Tennessee STR Permits in Nashville, Chattanooga and the Smoky Mountains

How Tennessee short-term rental permits work in Nashville, Chattanooga and Sevier County, what each register publishes, and how to work an address-only list.

Published Oct 23, 2026 · 24 min read · by Lead Mining Company

Tennessee has no statewide short-term rental permit. It has a state law that limits how far cities and counties can go, a state sales tax that applies to short-term stays, and local programs that each run on their own terms. For a business that sells to rental owners, three places matter most: Metro Nashville, which runs one of the largest city permit registers in our data; Chattanooga, which runs a smaller certificate program tied to zoning; and Sevier County, home to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, which runs an inspection permit but publishes no register we could find.

This guide explains each program from official sources, shows what each public file contains, and works through real counts so you can plan outreach. All counts are as of October 2026. Rules are as read on October 22 and 23, 2026; check the official page before acting.

Tennessee permit data at a glance

Item	Figure	Source
Tennessee records in our data	19,532	PermitPulse dataset, October 2026
Tennessee records with a phone or email in our data	0	PermitPulse dataset, October 2026
Nashville Residential Short Term Rental Permits, records in our data	17,712	PermitPulse dataset, October 2026
Chattanooga Active Short-Term Vacation Rentals, records in our data	558	PermitPulse dataset, October 2026
Rows in Metro Nashville's public permit layer	17,624	Metro open data layer, queried October 23, 2026
Nashville permits with status ISSUED	7,010	Metro open data layer, queried October 23, 2026
Rows in Chattanooga's active certificate file	508	City of Chattanooga open data, downloaded October 23, 2026
Short-term rental units operating in Sevier County	"over 6,500" (county estimate)	Sevier County Fire Marshal's Office program slides
Public Sevier County, Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge permit register found	None found	Our search, October 2026

Two of these numbers need a word of explanation. First, Tennessee shows 0 contactable records in our data because we carry no phone number or email for any Tennessee record. Every Tennessee record is an address record, usually with an owner name. Second, our Nashville record count (17,712) is larger than the number of rows in Metro's current public layer (17,624). The small gap is permits Metro has since dropped from its layer, which we keep. When you plan a Nashville campaign, filter on status and count owners, not rows. The permit-level figures in this guide come straight from Metro's layer so they match what Metro publishes.

Tennessee state law on short-term rentals

The state law is the Short-Term Rental Unit Act, Public Chapter 972 of the Acts of 2018, effective May 17, 2018, and codified at Tennessee Code Annotated section 13-7-601 and following. We could not open the statute text on the state's publication sites, which refused automated reads, so this section relies on the summaries published by the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) and County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS), the state's advisory services for cities and counties. Read the statute itself before relying on any detail.

What the Act does

Legacy use (section 13-7-603). A local rule that prohibits or regulates short-term rental use does not apply to a property that was already being used as a short-term rental before the rule was enacted. The law in place when the use began governs that property.
What ends legacy protection. Per MTAS, the protection lasts until the property is sold or transferred, stops being used as a short-term rental for 30 continuous months, or has violated generally applicable local laws three or more separate times.
What counts as "used as a short-term rental." MTAS explains that where the local government required a permit, the property needed that permit or an approved application. Where no permit was required, the provider needed to have remitted the state taxes due on renting the unit for filing periods covering at least six of the twelve months before the relevant date.
The Brentwood exception (section 13-7-603(b)). A rule enacted before January 1, 2014 that expressly limits how long a dwelling may be rented can apply regardless of current use. MTAS says this exception applies only to the City of Brentwood.
Three violations (section 13-7-604). A local government may prohibit continued use of a unit that has violated a generally applicable local law three or more separate times once the provider has no appeal rights left. The local government carries the burden of proof.
Permits allowed (section 13-7-604). Local governments may run a permit or application process, and may suspend use of a unit while it lacks a permit, if the process is reasonable. MTAS adds that a city allowing public complaints through the permit process must warn complainants that a false complaint is punishable as perjury.
Private restrictions (section 13-7-605). Condominiums, co-ops, homeowners associations and similar bodies may restrict short-term rentals; landlords may restrict them by lease; owners may restrict them by covenant.
Preemption (section 13-7-606). The Act supersedes conflicting local rules.

