Shelby County, Tennessee Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Shelby County, Tennessee and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you're allowed to across most of the county, and no local government here can ban you outright, because Tennessee took that option away from cities and counties back in 2018. The harder news is that Shelby County isn't one jurisdiction. It's Memphis, six suburban municipalities, and the unincorporated county in between, so your street address decides which rulebook you're under before anything else does.

Two of those rulebooks cover the bulk of the county. Property in unincorporated Shelby County needs a Short Term Rental Property Permit from the County Clerk, which runs $100 to open and $50 a year after that. Property inside the Memphis city limits needs a city license under Ordinance 5856 instead, and that one costs $300 to apply and $150 to renew, with double fees waiting if the city catches you operating without it. Then there's Collierville, which prohibits the transient occupancy of short-term rentals in every zoning district it has. Unfortunately, if your house sits there, you don't have a business to start.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly in 2026: which layer of government owns your address, what each permit costs, the safety and insurance conditions bolted onto it, the taxes that ride on every stay, how hard any of it gets enforced after the shootings that pushed the City Council into action this spring, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from Shelby County's, Memphis's or Tennessee's own documents, checked in July 2026, and where two official pages disagree with each other I've said so rather than quietly picking one. Assuming you're still choosing between addresses, run each one through BNBCalc before you commit.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Shelby County, Tennessee?

Which address you commit to matters this much because three layers of law stack on top of each other, and only the top layer changes from street to street.

The bottom layer is state law, and it's the one that protects you, because the Short-Term Rental Unit Act of 2018 sits at sections 13-7-601 to 13-7-606 of the Tennessee Code and has been in force since May 17 of that year. It defines a short-term rental unit as a residential dwelling rented in whole or in part, for a fee, for less than 30 continuous days, excluding hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, and it stops a local government from effectively prohibiting that use once an owner has reasonably complied with generally applicable local law. Cities and counties kept plenty, mind you: permitting, zoning, occupancy limits, noise, safety codes, and revocation after repeated violations all stayed local. They lost the blanket ban.

The middle layer is Shelby County's own ordinance, and it reaches only the unincorporated territory, which is what "the county" means once you're inside a city's limits. The county requires a Short Term Rental Property Permit issued by the Shelby County Clerk, and the permit application reproduces the ordinance's operating rules in full on its second and third pages, which is where the county's requirements in this guide come from. One gap is worth naming, though. The codified article lives on Municode, whose viewer wouldn't serve its text to me at all, so I've cited the county's own form rather than section numbers I couldn't read.

The top layer is whichever municipality you're in, and for most readers that means Memphis, where Ordinance 5856 amended Article VII, Chapter 36, Section 36-130 of the city code, passed its third reading on March 21, 2023, and took effect on July 1, 2023, replacing the Ordinance 5631 the Council had adopted back in November 2016. Under it, a short-term rental is a home with no more than three sleeping rooms that you rent out or advertise for transient stays, while anything let to the same occupant for more than thirty continuous days sits outside the definition, along with hotels, motels, boarding houses and bed-and-breakfasts. Do check that sleeping-room count against your floor plan before you buy, since the newspaper notice published while the bill was still moving said four rooms and the signed ordinance says three.

One quiet clause saves a lot of confusion. Section 3 puts short-term rentals under this ordinance and not under the rooming-house rules in Section 2.5.2 of the Memphis and Shelby County Unified Development Code, so you're never squeezing a rental into a category it was never meant for.

The suburbs are where the map gets uneven, and Collierville is the outlier there. Its zoning code, at § 151.021 of the Town Code, carries a footnote to the use table saying that "the transient occupancy of short-term rentals, as those terms are defined in § 151.003, are prohibited in each Zoning District noted above," and it then lists all twenty-one of them. That's the codification I was able to open, and since it's a snapshot rather than today's live page, do call the town before you rely on it either way. For Bartlett, Germantown, Millington, Arlington and Lakeland I couldn't reach a readable short-term rental provision at all, so I won't tell you what those five require. Call the municipality on your tax bill, and get the answer in writing.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Shelby County

Since the answer changes by municipality, your first job still isn't paperwork. It's working out which government your parcel answers to, and a Memphis mailing address proves nothing, because plenty of Shelby County addresses say Memphis on the envelope while sitting outside the city limits. Your property tax bill will show whether you're paying a city rate on top of the county rate, and the Clerk's office or Develop 901 will confirm it in a phone call.

