2024, and the 2015 edition Illinois adopts sits inside that window behind a licence. 41 Ill. Adm. Code 100.9 is the way through: compliance with a newer edition in its entirety is treated as equivalent.
If you are staying there: An Illinois guest room is covered only where it has a communicating attached garage or a permanently installed fuel-burning appliance, so many rooms lawfully have no alarm. A short-term rental in an apartment is covered whatever the room holds, unless the local building commissioner has determined otherwise.
Indiana hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
Indiana is the state where the house is covered and the hotel is not. Both the 2014 Indiana Building Code and the 2014 Indiana Fire Code delete Section 908.7, the carbon monoxide section of the 2012 codes they adopt, without substitution, so no statewide duty for a Class 1 hotel was found. A one- or two-family house let short-term is a Class 2 structure and keeps IRC Section R315 through 675 IAC 14-4.4.
The caveat: Indiana hotels carry no statewide carbon monoxide requirement: both adopted codes delete the provision, and all 87 sections of the two rules were read without finding a replacement. STR hosts in houses do have a duty under IRC R315, and local permit ordinances vary by municipality.
If you are staying there: Indiana is one of the few states with no established statewide carbon monoxide rule for hotels, so do not assume a detector is there because the law required it. In a room with gas appliances, look for one and ask the front desk if there is none.
Iowa hotel carbon monoxide rules and the guest repair remedy
Iowa writes hotels into the statute instead of inferring them from an occupancy table. Iowa Code 10A.518(1)(d) defines "multiple-unit residential building" to include "hotel, motel, dormitory, or rooming house", and 10A.518(3)(b) requires alarms in existing buildings with a fuel-fired heater or appliance, a fireplace, or an attached garage. The provision that sets Iowa apart is the remedy: where an owner fails to correct an inoperable alarm within thirty days of written notice, "the tenant, guest, or roomer" may repair or install one and deduct the cost from the next rental payment. A violation of the section or of a rule under it is a simple misdemeanor.
The caveat: Cite Iowa Code 10A.518 and 481 chapter 280. The former fire safety chapters under Public Safety[661], including chapter 211 on carbon monoxide alarms, were rescinded by ARC 9472C effective 10 September 2025, and a reader following an older citation meets a rescission notice that is easy to mistake for an absence of law.
If you are staying there: An Iowa guest room in a building with a fuel-fired heater, a fireplace or an attached garage should have a carbon monoxide alarm, and Iowa is one of the few states that names a guest in its remedy: after written notice and thirty days without correction, a guest or roomer may have an alarm fitted and deduct the cost. The battery stays the operator's problem unless a stay runs longer than thirty days.
Kansas hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
Kansas requires carbon monoxide detectors in licensed lodging establishments, hotels, motels, rooming houses and boarding houses, that use fuel-fired equipment or have attached parking garages or wood-burning fireplaces, under Kan. Admin. Regs. § 4-27-8(c). The requirement applies to existing and new properties. Detectors must be tested every six months with results logged. A whole-house short-term rental is a guest house under K.S.A. 36-501(b)(6), and K.S.A. 36-502(e) excuses a guest house from licensing, so the duty attaches where a let outgrows seven guests or three sleeping rooms.
The caveat: Kansas's CO requirement for hotels comes from administrative regulation (K.A.R. § 4-27-8) rather than from a statute or a building code. It runs to a licensee, and K.S.A. 36-502(e) excuses a guest house from holding a licence, so a whole-house short-term rental picks the duty up when it outgrows seven guests or three sleeping rooms. Local permit conditions vary by municipality, and below those caps one may be all there is.
If you are staying there: If your Kansas hotel has gas appliances, a boiler, or an attached parking garage, a CO detector is legally required under state regulation, ask staff if one is not visible.
Kentucky hotel and motel carbon monoxide detection rules
Kentucky answers the lodging question without a lodging rule. KRS 198B.040(7) and 198B.050 require a mandatory uniform state building code, and 815 KAR 7:120 Section 2 makes the 2015 International Building Code exactly that for all buildings constructed in the state. Only houses, townhouses and manufactured homes are carved out, so a hotel stays inside Section 915 and its Group R coverage, with the same answer in every county.
The caveat: The building code is uniform, but Section 915.1 sends existing buildings to Chapter 11 of the International Fire Code, and which fire code edition a local authority enforces is a local question. That decides whether an older hotel carries a present obligation or one attaching at its next permitted work.
If you are staying there: Kentucky applies the same building code in every county, so a guest room's requirement depends on the equipment in and around it rather than on which town the hotel is in.