CTAS also publishes steps for counties that want a permit process: develop a reasonable application and permit process consistent with the Act, get approval from the county legislative body, and put it in place. Sevier County runs its own permit program for units outside city limits, described below.

What it means for vendors

The Act makes the permit a property-level asset that can be lost. A sale or transfer ends legacy protection, and so does a 30-month gap in use. For real-estate agents, lenders and investors, that is the most important fact in Tennessee: a buyer of a rental with legacy status may not inherit the rules that applied to the seller. For managers and insurers, it means an owner has a reason to keep a unit active and in good standing, because three violations can end the use.

State sales tax

The Tennessee Department of Revenue's Notice 17-24 says the short-term rental of vacation lodging for fewer than 90 continuous days is subject to sales tax. It defines vacation lodging to include cabins, cottages, chalets, condominiums, houses and individual rooms. If the owner uses a property management company, the company must register and collect the tax; if not, the owner must. Tax is due on the full sales price, including required cleaning fees and similar charges, at the local rate for each property's jurisdiction, and an internet platform may agree to collect and report the tax for the owner. The notice is dated 2017, so check the Department's current guidance as well. For a vendor, the useful point is that a manager in Tennessee takes on tax registration and filing for each jurisdiction where its owners' units sit.

How Metro Nashville permits short-term rentals

Metro Nashville's Codes Administration runs the Short Term Rental Property (STRP) permit. Metro's short-term rentals page refused automated reads on October 22 and 23, 2026, so we do not restate its current rules, fees or zoning tables here. What follows comes from Metro's own permit data and the text written on each permit, which Metro publishes through its open data portal.

The permit classes in the register

Metro's data dictionary describes the permit subtype field as "Owner Occupied, Non-Owner Occupied, or Multifamily." In the public layer the subtypes carry three labels with three system codes:

Subtype label in the layer	System code	All rows	Status ISSUED	Dates entered
Short Term Rental – Not Owner Occupied	CAZ10A003	9,532	4,670	April 7, 2015 to October 19, 2026
Short Term Rental - Owner Occupied	CAZ10A001	6,301	2,005	April 6, 2015 to October 19, 2026
Short Term Rental - Non-Owner Occupied	CAZ10A002	1,791	335	April 1, 2015 to November 25, 2025

The layer does not say which code corresponds to the multifamily class, so we do not map them. What the layer does show is that 1,514 rows describe the application as a "Type 3 Residential Short Term Rental permit" in the purpose text, and 721 of those are issued. Almost all new filings now use the first two labels: in 2026 through October 23, Metro entered 420 not-owner-occupied permits and 207 owner-occupied permits, and no permits under the third code.

What each permit certifies

Every permit in the layer carries a purpose statement. A typical owner-occupied permit reads that the applicant will comply "with Section 6.28.030 of the Metropolitan code of Laws regarding Short Term Rental and State of Tennessee Public Chapter No. 972," then gives the number of sleeping rooms and a maximum occupancy "based upon floor plan submitted and verified by applicant," and ends "Proof of residence has been verified." Non-owner-occupied permits end with "Owner compliance letter verified" instead. The occupancy pairs we read in the permit text were 1 sleeping room with 6 persons, 2 with 8, 3 with 10 and 4 with 12. Some permits note that the application covers an accessory structure only; 143 rows say so, 105 of them issued.

For a vendor, the purpose text is a free size field. A permit for four sleeping rooms and 12 guests is a different cleaning job, a different insurance risk and a different furnishing budget from a one-room permit for six. If you build a Nashville list, parse the sleeping rooms and occupancy out of the purpose text and segment on it.

Permit term

In the issued permits we sampled, the expiration date fell exactly one year after the issue date, and Metro's statuses include EXPIRED for permits that were not renewed. Among issued permits on October 23, 2026, expirations are spread through the year, from 257 in November 2026 to 694 in August 2027. That spread is useful: it means you can run renewal-timed outreach every month instead of in one season.

What the Nashville register publishes

Metro's Residential Short Term Rental Permits item describes itself as "current and historical details of Short Term Rental Property (STRP) applications and issued permits since the beginning of the program." Its metadata document, published by Metro's open data team, says the data comes from Metro's Cityworks permitting database, covers April 1, 2015 to the present, and updates daily. It includes permits of every status, including pending applications, and expired, cancelled and revoked permits.