Once you know the jurisdiction, the shape of the business follows, even if the route differs. In unincorporated Shelby County you apply to the County Clerk for a permit tied to that one address, while inside Memphis you apply for a city license through the Division of Planning and Development. Neither permit can be transferred or assigned to another person, entity or address, so buying a property that already operates as a rental doesn't buy you its permit.

That said, if the property was already in short-term rental use before the local ordinance took effect, state law may still be carrying it. Memphis wrote that protection into its own ordinance, echoing T.C.A. § 13-7-603: the permit requirement doesn't reach a property the owner ran as a short-term rental before the effective date, and the legacy status survives until the property is sold, sits unused as a rental for 30 continuous months, or is found in violation of a generally applicable local law three or more times. Keep in mind that the first of those triggers is a sale, so legacy status is worth something to the current owner and nothing to a buyer.

Two conditions shape the business more than the fees do. Both the county and the city require fire, hazard and liability insurance with liability limits of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence, which means a commercial short-term rental policy rather than a homeowner's, so get it quoted early. Both also want a responsible party within 50 miles who answers the phone twenty-four hours a day for the length of every stay, with the name and number posted inside the unit. Out-of-state owners can still operate, then, but only through a local manager who genuinely picks up at two in the morning.

The last thing to settle before you spend money is what you're allowed to rent. A detached accessory dwelling unit is fair game in unincorporated Shelby County provided it has no more than four sleeping rooms, and neither government lets you take money for a stay shorter than twenty-four hours, which rules out the day-rate party booking behind most of the complaints. The principal renter has to be at least eighteen. In the county, guests may only be given food and drink that's packaged, sealed and non-perishable, since the commissioners deliberately kept rentals out of food-service inspection.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Shelby County

Assuming the property clears all of that and you're able to move ahead, the permit itself is still the next hurdle, and the two jurisdictions price it very differently.

In unincorporated Shelby County, the Clerk's application charges $100 for an original permit and $50 for a renewal as of July 2026, the permit expires 365 days after it's issued, and renewal requests have to reach the Clerk's office at least 30 days before the current permit runs out. The county also wants a final inspection completed by Memphis/Shelby County Code Enforcement first, and the form says the Clerk's office will verify it happened, so this isn't a step you can self-certify past. You also initial your way down a column of certifications, and two of them catch people out. The first is that you're current on property taxes for this and every other property you own in Shelby County, while the second is that no citation was issued over conditions or conduct at the property in the last 12 months. The rest cover receipt of the ordinance, no similar permit denied, suspended or revoked for you anywhere in the preceding 365 days, no unpaid court fines under it, and compliance with the room occupancy tax.

By contrast, Memphis charges considerably more. Ordinance 5856 sets a non-refundable application fee of $300.00, payable when you file, covering applicant screening and on-site inspection, plus a $150.00 renewal on the same 365-day cycle and the same 30-day deadline. Both run through the Develop 901 short-term rental registration page and its citizen portal. City inspectors are permitted, though not required, to inspect before issuing or renewing, and the registration page says your contact details are used to schedule a rental inspection, so plan on one happening.

Beyond the fee, a Memphis permit carries obligations that stay live for as long as the listing does:

• Your permit number goes in every advertisement. Any listing on a website, mobile app or hosting platform has to display the permit number for that unit.
• One permit per unit. A dwelling holding more than one rental needs a permit for each.
• Alarms. UL 217 smoke alarms in all sleeping areas and along the egress path, plus carbon monoxide detectors on every habitable floor.
• Noise and garbage. Guests are bound by the noise limits in Memphis City Code § 22-1 and the garbage collection provisions of Ordinance 4840.
• The 24-hour contact. The owner or a designee is posted inside the unit and answers calls around the clock.

The county's safety list looks similar, with one addition worth budgeting for. Every unit needs a 5-pound fire extinguisher rated for A, B and C fires, on top of the same UL 217 smoke alarm placement and carbon monoxide detectors on every habitable floor.

Where the two diverge most is what happens when you skip the permit. Memphis writes the consequence into the ordinance, so a property found operating without one is subject to double fees when it finally applies. A responsible party who fails to show up after a complaint can cost you a suspension of up to 30 days, and a false or fraudulent statement made to obtain a permit is grounds for revocation for a full 12 months. Remember that the revocation runs against the property, so a shortcut now takes a year of income with it.

