Tuscaloosa, AL Short-Term Rentals: Night Caps (2026)

The forty-five day cap sits inside the short-term rental use-specific standards at Sec. 25-101(c)(4)(iv), part of the commercial principal use table adopted by Ord. No. 9572 on December 17, 2024. Subsection (f)(1) applies to by-right rentals, meaning multifamily dwellings outside the tourist overlay and historic districts, and any dwelling type inside the tourist overlay boundary: those units may rent short-term for up to forty-five days a year without further approval, but the owner can apply for a special exception use permit to raise that cap.

Subsection (f)(2) governs rentals that already needed a special exception to operate at all, such as single-family homes inside a historic district or outside the tourist overlay: those start capped at thirty days in the first calendar year and rise to forty-five days in each year after, unless the zoning board of adjustment sets a different number using the decision-making standards in Sec. 25-39(d). The day-count limits work alongside a separate cap on the number of licenses: Sec. 25-101(c)(4)(iv)(c)(3) limits the city to issuing no more than 150 short-term rental business licenses for multifamily units inside the tourist overlay and 100 for multifamily units outside historic districts and the tourist overlay, on top of the per-unit day limits.