Short-Term Rentals in Hendersonville, TN (2026)

10 verified short-term rentals rules for Hendersonville, Tennessee, sourced directly from the municipal code and official government pages.

Verified from official government sources

Permit Requirements

Operating a short-term/vacation rental in the City of Hendersonville is categorically prohibited in all residential zoning districts and is permitted only in two commercial zones: Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC). The framework was adopted by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in 2016 (Ordinance 2016-16) as an amendment to the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance under Title 14 (Zoning and Land Use Control). Each commercial-zone STR must obtain three items before advertising or booking: an Engineered Site Plan, a Use and Occupancy Permit, and a City of Hendersonville business license. The 2016 ordinance was challenged constitutionally by an investor-owner; Sumner County Circuit Court Judge Robert E. Lee Davies initially struck it down (July 30, 2021) but reversed his own ruling on November 3, 2021, upholding the ordinance under rational-basis review as a reasonable regulation of residential neighborhood character. The Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act (TCA 13-7-602 to 13-7-606) protects properties that were lawfully operating as STRs before the October 2016 ordinance, but Hendersonville's documented enforcement record shows that owners who purchased properties after 2016 (such as J and J Ventures at 540 Indian Lake Road and 107 Breakwater North, purchased 2022) do not qualify for legacy protection and are subject to permanent injunction.

Hendersonville TN Short-Term Rentals Prohibited in Residential Zones; Permitted Only in Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC) Zones with Engineered Site Plan, Use and Occupancy Permit, and Business License

Heavy Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Noise Rules

Hendersonville does not codify STR-specific quiet hours or a decibel table separate from the citywide noise framework. STR guests in the permitted commercial zones (OTC, GC) and at any legacy-protected residential STR are subject to the general noise prohibition in the Hendersonville Municipal Code, enforced by the Hendersonville Police Department on a plain-audibility / disturbance standard. The functional teeth on STR noise come from two parallel mechanisms: (1) the Use and Occupancy Permit condition that the operator manages guest behavior and responds promptly to complaints, with persistent complaints providing grounds for permit non-renewal, and (2) the Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act at TCA 13-7-603(a)(3), which terminates legacy STR grandfather protection on three or more violations of generally applicable local laws including noise citations.

Hendersonville STR Guests Subject to Citywide Noise Ordinance; Three Violations of Generally Applicable Laws Voids TCA 13-7-603 Legacy STR Protection

Some Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Taxes & Fees

Short-term rentals in Hendersonville TN collect a four-layer tax stack on every reservation of fewer than 30 continuous days: 7% Tennessee state sales tax under TCA 67-6-202, 1.5% Tennessee state hotel/motel privilege tax under TCA 67-4-1402, 5% Sumner County hotel/motel occupancy tax, and 4% City of Hendersonville hotel/motel tax under Ordinance 2023-13 (raised from the prior 2.75% rate). The combined approximate burden is 17.5% on each stay. Operators must file monthly returns with the City Finance Department (615-264-5317) by 4:30 PM on the 20th day of the month following the reporting period, with three-year record retention. Marketplace facilitators (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com) are required under Tennessee law effective January 1, 2021 (TCA 67-4-708 and 67-6-501, Public Chapter 759 of 2020) to collect and remit the state sales tax and the state and local occupancy taxes on platform-booked stays directly to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, which distributes local-tax revenue back to Hendersonville and Sumner County. Direct (off-platform) bookings remain the operator's full responsibility.