Required Documents for Shelby County Short-Term Rentals

Because neither fee comes back if you're turned down, it pays to have the file assembled before you start filling anything in. The county's application is short, though the attachments behind it are where the time goes.

Unincorporated Shelby County asks for three attachments plus the signed form:

• A site plan drawn to scale, showing each unit along with the other structures and site features on the parcel.
• Proof of current ownership of the property.
• Proof of insurance evidencing homeowner's fire, hazard and liability cover, with liability limits of not less than one million dollars per occurrence.
• On the form itself, the maximum transient capacity per night, a start date, and contact details for the owner, the responsible party, and any management company.

Memphis asks for a longer list on the application, and the ordinance spells out each item:

• The maximum transient capacity per night for each unit, plus a site plan drawn to scale.
• The owner's written agreement to use best efforts so the rental doesn't interfere with neighbors' quiet enjoyment.
• Proof of current ownership, and verification of insurance for fire, hazard and liability of not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence.
• A compliance verification form certifying that every unit meets applicable building, health and life safety codes.
• The applicant's acknowledgement that they've received, reviewed and understood the ordinance.
• Disclosure of any citation issued over conditions or conduct at the property in the last 12 months.
• Identification of the responsible party within 50 miles.

Watch out for the citation disclosure, since it's the one applicants forget. The city can deny or revoke on a false statement, and a problem you've disclosed and since fixed is a much cheaper conversation than one an inspector turns up later.

Shelby County Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you clear the paperwork and are able to take a first booking, there's still tax to sort out, and these layers belong to three governments that don't file on the same schedule.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
State sales tax	7%	Tennessee Dept. of Revenue
Local sales tax	2.75% in Memphis, varies elsewhere in the county	Tennessee Dept. of Revenue
County room occupancy tax	5% of consideration	Shelby County Clerk
Memphis privilege tax on STR occupancy	3.5% under Ordinance 5856 (the city's 2026 hotel/motel form shows 4.0%)	City of Memphis Treasury
Memphis destination marketing assessment	$2.00 per paid occupied room night	City of Memphis Treasury
Business tax (Classification 3)	applies once rental gross sales pass $100,000 a year	Tennessee Dept. of Revenue

Start with sales tax, because it's the layer the platforms handle for you. Tennessee applies its 7% state rate plus a local rate to rentals of under 90 continuous days, and the local piece varies by jurisdiction, with the Department of Revenue capping it at 2.75% and requiring it to be a multiple of 0.25. Memphis sits at the ceiling: an official Department notice records the city's move to 2.75% effective January 1, 2020, after voters approved it. Outside the city limits the local rate differs, and the Department publishes it through a rate map rather than a table I could read, so look up your own address instead of assuming Memphis's number. Airbnb states that it collects the 7% state rate and the 1.50% to 2.75% local rate on Tennessee reservations of 89 nights or shorter, and Vrbo has collected the same since October 1, 2020.

Occupancy tax is the layer that trips people up, since it's local money administered two different ways. Shelby County's own levy comes from an amended Chapter 131 of the Private Acts of 1969, which authorizes the county clerk to charge a privilege tax on occupancy at 5% of the consideration charged by the operator, and the Clerk's office handles it on (901) 222-3059. Memphis levies its own on top of that, and this is the figure where two official documents disagree. Ordinance 5856 § 5(3) sets a privilege tax on short term rental occupancy at 3.5% of the consideration charged, while the City of Memphis Hotel/Motel Occupancy Tax form dated 2026 computes tax at 4.0% of taxable revenue under the same Chapter 36 authority, having moved up from 3.5% on the 2025 edition of the form. Neither document cross-references the other, so I'd call the Treasury Office on (901) 522-1111 to confirm which applies before your first return is due. Memphis also imposes a $2.00 assessment per paid occupied room night on short term rental properties under Ordinance 5595, dedicated to destination marketing.

