Nashville Has More Rental Permits Than Short-Stay Airbnb Listings
Metro Nashville is mailing warning letters to short-term rentals running without a permit, and figures aired by WKRN News 2 imply thousands of unlicensed operators. On Airbnb, Metro's permits outnumber the live short-stay listings.
Metro lists 7,012 short-term-rental permits as issued on its open-data permit roll, more than the roughly 6,500 Airbnb listings with stays under 30 nights that were active in September inside its permit jurisdiction, according to AirROI, a short-term-rental data firm.
A permit can also cover a home listed only on Vrbo, or sit unused, so a countywide surplus can hide an unpermitted Airbnb listing a few streets away.
Metro sent warning notices to 14 properties in the week of Oct. 11, after 21 in all of the previous month, WKRN reported in an Oct. 18 story. A majority of the 14 sat close to downtown, in Council Districts 5 and 21.
The same story, citing a data vendor, set more than 11,000 advertised short-term rentals against fewer than 7,050 permits. "This gap suggests thousands of properties are operating illegally," the station wrote, while noting that the number of unlicensed listings "actually appears to be shrinking."
For neighbors filing complaints, and for owners holding permits Metro no longer issues on most residential streets, the gap can't be settled listing by listing. Only about one in seven Nashville short-stay listings fills in Airbnb's registration field, where a permit number would go.
Metro's version of Airbnb regulations bars anyone from operating or advertising a short-term rental without a permit, and Metro Code 6.28.030 requires every online ad to "prominently display the permit number" or show an image of the permit. Operating without one draws a court-imposed $50 fine for each day, plus a wait of a year, or three after a court finding, before the property can get a permit.
New permits for homes the owner doesn't live in are barred in residential zones. Existing ones there may be eligible to renew but can't pass to a buyer.
Where the 11,000 comes from
Part of the distance is rentals Metro's permit roll doesn't cover. Tennessee law counts only stays under 30 continuous days as short-term rentals and excludes hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfasts, and Berry Hill issues its own permits under a city ordinance.
| Davidson County, 2026 | Count |
|---|---|
| Airbnb listings requiring stays of 30 nights or more, Sept. | 430 |
| Rooms in hotels and similar lodging | 165 |
| In satellite cities, mostly Berry Hill | 154 |
| Short-stay Airbnb listings under Metro's permit rules | About 6,500 |
| Metro permits issued, as of Oct. 16 | 7,012 |
A tally across platforms can also count a home twice when it is listed on both Airbnb and Vrbo. And some ads lead nowhere: Bonell McBroom III, Metro's short-term-rental chief, told WKRN in July 2025 that a number of properties are advertised but not in operation.
The vendor count has already shrunk. In July 2025, the station's comparison put more than 14,000 rentals against about 7,000 permits.
The poster behind a widely shared Reddit estimate that up to a fifth of Nashville listings were unlicensed later wrote, after finding hotels advertising on Airbnb, that "a conservative estimate is that there are around 100 unlicensed listings."
Where listings outrun permits
In 12 of Metro's 35 council districts, active short-stay Airbnb listings outnumber issued permits, and the excess adds up to about 120 listings. Counting only listings booked in the past three months, it falls to about 40.
That is a floor on listings with no matching permit in their district, not a count of illegal rentals.
Metro Codes sets out its position in its short-term-rental FAQ: "Failure to register is equivalent to operating without a permit and will result in enforcement action, including citations."
The Nashville Area Short Term Rental Association, a trade group for short-term-rental hosts and property managers, read the totals more darkly in March, writing on its website that "there may be thousands of properties operating without licenses."
District 15, which takes in Donelson and the Opryland area, has the widest excess, about 50 more listings than permits.
District 19, which covers downtown and Germantown, holds about 380 more permits than Airbnb listings, enough idle or off-Airbnb permits to mask a gap elsewhere in a countywide total.
Districts 5 and 21, which drew most of the mid-October warnings, are among the city's four busiest Airbnb districts, and both hold more permits than short-stay listings.
A number most listings don't show
Metro code requires the permit number in every ad, yet the registration field on Airbnb stays mostly blank in Nashville. In New Orleans and Honolulu, nearly every short-stay listing carries an entry. Some Nashville hosts put the number in a description or photo instead.
Airbnb's Nashville help page tells hosts that the law requires a Metro permit "prior to listing," but it doesn't ask them to enter the number in that field.
Airbnb addressed Nashville's rules in September, after WKRN found an East Nashville home on Lischey Avenue that was denied a permit in 2022 and kept booking guests. Metro ordered the listings removed on Sept. 9, and Airbnb took its listing down after WKRN reached out.
"We remind hosts of their obligation to follow local rules," an Airbnb spokesperson told the station, adding that the company continues "to work with local authorities in Nashville and across the U.S."
The host association describes how Metro finds the rest. "Inspectors often have to match listing photos to physical homes. Enforcement is frequently complaint-driven," it wrote in the same March post.
Hosts, neighbors and a council member
The median listing booked about $42,700 over the past year, AirROI's data show. The median booked nightly rate was about $290, nearly six times the $50 daily fine.
Barbara Culligan of the host association, whom its website describes as Airbnb's Community Leader in Nashville, wants the bar kept high. "It is hard to get a permit for a short-term rental in Nashville, as it should be," she told WSMV in May. Nashville, she said, "will need more places for people who come to attend the Super Bowl."
Davidson County has about 43,000 hotel rooms, by the count of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., nearly seven times the short-stay Airbnb supply.
Kevin Griffith, president of the Hope Gardens Neighborhood Association in North Nashville, told WKRN in May that about a fifth of the neighborhood's roughly 200 houses are short-term rentals, and that a permit "is a privilege for people who live here."
Griffith said 13 permits had been revoked since neighbors began reporting homes, and that more enforcement from Metro could help.
Jacob Kupin, whose District 19 holds the city's largest surplus of permits over listings, would look at easing the process. "I do think there's something to look at to get permit process easier," he told WSMV in May, looking ahead to the Super Bowl.
Mid-November for the warned owners
Owners of the 14 properties warned in mid-October have until mid-November to take action or face further enforcement, the station reported. A court can treat each day of operation without a permit as a separate $50 offense, and a court finding bars the property from a Metro permit for three years.
About the data: Listings are Airbnb homes with minimum stays under 30 nights, available or booked at least one night in the 90 days through September, inside Metro's districts, excluding hotel-type rooms and satellite cities. Permits are mapped to districts by location.
Frequently Asked Questions
No public count ties each Nashville listing to a permit. Set side by side by council district, active short-stay Airbnb listings exceed issued permits by about 120, a floor that covers Airbnb alone and is not a tally of illegal rentals. Metro sent warning notices to 14 properties in a single week in October 2026.
A court can fine the operator $50 for every day the rental runs, and each day counts as a separate offense. A Codes determination that the property operated without a permit bars it from getting one for a year; a court finding stretches the wait to three years. Owners warned in the week of Oct. 11, 2026, have until mid-November to act or face further enforcement.
Metro's open-data permit roll listed 7,012 issued short-term rental permits as of Oct. 16, 2026. About 5,000 of them cover homes the owner does not live in, including older legacy permits; the rest are owner-occupied.
Metro Codes asks that all short-term rental complaints go through hubNashville. Tennessee law makes a false complaint against a short-term rental provider punishable as perjury. Metro also publishes its residential short-term rental permit roll, with a map, on its open-data site, where the permit at an address can be checked.
