Rock Hill, SC Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Maximum occupancy of a Rock Hill short-term rental is governed by two overlapping frameworks. (1) Local Practice: Because Rock Hill has not adopted an STR-specific chapter, planning and code staff apply the same occupancy standards used for other residential rentals during business-license review. A widely-used working benchmark in South Carolina jurisdictions is two adults per bedroom plus two additional persons (or alternatively three persons per bedroom for family-style stays); the Rock Hill Zoning Ordinance defines 'family' for purposes of single-family residential occupancy. (2) International Property Maintenance Code: Rock Hill has adopted the IPMC through its building and housing code framework, which sets minimum sleeping-room area at 70 square feet for the first occupant plus 50 square feet for each additional occupant (IPMC §404.4.1), a minimum 70-square-foot habitable-room floor area (§404.4.2), and a dwelling-unit total-area floor based on total occupants (§404.5). Children under 12 typically count as one-half occupant. South Carolina's housing stock in Rock Hill includes older single-family homes in the Old Town and Winthrop districts with small bedrooms, so the IPMC math can produce a lower legal cap than the bedroom-count rule. The legal occupancy is the lower of (a) the bedroom-count benchmark and (b) the IPMC area-based calculation. Rock Hill code enforcement can measure rooms during inspections and order an overcrowded unit vacated. Because South Carolina has not preempted local STR regulation, Rock Hill retains authority to adopt a stricter STR-specific cap in the future.