Louisiana hotel and motel carbon monoxide detector rules
Louisiana's carbon monoxide statute is titled and scoped to one- and two-family dwellings, so a hotel operator finds nothing in it. The answer is the state construction code: R.S. 40:1730.23(A) lets parishes and municipalities enforce only the codes the state adopts, LAC 17:I.103.A adopts the 2021 IBC excluding Chapters 1, 11 and 27, and Section 915 survives unamended to cover Group R-1 lodging on four fuel and garage triggers.
The caveat: Section 915.1 sends existing buildings to the International Fire Code, which Louisiana does not adopt, so this reaches new construction and permitted work rather than requiring every operating hotel to retrofit. A rented house is a dwelling rather than a Group R-1 occupancy and answers to R.S. 40:1581 instead.
If you are staying there: A Louisiana guest room needs a detector only where fuel burns in it, a furnace duct serves it, an appliance space communicates with it, or a garage adjoins it, and an older hotel that has done no permitted work may carry none at all.
Maine hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
Maine law (25 M.R.S. § 2468) requires CO detectors in all licensed hotels, motels, inns, and bed and breakfasts, both existing and newly constructed. Existing hotels may use hardwired-plus-battery, a nonreplaceable 10-year battery, or a qualifying replaceable battery. New hotel construction since August 2012 must use hardwired-plus-battery only. Short-term rental hosts face a separate statewide obligation to provide working CO detectors at each occupancy.
The caveat: Maine's CO requirements differ by property type: licensed hotels follow 25 M.R.S. §2468(2)(A) with power-source rules; vacation rentals follow the §2468(5) rental unit path instead of the licensed lodging track.
If you are staying there: Maine's rule covers the corridor as well as the room, so a detector on the wall outside your door is doing its statutory job. In a cottage or a motel unit that opens straight outdoors there is no corridor to serve, and the detector should be inside with you.
Maryland hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide alarm laws
Maryland law (Public Safety Art. § 12-1104) requires CO alarms in all hotels and lodging houses, effective April 1, 2017. Installation is proximity-based: alarms are required in rooms containing or adjacent to CO-emitting equipment. Hotels may use hardwired-plus-battery, a sealed 10-year battery, or a monitored control unit. Short-term rental hosts face a separate statewide obligation under the rental dwelling unit provisions, effective April 1, 2018.
The caveat: Maryland's CO alarm requirements differ by property type: hotels follow the proximity-based installation rule under § 12-1104(b); STR/rental properties follow the per-sleeping-area rule under § 12-1104(c). Local jurisdictions may impose stricter standards under § 12-1106.
If you are staying there: Maryland hotels are required by law to have CO alarms near any CO-producing equipment, if one is missing or appears non-functional, notify the operator and contact the State Fire Marshal.
Massachusetts hotel carbon monoxide detector law
Nicole's Law reaches by use rather than by label. M.G.L. c. 148 Section 26F½ covers every building occupied in whole or in part for residential purposes that holds fossil-fuel burning equipment or incorporates enclosed parking, hotels and short-term rentals included, and it carries no construction-date cutoff at all. Where the device goes depends on whether a permit has been pulled: 527 CMR 1.00 section 13.7.6 puts an alarm within ten feet of any bedroom door, measured in any direction, on every level, and the same building after permitted work is on Section 915.2.2, where the detection belongs inside the guest room.
The caveat: Two triggers are the whole test, fossil-fuel burning equipment or enclosed parking inside the structure, and a building with neither sits outside the law however old it is. A large hotel whose guest rooms hold no source can redirect the protection to the boiler, water heater and central laundry rooms rather than escape it. The stricter rule in a Massachusetts city may not sit in that city's code at all, because M.G.L. c. 143 Section 98 has a locally recommended standard adopted as a state regulation.
If you are staying there: Age exempts nothing here. A Massachusetts hotel standing since 1890 is inside Nicole's Law on the same terms as one built last year, provided something in it burns fuel or the building has parking inside its structure. What moves with the permit history is the placement: within ten feet of your bedroom door where no permit has been pulled, and inside the guest room once permitted work has been done.
Michigan hotel and motel carbon monoxide device requirements
Michigan is the state that puts the device somewhere else. MCL 125.1504d requires one operational carbon monoxide device at each source point in hotels, motels and boarding houses, a source point being an area with a fossil-fuel-burning furnace, boiler or water heater providing common heat. Guest-room placement is not what the section asks for. It reaches only buildings newly constructed on or after 1 December 2009, so older lodging sits outside it, and two subsections give installers and operators a liability shield.
The caveat: The section covers only buildings newly constructed on or after 1 December 2009 and has no renovation or transfer trigger. Subsection (2) provides that an International Building Code carbon monoxide requirement adopted into a later Michigan code applies from that code's effective date, which would add guest-room placement; ask the local enforcing agency which edition is in force.