Who actually hands that occupancy tax over comes down to how the booking was made. Since January 1, 2021, a short-term rental unit marketplace such as Airbnb or Vrbo has had to collect the local occupancy tax and remit it to the Department of Revenue for stays under 30 days, while a host taking a direct booking still owes that tax to the city or county themselves. A property manager isn't a marketplace for this purpose, so if you self-manage or book direct, that money is yours to file. Memphis returns are due monthly by the 20th for the previous month's business, and the form gives you a 2% credit for paying on time. Miss it, though, and you're into 10% per annum interest plus a 1% monthly penalty, with a civil penalty of up to $200 for willfully failing to collect or remit, and the same again for knowingly filing a false return.

Three 2025 changes from the General Assembly are worth carrying into your model. Public Chapter 364, effective July 1, 2025, subjects the first 30 days of occupancy to local occupancy tax regardless of how long the stay ultimately runs, for agreements entered, renewed or amended on or after that date, and that tax is no longer refundable if the guest later extends past 30 days. Public Chapter 372, effective May 5, 2025, caps a municipality's occupancy tax levy at 4% and bars increases that push a cumulative rate above 8%, with rates already above the cap on May 1, 2025 grandfathered, while Public Chapter 355 cut the Department's administration fee on local taxes from 1.125% to 0.75%.

Then there are two more state layers, and they only bite at scale. Business tax reaches you as a Classification 3 taxpayer once gross sales from rentals of under 180 consecutive days reach $100,000 a year per jurisdiction, and below that no filing is required. Franchise and excise tax applies to taxable entities such as corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships rather than to individuals, so holding the property in an LLC creates a filing obligation that owning it in your own name doesn't. Registration for all of it runs through the Tennessee Taxpayer Access Point, and opening a sales and use tax account costs nothing.

Tennessee Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Those tax layers are state-administered, and so is the ceiling that keeps Shelby County's cities from going further than they have.

Tennessee has no statewide short-term rental license, and permitting is explicitly a local option under § 13-7-604(b) rather than a state mandate, which is why "registering with the state" here means nothing more than opening a tax account. What the state does supply is the Short-Term Rental Unit Act's floor. A local government can't effectively prohibit an owner from using property as a short-term rental after reasonable compliance with generally applicable local law, and § 13-7-606 says the part "supersedes any ordinance, resolution, regulation, rule, or other requirement... enacted, maintained, or enforced by a local governing body that is in conflict with this part."

Read that as partial preemption rather than a shield. Cities and counties kept permitting, zoning, occupancy caps, noise rules, safety codes and the power to revoke after three or more violations, and ordinances predating 2014 that expressly limit rental duration stay enforceable regardless. The Act also leaves private restrictions alone under § 13-7-605, so an HOA covenant or a lease clause banning short-term rentals still binds you. Do read the covenants on a Shelby County subdivision before you close, because that's a restriction no permit office will warn you about.

Legacy status is the other piece worth understanding properly. A unit already held out for short-term rental use before a new local ordinance took effect, with either a local permit or six or more months of tax remittance in the prior twelve, keeps the older rules, and it loses them on sale or transfer, after 30 consecutive months of non-use, or once three or more violations are final. Memphis copied that trigger list into Ordinance 5856, and its compliance section puts the burden of proving a violation came from the rental on the City, which matters when one noisy weekend gets reported by four neighbors.

Elsewhere in the state the picture varies a lot, and the comparison is instructive if you're choosing a Tennessee market rather than a Shelby County address. Our Tennessee statewide guide maps the framework overall, the Nashville guide and the Davidson County guide cover a market with owner-occupancy rules Memphis has never adopted, and the Hamilton County guide covers Chattanooga at the other end of the state.

Does Shelby County Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Enforcement is where that state-law floor gets tested, and in Memphis the honest answer in 2026 is that the rules are strict on paper and thin in practice. That gap is closing fast, though.

The number that made this a live issue is stark. At a City Council meeting in early March 2026, presenters told members that 90% of Memphis short-term rental properties have no permit, which suggests the $300 license has been optional for most of the market since 2023. What changed the temperature wasn't fee compliance, though. It was a run of violence: a man shot dead at a party on Grove Dale Street in December 2025, four people shot at a High Point Terrace party in January 2026 with a 14-year-old among them, and a fatal Valentine's Day shooting in Sherwood Forest. Councilman Philip Spinosa's summary was blunt: "Seven of them were shootings, two deaths. Four of them were meetings that happened within the neighborhoods that I am in. So, I'm sick of this."