Fields

Permit number, permit type and subtype codes, and the subtype description.
Permit status (Issued, Pending, Cancelled, Expired, Revoked and a few others).
Date entered (the application date), date issued and expiration date.
Property street address, city, state and ZIP, the assessor's parcel number, the subdivision and lot description, the Metro Council district and the census tract, and a mapped point.
Purpose text, as described above.
Permit owner name and the permit owner's mailing address (three address lines, city, state and ZIP).
Applicant and contact names, with phone fields for each, as listed in Metro's data dictionary.

The metadata says owner information is not available for permits entered before May 23, 2016. In the current layer, 1,920 rows were entered before that date and only 7 of them lack an owner name, so the gap is smaller than the note suggests. Full details on any single permit can be looked up by permit number or address on Metro's ePermits site.

What our Tennessee rows carry

Our Nashville records carry the permit, the property address, the owner name and the owner's mailing address. We carry no phone number or email for Tennessee, so Tennessee counts 0 contactable in our data, and this guide treats Nashville as an address list. If you add phone numbers from any source, the calling rules in the section on contact channels below apply in full. See the Nashville register page for the field coverage in our data and the Nashville market page for the market summary.

Nashville permits in numbers

All figures in this section come from Metro's public layer, queried on October 23, 2026.

Status

Status	Permits
EXPIRED	8,041
ISSUED	7,010
CANCELLED	2,274
REVOKED	164
PENDING	40
DENIED-D	39
EXPIREEXT	32
HOLD	18
REFUNDED, VOID, OK TO PAY	6

Only 40% of rows are issued permits. The rest are the history of the program. That history is useful for some buyers (agents and investors looking for owners who stopped renting) and noise for others (cleaners and managers who need operating units). Filter first. The guide to pending and granted permits covers how to treat each status.

Applications by year

Year entered	Permits
2015	1,368
2016	1,612
2017	1,890
2018	2,399
2019	2,148
2020	974
2021	1,539
2022	1,995
2023	1,082
2024	1,187
2025	803
2026 (to October 23)	627

Filing peaked in 2018 and has run at roughly half that level since 2023. In the 12 months to October 23, 2026, Metro entered 798 permits: 551 not owner occupied and 247 owner occupied. Of the 627 entered in 2026, 457 were issued by October 23, 40 were pending, 16 were cancelled and 14 denied. Nashville is a mature market. Most owners you reach are established operators with existing vendors, and the roughly 800 new filings a year are the owners still choosing.

Where issued permits sit

Property ZIP	Issued permits
37203	1,709
37207	808
37208	721
37206	663
37212	462
37209	444
37201	346
37210	336
37216	313
37211	192

One ZIP, 37203, holds about a quarter of all issued permits (1,709 of 7,010). Ten ZIPs hold 5,994. A cleaning or maintenance crew can cover most of the active Nashville market from a handful of ZIP codes.

Investor ZIPs, host ZIPs and growth ZIPs

The ZIP totals hide three different markets. Splitting issued permits by class and adding recent filings shows them.

ZIP	Issued permits	Of which owner occupied	Permits entered October 23, 2025 to October 23, 2026
37203	1,709	88 (1,621 not owner occupied)	119
37207	808	248	171
37208	721	194	88
37206	663	367	50
37216	313	146	36
37209	444	121	55
37211	192	102	60

37203 is an investor ZIP: 95% of its issued permits are not owner occupied, and most of those owners live out of state. 37206 is a host ZIP: more than half of its issued permits are owner occupied, so the person on the permit usually lives at the address. 37207 is the growth ZIP: it had the most new filings in the last 12 months (171), more than 37203 (119). A manager selling full service to absent owners will find the most of them in 37203. A cleaner or handyman selling to hosts who live on site will find the most owner-occupied permits in 37206 (367) and 37207 (248). A furnisher or photographer looking for owners who are still setting up will find the most recent filings in 37207 (171), 37203 (119) and 37208 (88).

Outside the city of Nashville itself, the layer's city field shows small clusters of issued permits in Madison (102), Hermitage (41), Old Hickory (30), Antioch (28) and Whites Creek (23). Our Madison page covers the largest of these.

Where the owners live

Of the 7,010 issued permits, 4,957 have an owner mailing address in Tennessee, 22 have no owner state, and 2,031 have an owner mailing address in another state. The largest out-of-state groups are California (578), Florida (400), New York (141), Texas (141), Illinois (67), Kentucky (50), Ohio (49), Colorado (45), Alabama (42), Georgia (38) and Massachusetts (32). Almost all out-of-state owners hold non-owner-occupied permits: 2,017 of the 2,031.