If you are staying there: A Michigan hotel built before December 2009 may hold no carbon monoxide device under state law, and where devices exist the statute puts them at the boiler or water heater rather than in your room. Travelling with a portable alarm is worth more here than in most states.
Minnesota hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide alarm laws
Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. § 299F.51, effective August 1, 2024) requires a CO alarm inside every sleeping room of every hotel and lodging house, regardless of whether fuel-burning appliances are present. Owners must verify alarms are operational before each new occupancy. Short-term rental properties with multiple rentable rooms qualify as lodging houses under § 299F.50 and bear the same per-room obligation.
The caveat: Minnesota's CO alarm mandate under § 299F.51 applies to all hotel and lodging house sleeping rooms with no fuel-burning trigger. STR properties meeting the lodging house definition face the same per-room obligation. Local ordinances may add stricter requirements.
If you are staying there: Minnesota hotels are legally required to have a CO alarm inside every sleeping room, if one is absent or appears non-functional, notify the front desk before occupying the room.
Missouri hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
Missouri has no statewide CO detector statute, but state regulation 19 CSR 20-3.050 requires working CO detectors in DHSS-licensed hotels and motels with five or more guest rooms that use fuel-burning equipment or have attached garages. Most short-term rentals fall outside the state rule, though Kansas City and St. Louis impose independent CO detector requirements for registered STR operators.
The caveat: Missouri CO detector rules depend on property type, size, and location. State regulation covers only licensed lodging with 5+ rooms. Always verify local ordinances for short-term rentals before operating.
If you are staying there: Licensed Missouri hotels with gas appliances or garages are required to have CO detectors. Vacation rental coverage varies by city, check your listing or ask your host directly.
Montana hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
A Montana guest room with a fuel-burning appliance, a fuel-fired forced-air furnace or an attached private garage takes a carbon monoxide alarm inside the room, under IFC 2021 § 915.2.2 as adopted by ARM 23.12.601. Existing hotels are reached by § 1103.9 on the same conditions. Every hotel, motel, bed and breakfast and short-term rental also needs a DPHHS Public Accommodation Licence with annual inspection. The landlord-tenant rule everyone quotes, ARM 24.320.301, does not reach a hotel guest at all.
The caveat: The instrument that answers for a Montana hotel is the state fire code, not the rental statute. MCA § 70-24-104(4) puts transient hotel and motel occupancy outside the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, and ARM 24.320.301 limits its own enforcement to that Act's remedies. Fire code enforcement runs in every area of the state, with a Department of Justice inspector filling in where no local fire programme exists.
If you are staying there: In a Montana room with a gas fireplace or on a fuel-fired forced-air system, the alarm belongs inside the room. Rural Montana has no gap here: where a town runs no fire inspection programme, a state fire inspector covers it, so an isolated motel is under the same code as one in Billings.
Nebraska hotel and motel carbon monoxide detection requirements
Nebraska's Carbon Monoxide Safety Act defines its way around lodging: both covered categories require property used as a residence and a dwelling unit needs cooking provisions, which a guest room does not have. The state building code answers instead, adopting the 2018 IBC with only two plumbing exclusions, so Section 915 reaches Group R-1 hotels. Section 71-6406(1)(b) applies that code by default where a town has adopted nothing, so no Nebraska hotel sits under no code at all.
The caveat: Section 71-6406(2)(a) lets a county, city or village amend, modify or delete portions of the state code and still count as conforming generally, and only deletions from the energy chapters have to be reported to the state. Ask the local building official which edition and amendments govern your property.
If you are staying there: Nebraska puts detection in the guest room rather than at the boiler, but only where the room holds fuel-burning equipment, is served by a furnace duct, connects to an appliance space, or adjoins an attached garage.
Nevada hotel carbon monoxide rules and the deleted retrofit chapter
Nevada requires carbon monoxide detection in a hotel it is building and nothing in a hotel already standing, and both halves have to be said together. NAC 477.283(1)(v) amends IFC Section 915.1.1 to write in "Residential Group R-3 occupancies used for transient occupancy of less than 30 days", putting short-term rentals inside the section by hand. The next paragraph, 477.283(1)(w), reads in full: "Chapter 11 is deleted." That removes the existing-buildings chapter and Section 1103.9 with it, so an older hotel carries no state retrofit duty. Under NRS 477.030(1) the State Fire Marshal does not enforce in counties of 100,000 or more, which puts Clark and Washoe under local authorities.
The caveat: The absent retrofit duty is a finding about Nevada's drafting rather than a gap in research, and it does not narrow civil exposure. Any duty on a standing Nevada hotel has to come from a local instrument; Henderson's property maintenance rule is the closest and reaches "dwelling units" while its own next subsection separately names guest rooms.