Hendersonville STR Tax Stack: 7% TN State Sales Tax + 1.5% TN State Privilege Tax + 5% Sumner County Hotel-Motel + 4% Hendersonville City Hotel-Motel (Ordinance 2023-13) - Combined ~17.5%

Heavy Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Parking Rules

Hendersonville's STR framework requires off-street parking adequate for guest vehicles as a condition of the Engineered Site Plan approval and the Use and Occupancy Permit issued by the Codes Department for STRs in the permitted Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC) zoning districts. The Planning Department reviews the site plan against the underlying commercial-district parking standards in the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance (Title 14) - typically a per-square-foot or per-room calculation that includes the STR's bedroom count and listed sleeping capacity. The site plan must also address ingress/egress, lighting, and life-safety. Guests are subject to citywide on-street parking restrictions; persistent guest-parking complaints can be cited at Use and Occupancy Permit renewal and count toward the three-strike legacy-termination threshold under TCA 13-7-603(a)(3) for the small pool of pre-October-2016 legacy STRs in residential zones.

Hendersonville STR Off-Street Parking Required Per Engineered Site Plan; Commercial-Zone STRs Must Demonstrate Adequate Guest Parking at Site Plan Approval

Some Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Occupancy Limits

Hendersonville's STR program does not impose a flat citywide guest headcount but caps occupancy through the Engineered Site Plan and the building/life-safety inspection conducted by the Codes Department before the Use and Occupancy Permit is issued. The maximum stated occupancy is anchored to the dwelling's legally permitted bedroom count under the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance and adopted building code, with each rented bedroom required to have code-conforming egress (door or egress window), and to life-safety equipment (smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, CO detectors where applicable). For commercial-zone STRs, the Engineered Site Plan parking calculation also implicitly bounds maximum occupancy because parking must scale with sleeping capacity. Marketing a non-bedroom space (loft, basement bonus room, converted attic without code egress) as a rentable sleeping space is a misrepresentation that voids the Use and Occupancy Permit. Exceeding the stated occupancy is a permit-condition violation and, for legacy residential-zone STRs, counts toward the three-strike legacy-termination threshold under TCA 13-7-603(a)(3).

Hendersonville STR Occupancy Set by Engineered Site Plan and Building/Life-Safety Inspection; Commercial-Zone STRs Sized to Bedroom Count and Code-Conforming Egress

Some Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Insurance Requirements

Hendersonville's STR ordinance does not codify a specific minimum dollar amount of liability insurance as a condition of the Use and Occupancy Permit; the Codes Department's inspection focuses primarily on building, life-safety, and Engineered Site Plan compliance. However, operating an STR with only a standard ISO HO-3 homeowner's policy is functionally uninsured: the policy's business-pursuits exclusion voids coverage for paid short-term rental activity. Hendersonville STR operators (which must be in the Old Town Commercial or General Commercial zoning district or be a pre-October-2016 legacy operation) should carry a dedicated commercial STR liability policy of $1M-$2M from carriers such as Proper Insurance, Steadily, CBIZ, or Foremost, or add a home-sharing endorsement to the homeowner's policy through Tennessee carriers including State Farm, Allstate, Erie, or Farm Bureau. Platform host-protection programs (Airbnb AirCover, VRBO Liability Insurance) are widely treated as supplemental rather than primary coverage and do not cover direct (off-platform) bookings at all.

Hendersonville STR Insurance Not Codified With Specific Dollar Minimum; Industry-Standard Commercial STR Policy ($1M-$2M Liability) Strongly Recommended Given Engineered Site Plan and Three-Strike Exposure

Some Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Night Caps

Hendersonville does not impose a fixed annual cap on the number of nights a permitted short-term rental may host. There is no '90-day,' '113-day,' '120-day,' or '180-day' booking limit codified in the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance or the STR compliance program. A property with a current Use and Occupancy Permit, Engineered Site Plan approval, and business license in the Old Town Commercial (OTC) or General Commercial (GC) zoning district may book up to 365 nights per year provided the operator continues to satisfy all permit conditions, tax obligations, and the no-violation backstop. Scale is controlled instead through (1) the categorical residential-zone prohibition that confines STR activity to a small commercial-zone footprint, (2) the rigorous Engineered Site Plan and building/life-safety inspection at permit issuance, (3) the city's aggressive enforcement posture documented in City v. J and J Ventures (October 2024 permanent injunction), and (4) the TCA 13-7-603(a)(3) three-strike rule that terminates pre-October-2016 legacy residential-zone protection on three local-law violations.