Out-of-state owners are the core market for local managers, cleaners, maintenance crews and inspectors. They cannot walk over to fix a lockbox. In ZIP 37203, 1,040 of the 1,621 issued non-owner-occupied permits have an owner mailing address outside Tennessee.

Owners with more than one permit

Issued permits per owner name	Names	Permits held	Company names among them
1	4,307	4,307	n/a
2 to 9	385	1,138	218
10 or more	47	1,565	40
All	4,739	7,010	1,499

Counts group names after trimming spaces and ignoring case. "Company names" means the name contains LLC, Inc., Corp., LP, Ltd., Company or PLLC. Five names hold 50 or more issued permits each, 798 permits between them, and all five are company names. The largest single name holds 328 issued permits. Owner-occupied permits are almost one per owner: 2,005 permits under 2,001 names. The method for finding these owners across markets is in the multi-property owner guide.

Renewal calendar

Expiration month	Issued permits expiring
October 2026 (after October 23)	29
November 2026	257
December 2026	675
January 2027	597
February 2027	627
March 2027	505
April 2027	652
May 2027	603
June 2027	573
July 2027	491
August 2027	694
September 2027	582
October 2027	480

Another 245 issued permits expire after October 2027. Over the past year, 859 permits now marked EXPIRED had an expiration date in the 12 months before October 23, 2026. That is the size of the lapse pool a year produces in Nashville.

Chattanooga's short-term vacation rental program

The City of Chattanooga certifies short-term vacation rentals (STVRs) through the Zoning Division of its Land Development Office. The rules below come from the city's STVR application page and its Land Development Office page, both read on October 23, 2026.

Two certificate types

Type	Who qualifies	Where allowed	Application and renewal fee
Homestay (owner-occupied)	The property is the applicant's primary residence, lived in at least 183 days a year.	Commercial zones that permit absentee rentals, and the designated STVR Homestay Overlay.	$250 and $250
Absentee (non-owner occupied)	The property is not the applicant's primary residence.	Only commercial zones that permit a hotel or motel use: C-C, C-R, C-MU1 and C-MU2, and the form-based zones CC, CX, IX, RF, RV and SH.	$500 and $500

Other rules on the city's pages

Certificates are valid for one year and must be renewed every year. Renewals can be started 30 days before expiration. A certificate more than 30 days past expiration cannot be renewed.
An application has a 60-day lifespan from submission to issue. Fees are due before intake and are non-refundable. The city says applications are generally processed within 30 days.
After a property is rezoned, the owner cannot apply for an absentee certificate for 18 months from the rezoning's effective date.
The Board of Zoning Appeals cannot waive or exceed the 25% density and capacity cap.
Certificates are tied to the property and operator. A valid certificate can transfer to a new owner of the same property, but not to a different address, and the occupancy type cannot change.
The current certificate must be posted in a conspicuous place inside the rental, under city code section 38-87.
Applicants upload documents such as the deed, proof of insurance and escape plans.

Neither page we read requires the certificate number in advertisements. Both point owners to a zoning map to check eligibility.

What Chattanooga publishes

The city publishes an Active Short-Term Vacation Rentals file that it describes as containing "information about all active short-term vacation rental (STVR) permits in Chattanooga." When we downloaded it on October 23, 2026, it had 508 rows, all with status Complete, and these fields: record number, date created, status, street number, street name, unit, city, state, ZIP, latitude, longitude and expiration date. There is no owner name, no mailing address, no certificate type and no phone or email. Our dataset holds 558 Chattanooga records as of October 2026. Because the city file lists active certificates only, a certificate that lapses leaves the city file but can remain in a dataset that captured it earlier.

Chattanooga in numbers

Property ZIP	Active certificates
37408	137
37405	118
37404	65
37409	47
37402	36
37419	30
37403	27
37410	14
37415	13
37411	12

Three ZIPs (37408, 37405 and 37404) hold 320 of the 508 active certificates. 123 rows carry a unit number, which points to apartments or condos. The year in each record number shows when the certificate was first recorded: 7 date from 2017, 12 from 2018, 20 from 2019, 26 from 2020, 109 from 2021, 84 from 2022, 41 from 2023, 52 from 2024, 96 from 2025 and 61 from 2026. Expiration dates spread across the year, from 44 in November 2026 to 71 in May 2027. See the Chattanooga market page and the Chattanooga register page for the summary in our data.