If you are staying there: A Nevada hotel built since the code took effect should have detection in guest rooms that meet one of the fuel-burning or attached-garage conditions, and an older hotel may carry none by law. A house booked for fewer than thirty nights is inside the same rule as a hotel, which is unusual and works in a guest's favour.
New Hampshire hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
New Hampshire RSA § 153:10-a requires CO detectors in all rental units, a category the statute explicitly defines to include hotels, motels, and all transient lodging for rent. This means Airbnb and VRBO hosts face the same statewide CO detector mandate as commercial hotels. Rental unit owners are responsible for maintaining detectors; violations carry fire code penalties under RSA § 153:24.
The caveat: RSA § 153:10-a applies to all NH rental lodging including hotels and STRs. Local ordinances may impose stricter requirements. Consult the NH Division of Fire Safety or local fire authority for your specific property.
If you are staying there: New Hampshire requires CO detectors in hotels and vacation rentals by state law. If you don't see a detector in your room, report it to the front desk or local fire department.
New Jersey hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
N.J.S.A. 55:13A-7.17 puts a carbon monoxide sensor in every unit of dwelling space in a New Jersey hotel unless somebody determines that no potential hazard exists for that unit, and it sets no construction-date cutoff. The implementing rule runs to four sentences. N.J.A.C. 5:10-28.1(a)1 asks for single station alarms in the immediate vicinity of the sleeping area in every guestroom in a building that contains a fuel-burning appliance or has an attached garage, listed to UL 2034 and installed to NFPA 720. Paragraph (a)2 was rewritten with effect from 7 August 2023 and now routes an owner to the Uniform Construction Code and the Uniform Fire Code rather than listing alternatives of its own.
The caveat: The exemption is a determination rather than a category: every unit is inside the statute until the Commissioner's rules release that unit. Guidance describing two named alternatives in paragraph (a)2, a common-area system and a monitored room detector, is describing a rule R.2023 d.089 replaced. The chapter also carries no distance and no sound-pressure figure anywhere, so a ten-foot or 85 dBA rule quoted at a New Jersey hotel came from some other document.
If you are staying there: The trigger is the building's rather than the room's. A guest room with nothing burning inside it is still covered where the boiler sits elsewhere in the building or the building has an attached garage, so an all-electric room in a gas-heated New Jersey hotel should still have an alarm in the immediate vicinity of the sleeping area.
New Mexico hotel carbon monoxide rules under the State Fire Marshal
New Mexico answers a hotel operator from a rule the search results never show. 10.25.5 NMAC, the State Fire Marshal's fire prevention part amended 1 November 2022, establishes the state's minimum requirements at 10.25.5.2(A) and adopts the 2021 International Fire Code at 10.25.5.7(E), leaving Section 915 untouched. The exemption at 10.25.5.2(B) covers detached one- and two-family dwellings "except for those being used as commercial properties", so a house let commercially loses it. Penalties are substituted for the model code's: under NMSA 59A-52-24 a violation is a misdemeanor at up to $500 with each day a separate offense.
The caveat: The residential adoption at 14.7.3 NMAC is the instrument most guides cite and it governs dwellings rather than transient occupancies, so its silence about hotels is a limit on its scope rather than a gap in New Mexico law. The fire marshal's rule is filed under public safety and its penalties under the Insurance Code, which is why both are hard to find.
If you are staying there: A New Mexico guest room is covered where a carbon monoxide source, a producing furnace, an attached garage or a vehicle used indoors reaches it, so an alarm is not guaranteed in every room. A detached holiday house is covered too once it is let commercially, which is a stronger position for a guest than in most states.
New York hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
New York's Amanda's Law (Executive Law § 378(5-a)) requires CO detectors in hotels, motels, and short-term rentals where CO-emitting appliances or attached garages are present. The law covers all multiple dwellings statewide. New York City additionally imposes Class B multiple dwelling rules with Certificate of Installation filing and multi-agency enforcement by HPD, DOB, and FDNY.
The caveat: Amanda's Law applies where CO-emitting appliances or attached garages are present. New York City properties face additional Class B multiple dwelling compliance requirements beyond the state baseline. Always verify current obligations with your local code authority.
If you are staying there: If your New York hotel or Airbnb has gas appliances or an attached garage, a CO detector is legally required. In NYC, report missing or inoperable devices to hotel management or call 311.
North Carolina hotel and short-term rental carbon monoxide alarm law
North Carolina is one of the few states whose carbon monoxide requirement for lodging reaches existing buildings and not only new construction. G.S. 143-138(b2) directs that the Building Code shall require electrical alarms at lodging establishments, in every guest room holding a combustion appliance and in every room sharing a wall, floor or ceiling with one. Operations with four or fewer lodging units fall outside the permit definition and answer to the residential code instead.
