Asheville, NC Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Parking Rules (2026)

Asheville's two short-term lodging categories carry opposite parking rules, and confusing them is a common permitting mistake. For a short-term vacation rental, the unhosted category where no resident is required to live on site, Sec. 1)d states plainly: "Off-street parking shall be required per Sec. 7-11-2," pulling the property into the citywide parking, loading, and access standards that apply to other uses in its zoning district. That means the number of required spaces depends on the district and the number of guest rooms or occupants the rental is permitted for under Sec.

7-11-2's tables, not a flat number written into the short-term rental subsection itself. Homestays get the opposite treatment because a full-time resident already occupies the dwelling and typically already parks a personal vehicle there: Sec. 7-16-1(c)(9)h states "no additional off-street parking is required for a homestay," recognizing that the household's existing parking already serves the property. An operator converting a homestay permit into a short-term vacation rental permit, or vice versa, needs to re-check which parking standard applies rather than assuming the two lodging types share requirements; the parking rule is one of several places, along with host-presence and primary-residence, where the two permits diverge even though both are lodging uses reviewed under the same Sec. 7-16-1(c) framework and the same annual inspection cycle.