Sevier County, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge

We found no public register of short-term rental permits for Sevier County, Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge. We looked for an open data file, a map layer and a downloadable list on the county and city sites and in the public ArcGIS Online catalog, and found none. The City of Gatlinburg's permit page and parts of the county site refused automated reads during our research, so we cannot describe their contents. What we can describe comes from documents published by the Sevier County Fire Marshal's Office.

The county Short-Term Rental Unit permit program

Who it covers. The program "requires all STRUs in Sevier County outside of city limits to have a permit issued annually following an annual inspection." Units inside city limits are not covered by the county program.
Start. The program took effect January 1, 2024. The county's slides list the steps: codes discussions from December 2022, adoption of codes and a fee schedule in June 2023, and exempt jurisdiction status from the State of Tennessee on November 28, 2023. The slides say Sevier County was then 1 of 6 Tennessee counties with that status.
Size. The county's slides say Sevier County has "over 6,500 units currently operating in the county."
Fee. The county's application sets an annual operational permit fee of $250 for an occupancy of 12 or less, with $25 more per occupant for 13 or more.
Inspection. Inspections are done by Sevier County Fire and Rescue fire inspectors and cover fire safety, smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, electrical safety and structural integrity. Smoke alarms must be interconnected.
Renewal timing. The inspection month is based on the first inspection date, so renewals are staggered through the year. Owners are told of their inspection date at least two weeks ahead.
Grandfathering. The county's realtor guidance says applications submitted after the original June 30, 2024 deadline are not grandfathered and may need more code compliance. Its new-build guidance adds that units built after February 1, 2016 that are over three stories, over 5,000 square feet or sleep 13 or more, and exceed certificate of occupancy load limits, must apply for a change of occupancy, which may bring sprinklers, emergency lighting and more exits.
Sales. When a unit is sold, the seller files a "Notification of Unit Sold" form and the buyer files a change of information application.

The county's realtor guidance says information about a specific unit's permit file "may be obtained by the current owner or via a public records request." That is a route to one unit's history during a sale, not a published list.

What this means for vendors in the Smokies

Without a public register, a vendor cannot pull a permit list for Sevier County the way it can for Nashville. The county program does tell you what owners there are dealing with: an annual fire inspection, interconnected smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, occupancy tied to the certificate of occupancy, and extra code work for large or newer cabins. Fire-safety contractors, electricians, inspectors and insurers have a natural offer built around that inspection. The program also says renewals are staggered by first inspection month, so there is no single season to time a campaign around. We will add Sevier County to our data if a public register appears.

Working an address-only list

Every Tennessee record in our data is an address record. That is not a weakness for most offers to rental owners. It just means the plan is built around mail and in-person visits instead of calls.

Step by step

Filter by status. For Nashville, keep ISSUED (7,010 permits) for operating owners, or PENDING (40) for owners about to start. Keep EXPIRED and CANCELLED only if you sell to former operators.
Filter by permit class. Not-owner-occupied permits are whole-property rentals run by owners who live elsewhere. Owner-occupied permits are hosts renting at their own address.
Choose the address to mail. For non-owner-occupied permits, mail the permit owner's mailing address, not the property. A letter to a rental property may be read by a guest or not at all. For owner-occupied permits, the property and the owner's address are usually the same.
Group by owner name. Send one letter per owner, listing all of their properties. In ZIP 37203, 1,040 out-of-state non-owner-occupied permits sit under only 290 owner names.
Segment by size. Parse sleeping rooms and occupancy from the purpose text. Price and pitch differ for a one-room unit and a four-room house.
Time it. Mail 30 to 60 days before each permit's expiration date, when owners are dealing with renewal paperwork.
Track by permit number. Put the permit number or a code on each piece so you can tell which segment responded.

The direct mail guide covers formats and copy for this audience.

