Airbnb Regs For Nashville Would Limit Guest Numbers, Tax Hosts Like Hotels

Airbnb rentals are now illegal in Nashville, but city officials are working on changing that. Credit: Airbnb

On Tuesday, Nashville’s Metro Council will take up regulations aimed at short-term vacation booking services, like Airbnb.

Among those poised to be affected is Eric Lewis, who, along with more than 1,000 others in the city, has been drawing income by renting out a room in his house. He says he and other Airbnb hosts are willing to pay taxes on their side business.

“And willing to buy a permit every year to make sure we don’t get shut down,” he added at a recent public hearing on the newly propose rules.

City law now bans short-term rentals in residential properties, but Metro Council’s proposed regulations would bring services like Airbnb into legal territory.

Proposed requirements limit rentals to eight guests, two to a room. The homes or apartments have to be the host’s primary residence. And if an RV is used to house guests, it can’t be seen from the road.

Lindsey Vaughn says she used money from one of her kid’s college fund to set up a short-term vacation property. She doesn’t want new regulations to sap her business.

“If you’re going to put limitations on the number of people a property can sleep, or the number of rentals that a person can own, there needs to be people grandfathered in for people who have already done this,” Vaughn said at the hearing.

Council member Burkley Allen of West End is sponsoring the AirBnb regulations, which would also require hosts to pay hotel taxes on their rental income.