The caveat: The rule reaches establishments permitted under G.S. 130A-248. Lodging with four or fewer units is exempt from that permit Part under G.S. 130A-250(1), so a single vacation rental usually answers to the residential code and the landlord statutes instead. Confirm permit status with county environmental health.
If you are staying there: A North Carolina guest room needs an alarm even when nothing in it burns fuel, if it shares a wall, floor or ceiling with a room that does. The 2013 Boone deaths happened in a room heated by a pool water heater one floor below.
North Dakota hotel carbon monoxide rules and the statewide fire code
North Dakota's fire code is statewide, and that is the fact most national summaries get wrong. NDAC 45-18-01-04 adopts the 2021 International Fire Code, in force since 1 January 2024, and NDAC 45-18-01-03(2) defines the code's own jurisdiction as the state itself. Section 915 survived adoption unamended, so a guest room needs an alarm where a fuel-burning appliance, a serving furnace, a communicating opening or an attached garage reaches it. Older hotels are covered through 1103.9, which also survived. The one thing North Dakota deleted is the penalty: IFC 112.4 does not apply, and the consequence arrives instead as a fire marshal abatement order that can end in a lien against the premises under N.D.C.C. 18-01-27.
The caveat: Coverage turns on the room rather than the building. Section 915 asks four questions of each sleeping unit, and an all-electric property with detached parking can meet none of them. For an existing hotel, NDAC 45-18-01-02(2) permits a legacy condition to continue only where the state fire marshal is of the opinion it is not a distinct hazard, which is an opinion that has not been given rather than an exemption written into the rules.
If you are staying there: A North Dakota guest room needs a carbon monoxide alarm only where a fuel source or an attached garage reaches it, so an alarm on the wall is not guaranteed by the rules alone. Ask at check-in whether the room has gas heat, a fireplace or a garage below it, and carry a travel alarm if the answer is yes and the room has no detector.
Ohio hotel and Airbnb carbon monoxide detector laws
Ohio hotels, motels, and short-term rentals must install CO detectors under the Ohio Fire Code when fuel-burning appliances, forced-air furnaces, shared heating equipment, or attached garages are present. The 2017 Ohio Fire Code (OFC §§ 915 and 1103.9) covers Group R occupancies including all hotels. Existing hotels were required to comply by January 1, 2019.
The caveat: Ohio's CO detector mandate is condition-triggered under the Ohio Fire Code; not all hotel rooms are automatically covered. Operators must assess whether applicable trigger conditions exist at their property before assuming compliance or exemption.
If you are staying there: If your Ohio hotel room has gas appliances, a gas furnace, or the building has an attached garage, a CO detector should be present. Alert the front desk if one is missing or inoperable.
Oklahoma hotel carbon monoxide rules under the lodging and fire codes
Oklahoma answers a hotel operator twice. The health department's lodging rule at OAC 310:285-3-5(c) requires a carbon monoxide detector "in each guest room which has a gas appliance inside it", attached to the lodging licence rather than to a building permit. The fire code reaches further: OAC 748:20-4-1 adopts the IFC 2018 as the statewide minimum code for commercial as well as residential fire prevention, and a direct search of the 720KB adoption rule finds no modification to Section 915 or Section 1103.9. A basement boiler the health rule ignores can still reach guest rooms under 915.1.1, so satisfying one instrument is not evidence of satisfying the other.
The caveat: The two instruments have different triggers and different inspectors, so a clean lodging inspection is evidence about gas appliances in guest rooms and nothing else. Short-term rentals split at 310:285-1-1.1, which excludes establishments requiring rental of the entire establishment and grounds, leaving a whole-house host with the fire code alone.
If you are staying there: An Oklahoma guest room with a gas appliance inside it should have a carbon monoxide detector under the state lodging rules, so a gas heater or fireplace in the room and no detector on the wall is worth raising at the desk. A whole-house holiday rental is outside those lodging rules, which makes a travel alarm more worthwhile there than in a hotel.
Oregon carbon monoxide detector law for hotels and Airbnb
Oregon requires CO alarms in hotels under ORS 455.360 and monitored CO detection in existing hotel fuel-burning equipment rooms under OFC 908.7.2. STR operators must install a CO alarm before each new tenancy under OAR 837-047-0160. Uniquely, ORS 476.725(4) bars all Oregon cities and counties from enacting stricter local CO alarm rules, making the statewide standard uniform for all lodging operators.
The caveat: Oregon CO alarm requirements apply to hotels under ORS 455.360 and OFC 908.7, and to STRs under ORS 476.725 and OAR 837-047. No local override is permitted statewide. Verify current OFC edition with your local fire authority.