A letter template

[Owner name]
[Owner mailing address]
Your Nashville short-term rental permit for [property address], permit [number], is on Metro's public permit list with an expiration date of [date].
We [clean / maintain / insure / manage] short-term rentals in [ZIP or neighborhood] for owners who live outside Nashville. [One sentence on what you do and what it costs.]
If you would like a quote for [property address], call [number] or reply at [address]. If you would rather not hear from us again, tell us and we will remove your name.
[Your name, business name, business address]

Keep it to the facts on the permit. Do not imply you work for Metro, and do not suggest a permit is at risk unless the public record shows it.

Worked examples with real counts

Postage figures below use the prices the Postal Service filed in April 2026 for July 12, 2026: 65 cents for a domestic postcard and 78 cents for a metered one-ounce letter, subject to review by the Postal Regulatory Commission. Check current rates before you mail. Printing and list costs are extra and vary by vendor.

Example 1: a cleaning company in 37203

Target: issued non-owner-occupied permits in ZIP 37203 whose owner mailing address is outside Tennessee. Count: 1,040 permits. Grouped by owner name, that is 290 owners. 27 of those names hold 777 of the permits; the other 263 names hold one each.

Plan: one postcard to each of the 263 single-permit owners and a letter to each of the 27 multi-permit owners. Postage: 263 x $0.65 = $170.95, plus 27 x $0.78 = $21.06, for $192.01 before printing. Treat the 27 large holders separately: several will already have a cleaning contract, and they decide by price and capacity, so a letter naming each of their properties is worth more than a postcard.

Example 2: a property manager targeting small portfolios

Target: owner names with two to nine issued Nashville permits. Count: 385 names holding 1,138 permits; 218 of the names are companies. Owners at this size have outgrown self-management but are not large enough to run their own operations team.

Plan: a letter to each, listing their permits by address. Postage: 385 x $0.78 = $300.30. The 47 names with ten or more permits (1,565 permits, 40 company names) are a separate, slower sale. The five names with 50 or more permits are operators in their own right.

Example 3: an insurer working the renewal calendar

Target: issued permits expiring in December 2026 and January 2027. Count: 1,272 permits, 1,004 of them not owner occupied, under 807 owner names. 57 of those names hold two or more of the expiring permits, 522 permits between them.

Plan: mail in two waves, 60 days before each month's expirations. Postage for one postcard per owner: 807 x $0.65 = $524.55. Repeat monthly with the next month's expirations.

Example 4: a maintenance vendor in Chattanooga

Target: all 508 active certificates in the city file, starting with ZIPs 37408, 37405 and 37404 (320 certificates). The file has no owner name or mailing address. Mail sent to the property address of an absentee rental may reach a guest or nobody.

Plan: for the 320 addresses in the three ZIPs, look up each parcel's owner of record and mailing address in the county's public property records, then mail the owner. Postage for 320 postcards: 320 x $0.65 = $208. Expect fewer than 320 owners once you group by owner of record. Use the 123 rows with unit numbers to find condo buildings where one visit to the management office may cover many units.

Example 5: what a Smokies campaign cannot do

There is no public Sevier County permit list to filter, so there is no permit-based count to plan against. The county's own figure, over 6,500 units, describes the size of the market, not a list you can mail. A vendor working the Smokies has to build its own list from sources it is entitled to use and should not describe outreach as permit-based.

Contact channels and the rules that apply

Mail. The lowest-risk channel and the one the Tennessee registers support. Include your business name and address, and remove anyone who asks.
Calls and texts. If you add phone numbers to a Tennessee list from any source, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the National Do Not Call Registry apply. Permit holders are often individuals, and their phones are often personal mobiles. Do not use autodialers, prerecorded messages or artificial voices, and do not text without consent. The TCPA and Do Not Call guide explains the rules.
Email. CAN-SPAM applies to business email too; the FTC's guide says the law makes no exception for business-to-business messages. Use an accurate subject line, include a physical postal address and honor opt-outs within 10 business days.
Door visits. A visit to a non-owner-occupied rental usually reaches a guest, not the owner. Leave nothing that suggests official business.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check with your own counsel before running a calling, texting or email program.

