Hoover, AL Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

City Code § 6-57 states the rule plainly: no short-term rental unit may exceed a maximum guest occupancy of two persons per bedroom, unless the fire marshal sets a different occupancy number for that specific unit. "Bedroom" count is not left to the operator's judgment alone; the permit application under § 6-55(1)(c)(5) requires a floorplan illustrating which bedrooms will be used for short-term rental occupants, so the city fixes the bedroom count at permitting, before any guest ever books the property. Occupancy is not an isolated rule.

Under § 6-58, if the Hoover police department receives three valid and substantiated complaints about a short-term rental property within any twelve-month period, whether the complaint is about overcrowding, noise, or another article violation, the planning and zoning department must suspend that property's short-term rental permit for no less than six months. A second suspension within two consecutive years extends to no less than twelve months, and a third suspension within three consecutive years results in permanent revocation of the permit. An operator can appeal a suspension or revocation to the City Council by serving written notice on the City Clerk within seven days, and the Council must hear the appeal within thirty days of that notice.

Separately, § 6-59 makes any violation of the short-term rental article, including exceeding the occupancy cap, a municipal offense; each day the violation continues is a separate offense, and the building official issues a written notice of violation before any citation to municipal court under §§ 1-5 and 1-6.