If you are staying there: Oregon hotels with boilers, fireplaces, or generators are required to have monitored CO detection in equipment areas. If no alarm is visible in your room, ask hotel staff.
Pennsylvania hotel carbon monoxide rules and the April 2004 trigger
Pennsylvania's hotel answer is not in the statute everyone cites. Act 121 of 2013 requires alarms in apartments of multifamily dwellings and reaches no hotel, motel or short-term rental. The duty comes from the Uniform Construction Code instead: 34 Pa. Code 403.21(a)(1) adopts IBC 2021 Chapters 2-10, which contains Chapter 9 and Section 915, and the stated exclusions do not touch it. What decides a given hotel is 403.1(a)(1), which applies the code to construction, alteration, repair or change of occupancy "which occurs on or after April 9, 2004". Work brings the duty in. Time alone does not.
The caveat: A hotel built before April 2004, continuously and legally occupied and never altered, carries no duty from the state instruments, and that is the honest answer rather than a gap in research. Pennsylvania also adopts the International Fire Code "only to the extent it is referenced by other ICC codes", so there is no standalone fire code route of the kind neighbouring states rely on.
If you are staying there: A Pennsylvania guest room in a hotel built or renovated since April 2004 should have detection where a fuel-burning appliance, a serving furnace, a communicating opening or an attached garage reaches it. An older unaltered property may carry none by law, which makes a travel alarm more worthwhile here than in states with a standing retrofit duty.
Rhode Island hotel and rooming house carbon monoxide rules
Rhode Island wrote its own carbon monoxide provisions into the Life Safety Code rather than waiting for the model text. Sections 29.3.4.6.1 and 26.3.4.6.1 cover existing hotels, dormitories and lodging or rooming houses where a guest room has a communicating attached garage or a permanently installed fuel-burning appliance or fireplace. Placement runs outside each sleeping area and on every occupiable level. New hotels take their rule from the state building code instead.
The caveat: The additions sit in the chapters for EXISTING hotels and for lodging or rooming houses. A newly constructed hotel works from the state building code at 450-RICR-00-00-7, and device rules on the residential side vary by construction era, so confirm with the local fire authority which branch governs the building.
If you are staying there: A Rhode Island guest room qualifies for an alarm only where it has a permanently installed fuel-burning appliance or a communicating attached garage, so an all-electric room in an older hotel may hold none by design rather than by neglect.
South Carolina hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
South Carolina requires CO alarms in hotels, motels, and all Group R lodging with fuel-burning appliances or attached garages under Section 915 of the 2021 SC Building and Fire Codes, with Section 1103.9 of the fire code reaching existing buildings, implemented 1 January 2023. The requirement covers both new and existing buildings. Short-term rentals operating as residential occupancies are covered by the same framework. All-electric properties with no attached garage have no CO alarm trigger.
The caveat: SC CO alarm requirements come from the 2021 Building and Fire Code, not a standalone statute. Enforcement is local. Check with the local building official for your specific property and jurisdiction.
If you are staying there: South Carolina hotels and rentals with gas appliances are required to have CO alarms under state building code. If you don't see a detector, notify the front desk or property manager.
South Dakota hotel carbon monoxide rules and the closed local-variation list
South Dakota adopts the 2015 International Building, Fire and Mechanical Codes as the rules of the Department of Public Safety under ARSD 61:15:01:01, and 2015 is the edition that introduced Section 915. The deletion list at 61:15:01:02 runs to three items, Sections 102.5, 103 to 106.4 and 903.2.6, so Section 915 and the existing-building provision at 1103.9 both survive. The unusual part is 61:15:01:16: it names the fire code chapters a municipality may vary, 20, 21, 24 to 27, 29, 32 and 51, and chapter 9 is not among them. A South Dakota town has no room to write around the carbon monoxide rule.
The caveat: South Dakota answers no for private homes and long-term rentals and yes for hotels, so a private house and a long-term rental sit outside the statewide duty while a guest room can be inside it. The state sits on the 2015 editions, so a specification written against a 2021 or 2024 text may cite provisions that do not exist in the adopted code.
If you are staying there: A South Dakota guest room needs detection where a fuel-burning appliance, a serving furnace, a communicating opening or an attached garage reaches it, and older hotels are covered too because the retrofit provision survived adoption. Unlike several neighbouring states, no local ordinance can lower that.
Tennessee hotel carbon monoxide detector law
Tennessee requires CO alarms within ten feet of every sleeping room in hotels with fossil-fuel appliances, fireplaces, or other CO sources, under TCA § 68-120-112 for existing buildings and § 68-120-101 for new construction. STR providers face the same maintenance and operational obligations as hotel owners under SB1086. Non-compliance is a Class C misdemeanor with each day as a separate offense.