Mistakes to avoid in Tennessee

Counting rows as rentals. Only 7,010 of 17,624 rows in Metro's layer are issued permits. Count permits by status, and count owners by name.
Mailing the property address for absentee owners. 2,031 Nashville issued permits have an owner mailing address outside Tennessee. Use it.
Sending one owner many letters. One name holds 328 issued permits. Group by owner before you print.
Assuming a permit survives a sale. Under the state Act, legacy protection ends on sale or transfer. Chattanooga allows a certificate to transfer to a new owner of the same property. Sevier County requires sale and change-of-information forms. Check the specific rule before advising a buyer.
Treating Chattanooga as owner-named data. The city file has addresses and dates only.
Describing Smokies outreach as permit-based. We found no public register there.
Relying on summaries. Third-party summaries of Sevier County fees and Gatlinburg rules disagreed with each other during our research. Use the official pages.

Checklist for a Tennessee campaign

Decide which program the property falls under: Metro Nashville, the City of Chattanooga, a Sevier County city, unincorporated Sevier County, or another local government.
Read that program's official page on the day you plan the campaign. Rules here are as read in October 2026.
For Nashville, filter on status and class, and count permits by owner name.
Use the permit owner's mailing address for non-owner-occupied permits.
For Chattanooga, add owner of record from county property records before mailing absentee rentals.
Segment by size using the sleeping rooms and occupancy in Nashville's purpose text.
Time mail 30 to 60 days before expiration dates.
Apply TCPA, Do Not Call and CAN-SPAM rules before any call, text or email.
Do not describe a Smokies campaign as permit-based.
Keep a suppression list and honor every removal request.

Using our Tennessee data

Our Tennessee data covers the Nashville and Chattanooga registers, refreshed daily, with owner names and mailing addresses where the register publishes them and no phone or email. You can see a free 25-row sample after a free sign-up. A Tennessee state subscription is $99 a month for up to 10,000 rows a month, and a one-time Tennessee download is $149; national plans are on the pricing page. To check whether one address is on a public register, use the free STR permit lookup. The Tennessee state page summarizes coverage, and our reference to rules in the largest U.S. markets compares Nashville with other cities.

Questions and answers

Does Tennessee have a statewide short-term rental permit?

No. Tennessee's Short-Term Rental Unit Act (Public Chapter 972 of 2018, Tennessee Code section 13-7-601 and following) sets limits on local rules, and local governments run their own permit programs. Short-term rentals of vacation lodging for fewer than 90 continuous days are subject to state sales tax, collected by the property management company or, if none is used, by the owner.

What does the Nashville short-term rental permit register show?

Metro Nashville's open data layer lists permit number, subtype (owner occupied or not owner occupied), status, application, issue and expiration dates, property address, parcel, council district, census tract, purpose text with sleeping rooms and maximum occupancy, and the permit owner's name and mailing address. Its data dictionary also lists applicant and contact fields. It includes pending, expired, cancelled and revoked permits as well as issued ones, and updates daily.

How many active short-term rental permits does Nashville have?

When we queried Metro's public layer on October 23, 2026, it showed 7,010 permits with status ISSUED: 5,005 not owner occupied and 2,005 owner occupied. The layer had 17,624 rows in total, including 8,041 expired and 2,274 cancelled permits. ZIP 37203 held 1,709 of the issued permits.

Why do Tennessee permit records show no phone or email?

Our Tennessee records carry the permit, property address and, for Nashville, the owner name and mailing address, but no phone number or email. That is why Tennessee shows 0 contactable records in our data as of October 2026. Mail to the permit owner's mailing address is the main channel. If you add phones from any source, the TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry apply.

Is there a public permit list for Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge or Sevier County?

We found no public register of short-term rental permits for Sevier County, Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge as of October 2026. Sevier County runs an annual inspection permit for units outside city limits, which started January 1, 2024 and costs $250 a year for occupancy of 12 or less plus $25 per occupant above that. The county's program slides put the number of operating units at over 6,500.

What are Chattanooga's short-term vacation rental rules?

Chattanooga issues two certificate types. A homestay is the applicant's primary residence, lived in at least 183 days a year, and is allowed in an overlay and some commercial zones; fees are $250 to apply and $250 to renew. An absentee certificate is only allowed in listed commercial and form-based zones; fees are $500 and $500. Certificates last one year. The city's active list publishes addresses and expiration dates but no owner names.

Does a Tennessee short-term rental permit transfer when the property is sold?

It depends on the program. Under the state Act, legacy protection from later local rules ends when a property is sold or transferred. Chattanooga lets a valid certificate transfer to a new owner of the same property. Sevier County asks the seller to file a notification of unit sold and the buyer to file a change of information. Check the current official rule before advising a buyer. This is not legal advice.