Tippecanoe County, IN Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

Tippecanoe County's Unified Zoning Ordinance recognizes three short-term rental types in its definitions section and regulates all of them through § 4-11-13. A 'transient guest room' lets an owner-occupied home rent up to two rooms, a duplex unit, or two apartment units while the owner stays on site and follows the home-occupation rules. A 'transient guest rental' is an owner-occupied dwelling rented out for less than a month and capped at 60 days per calendar year, with the owner not required to be present. A 'transient guest house' is a whole single-family, two-family or multi-family dwelling rented short-term where none of the units has to be owner-occupied at all.

Whichever category applies, § 4-11-13(b) requires the owner to get a permit from the Administrative Officer before starting to rent, and § 4-11-13(a) locks in two conditions that ride along with the permit: the dwelling's exterior cannot be modified in a way that makes it look less like a house, and no exterior signage advertising the rental is allowed. A transient guest house cannot be sited in an accessory dwelling unit at all, per § 4-11-13(c). Because the permit is tied to the underlying use, operating without it, or outside the category's limits, is treated as an unpermitted land use.

The county's enforcement chapter specifically lists 'transient guest house' among the land-use violations eligible for the citation notification process at § 6-3-6(b), giving the Administrative Officer the option of a notice-and-cure track before pursuing the general fine schedule.