No Annual Night Cap on Hendersonville TN STRs; Scale Controlled Through Commercial-Zone-Only Restriction, Engineered Site Plan, and Three-Strike Legacy Termination

Few Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Registration Rules

STR registration in Hendersonville is a multi-step, commercial-zone-only process. Operators must first confirm that the property is located in the Old Town Commercial (OTC) or General Commercial (GC) zoning district (the only zones where new STRs may be permitted), then complete three city approvals before advertising or accepting bookings: (1) an Engineered Site Plan reviewed and approved by the Hendersonville Planning Department (planning@hvilletn.org, 615-264-5316); (2) a Use and Occupancy Permit issued by the Codes Department upon successful building and life-safety inspection; and (3) a City of Hendersonville business license through the Finance Department. Operators must also register for tax collection with the Tennessee Department of Revenue (state sales tax 7%, state privilege tax 1.5%), the Sumner County Trustee (5% county occupancy tax), and the City of Hendersonville Finance Department (4% city hotel/motel tax under Ordinance 2023-13). The single most common reason for STR enforcement in Hendersonville is operating without one or more of these approvals - typically a residential-zone owner attempting to register an Airbnb listing without realizing the categorical residential prohibition.

Hendersonville STR Registration: Engineered Site Plan + Use and Occupancy Permit + Business License Required Before Listing; Commercial Zones Only (OTC/GC)

Heavy Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Host Presence Rule

Hendersonville does not impose a host-presence (hosted-only / on-site host) requirement for permitted commercial-zone short-term rentals in the Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC) zoning districts - those STRs may operate as fully unhosted rentals provided they hold the Engineered Site Plan, Use and Occupancy Permit, and business license. The host-presence concept enters the framework on the opposite side: an owner-occupied dwelling where the owner lives full-time and rents only a portion of the home is excluded from the STR definition entirely under the Hendersonville Zoning Ordinance, meaning such hosted arrangements operate outside the STR regulatory framework altogether (no permit required, no commercial-zone restriction). This is structurally different from Nashville (which imposes a hosted-only Type 1 vs. unhosted Type 2 distinction with permit caps) and Franklin (which requires owner-occupancy for all new residential-zone STR permits since December 2019).

Hendersonville Does NOT Impose Host-Presence Requirement for Commercial-Zone STRs; Owner-Occupied Hosted Rentals Excluded from STR Definition Entirely

Some Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Primary-Residence-Only Rule

Hendersonville does not impose a primary-residence-only rule for permitted commercial-zone short-term rentals - investor-owned, LLC-owned, and out-of-state-owned STRs may operate in the Old Town Commercial (OTC) and General Commercial (GC) zoning districts provided they hold the Engineered Site Plan, Use and Occupancy Permit, and business license. The primary-residence concept enters the framework only as an exclusion: owner-occupied dwellings where the owner lives full-time and rents only a portion of the home are excluded from the STR definition entirely. In residential zoning districts, STRs are categorically prohibited regardless of whether the owner uses the property as a primary residence (Ordinance 2016-16, October 2016). This is structurally different from Franklin TN (which requires owner-occupancy for all new residential-zone STR permits since December 2019) and from cities like San Francisco and Portland (which require primary-residence operation for any unhosted STR). The Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act (TCA 13-7-602 to 13-7-606) protects pre-October-2016 legacy operators regardless of residency status, but those legacy claims must be documented.

Hendersonville STRs NOT Limited to Primary-Residence Owners in Commercial Zones; However, Residential-Zone STR Use Is Categorically Prohibited Regardless of Residency Status

Heavy Restrictions

Full ordinance details →Official source ↗

Looking for Sumner County county-wide rules?

County ordinances apply to unincorporated areas and may supplement Hendersonville city rules.

Short-Term Rentals in Sumner County →