The caveat: Tennessee CO alarm requirements for hotels arise under TCA § 68-120-112 (existing) and § 68-120-101 (new construction). STR duties added by SB1086. Local jurisdictions may enforce their own codes. Confirm requirements with your local building authority.
If you are staying there: Tennessee hotels with fireplaces, gas appliances, or boilers are required by state law to have CO alarms within ten feet of every guest sleeping room.
Utah hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
Utah requires CO detection in hotels, motels, and short-term rentals through Utah Code Title 15A's adoption of IBC Section 908.7 (new construction) and amended IFC Section 1103.9 (existing buildings). All covered Group R lodging with fuel-burning appliances must have CO alarms meeting NFPA 720 and UL 2034 standards. The Utah State Fire Marshal Division enforces statewide through the code administration framework.
The caveat: Utah's CO detector requirements for lodging flow through Utah Code Title 15A's code-based framework, not a standalone statute. Requirements vary by occupancy type and construction date. Verify current requirements with the Utah State Fire Marshal.
If you are staying there: Utah hotels and vacation rentals with gas or fuel-burning appliances are required to have CO alarms. If no detector is visible in your room, notify the front desk immediately.
Vermont hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
Vermont explicitly requires CO detectors in all hotels, motels, tourist homes, and other residential buildings where people sleep under 20 V.S.A. § 2729(d), effective April 1, 2005. Newly installed CO alarms in lodging must be hardwired to the building's electrical circuit with battery backup. The Vermont Division of Fire Safety enforces statewide and may fine operators without prior notice for missing alarms.
The caveat: Vermont's CO detector requirement for hotels and STRs flows from 20 V.S.A. § 2729(d) and the Vermont Fire & Building Safety Code. Verify current requirements with the Vermont Division of Fire Safety.
If you are staying there: Vermont hotels, motels, tourist homes, and Airbnb rentals are required by state law to have CO alarms. If no detector is visible in your room, contact the front desk or the Division of Fire Safety.
Virginia hotel carbon monoxide detector law
Virginia removed the retrofit route rather than exempting anyone from it. 13VAC5-52-230 reads "Delete Chapter 11 in its entirety", effective 18 January 2024, and Chapter 11 is where Section 1103.9 would have pushed detection into existing Group R occupancies. Three narrower instruments remain: the Uniform Statewide Building Code reaching a Group R occupancy constructed or substantially renovated under a permit, the Statewide Fire Prevention Code requiring a system already installed to be kept in safe and proper operating condition, and Code of Virginia 55.1-1229(E) giving a tenant an alarm within 90 days of a written request.
The caveat: The permit is the trigger and no equipment trigger stands behind it. A Virginia hotel predating the building code provisions that has done no substantial renovation owes nothing beyond maintaining whatever was installed when it was built, whatever burns fuel inside it now. A locality cannot add to that in a building regulation either, because the statewide code occupies construction, so every local rule found here sits in a zoning ordinance as a condition of a short-term rental permit.
If you are staying there: Do not read an older Virginia hotel as a technicality waiting to be closed. The state has no retrofit provision at all, so a property with a gas boiler and no recent permit can lawfully carry no alarm in or near your room. Where Virginia Beach and Alexandria run short-term rental permit schemes, a permitted let there carries detector conditions the hotel down the street does not.
Washington carbon monoxide detector law for hotels and Airbnb
Washington fixed its retrofit deadline in statute: RCW 19.27.530(2)(a) required every residential occupancy that was not a new build, hotels included, to carry carbon monoxide alarms by 1 January 2013. The code sections that carry it are WAC 51-54A-0915 and WAC 51-50-0915, both widening the model scope to "Group I and R occupancies", with WAC 51-54A-1103 covering buildings already standing. A guest room can go without its own alarm only under a three-part exception, and in an existing hotel the third part is that the building has a common area carbon monoxide detection system. Short-term rental hosts owe a per-booking certification under RCW 64.37.020(1)(b).
The caveat: The rule most often cited for Washington hotels, WAC 51-50-0908, has read "Reserved" since 1 July 2016. The live sections are WAC 51-50-0915, WAC 51-54A-0915 and WAC 51-54A-1103. Local jurisdictions administer the code and may go further; this is the statewide floor.
If you are staying there: A Washington guest room with no alarm in it is not automatically a violation, but it is only lawful where the room has no fuel-burning appliance and, in an older building, the hotel runs a common-area carbon monoxide detection system. If you can see neither, ask at the desk which one applies.
West Virginia hotel and Airbnb CO detector laws
West Virginia Code § 15A-10-12(f)(3) names hotels and motels and asks for a detector in a public common area or in the sleeping rooms stacked around permanently installed fuel-burning equipment, whichever the operator chooses. The State Fire Code repeats the rule at § 87-1-2.3.1.c and puts it in the State Fire Marshal's hands as code. New lodging hardwires to AC with battery backup. Misdemeanour fines run $250, $750 and $2,000. The floor is unusually low and the ceiling sits above it: 87 CSR 1 adopts NFPA 101, 2021 edition, in full and leaves its hotel chapters alone, so 28.3.4.7.1 and 29.3.4.6.1 add a guest-room duty wherever a room has a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage.
The caveat: West Virginia's hotel rule lets an operator satisfy the statute with one detector in a public common area, which is weaker than most states in this dataset. It is a floor rather than the whole duty: 87 CSR 1-2.1.a adopts NFPA 101, 2021 edition, in full, and § 87-1-2.2 makes the state's own requirements additive to it. Cities and counties may go further under § 15A-10-12(o).
If you are staying there: A West Virginia hotel can meet the letter of the state statute with a single detector in the lobby, so the absence of one in your room is not by itself a violation. If the room has a gas fireplace or sits directly above the boiler room, ask. That is the arrangement the statute names.
Wisconsin carbon monoxide detector laws for hotels and Airbnb
Wisconsin requires CO detectors in all hotels, motels, and short-term rentals, including Airbnb and VRBO, under Wis. Stat. § 101.149 and ATCP 72, overhauled in January 2026. A missing alarm is a Priority violation that can result in immediate facility closure. Detectors must be within 21 feet of each sleeping room door, measured along a path of travel.
The caveat: Wisconsin CO detector law is governed by Wis. Stat. § 101.149 and ATCP 72. Requirements vary by building type and construction date. Verify current rules with DATCP or a licensed Wisconsin attorney before relying on this summary.
If you are staying there: Wisconsin Airbnb and hotel guests: CO detectors are legally required in rooms with gas appliances. If no detector is visible, report the issue to DATCP at datcp.wi.gov.
Wyoming hotel carbon monoxide rules and the 2024 fire code
Wyoming inverts the usual pattern. A private house and a long-term rental carry no statewide carbon monoxide duty, and a hotel guest room can. The Council on Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety in Buildings incorporated the 2024 International Fire Code and 2024 International Building Code on 28 June 2024 under W.S. 35-9-106(a), amending nothing inside them, so IFC 915.1.1 carries the triggers and 915.2.2 puts detection in the sleeping units. Existing hotels are reached through 1103.9, and W.S. 35-9-106(a)(i)(B) covers "all existing buildings" in the statute itself. The exception list at W.S. 35-9-118(a) runs to five categories and lodging is in none of them.
The caveat: Coverage turns on the four conditions in Section 915.1.1 rather than on the building type alone, so a property with no fuel-burning equipment, no attached garage and no vehicle used indoors is outside the trigger rather than exempt. Wyoming adopted the 2024 editions on 28 June 2024, so a compliance letter written against an earlier edition describes a code no longer in force.
If you are staying there: A Wyoming guest room needs a detector where a carbon monoxide source, a producing furnace, an attached garage or a vehicle used indoors reaches it, so an alarm is not guaranteed in every room. Ask whether the room has gas heat or sits above a garage, and note that Wyoming asks nothing of the private house you might book instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are hotels required to have carbon monoxide detectors?
Does an Airbnb have to have a carbon monoxide detector?
Where does the detector have to be in a hotel room?
Does the law apply to a hotel that was built before the rule existed?
What can a guest do if a hotel room has no carbon monoxide detector?
Who is responsible for the alarm, the operator or the guest?
Can a local rule change the state requirement, and in which direction?
Disclaimer: This page explains the law as it stood on August 26, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Requirements vary by city, county and building type, and statutes and codes are amended: confirm the current text with the issuing authority before acting on it. Each requirement here cites the instrument it comes from, so you can check it at source.
Sources and References
- NFPA: Carbon Monoxide Detection and Warning Equipment , carbon monoxide detection guidance, alarm listing and placement references
- CPSC Carbon Monoxide Information Center , federal guidance on carbon monoxide alarms and fuel-burning appliance hazards
- CDC: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention , prevention guidance and alarm recommendations
- NCSL Carbon Monoxide Detector Installation Statutes , state-by-state statutory overview, including which states legislate for hotels and motels
- International Building Code, Section 915, Carbon Monoxide Detection , 915.1 trigger conditions; 915.2.1 dwelling units; 915.2.2 sleeping units; 915.4 installation and listing
- International Fire Code, Section 1103.9, Carbon Monoxide Alarms in Existing Buildings , 1103.9, existing Group I and R occupancies; Table 1103.1, applicability by occupancy group
- NFPA 101, Life Safety Code , occupancy chapters covering hotels, dormitories and lodging or rooming houses