Resolution 22426 was the Council's response. It asks the Mayor's Administration to bring in a qualified organization to strengthen monitoring and enforcement, to develop strategies for deterring repeat offenders, and to report back within 90 days with recommendations and, if necessary, proposed amendments to the ordinance. The city has meanwhile been working with a compliance monitoring service on identifying unpermitted addresses, so the enforcement posture through the rest of 2026 is almost certainly tighter than that 90% figure implies. Be aware, too, that a report-back with proposed amendments is exactly how permit fees, occupancy caps and inspection requirements get rewritten.

The mechanics still favor a careful operator, which is worth knowing in both directions. Under Ordinance 5856, use as a short-term rental is prohibited and the permit revoked only where a court has found the unit in violation of a generally applicable local law three or more separate times with no appeal rights left, and the burden of proving the violation came from the rental sits with the City. That's a high bar, and it's the same three-strike structure state law imposes. It also explains the frustration on the council floor, since one bad weekend costs nobody a permit.

In unincorporated Shelby County the story is quieter, and I found no published compliance data at all. What the county has instead is a gate at the front, since the Clerk verifies that Code Enforcement completed a final inspection before a permit issues, and you certify no citations in the past 12 months and no unpaid court fines under the ordinance. Renewal is a screening step, not a rubber stamp. So a year of complaints surfaces when you renew.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Shelby County

Given how much of that depends on which side of a city line you're standing, the order of these steps still matters more than it looks. Get the first two wrong and you'll pay a fee to the wrong government.

1. Confirm your jurisdiction before anything else. Check whether the parcel is inside Memphis, inside one of the six suburban municipalities, or in unincorporated county territory. Your property tax bill and the Clerk's office will both tell you.
2. If you're in Collierville, stop and get written confirmation. Its use table prohibits the transient occupancy of short-term rentals in every zoning district, so verify with the town before you spend a dollar on furniture.
3. Read your covenants and your lease. State law leaves HOA restrictions and lease clauses fully enforceable, and neither permit office will check them for you.
4. Price the insurance early. Both the city and the county require fire, hazard and liability cover at not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence, and a standard homeowner's policy won't do it.
5. Line up a responsible party within 50 miles who will genuinely answer the phone twenty-four hours a day, and get their name and number ready to post inside the unit.
6. Book the inspection. The county requires a completed final inspection by Memphis/Shelby County Code Enforcement, and Memphis may inspect before issuing or renewing.
7. Assemble the file, then apply. Site plan drawn to scale, proof of ownership, proof of insurance, maximum transient capacity, code compliance certification, and the citation disclosure. County applications go to the Clerk's Business Tax Division, Memphis applications through the Develop 901 portal.
8. Pay the fee and put your permit number in every listing. Memphis requires the number on every advertisement, and the $300 doesn't come back if the application fails.
9. Set up the tax accounts before your first guest. Register with the Department of Revenue, confirm what your platform collects, and diarize the Memphis occupancy return for the 20th of each month if you take direct bookings.
10. Diarize the renewal for 30 days early. Both jurisdictions expire the permit at 365 days and want the renewal in hand a month before that.

Who to Contact in Shelby County about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, four offices handle nearly all of it, and knowing which one owns your question saves an afternoon on hold.

County permits and the room occupancy tax

The Shelby County Clerk, Business Tax Division issues the short term rental permit for unincorporated Shelby County and administers the county's 5% room occupancy tax.

• Downtown office: 150 Washington Avenue, Second Floor, Memphis, TN 38103
• East Branch: 1075 Mullins Station Road, West Wing, Memphis, TN 38134
• Phone: (901) 222-3059
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:15 pm downtown, and 9:00 am to 5:15 pm at the East Branch

Memphis licensing, inspections and zoning

Develop 901 is the public name of the Memphis & Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, and it runs the short-term rental registry along with the citizen portal for applications and renewals.

• Address: 125 N Main Street, Suite 477, Memphis, TN 38103
• Phone: (901) 636-7384 or (901) 636-6601
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm
• Apply or renew: the short-term rental registration page

For the inspection side, the Construction Enforcement Office sits at 6465 Mullins Station Road, Memphis, TN 38134, on (901) 222-8300, Monday to Friday 8 am to 4:30 pm.

Memphis occupancy tax

The City of Memphis Treasury Office takes the hotel/motel occupancy tax return and the destination marketing assessment.

• Address: Room 375, 125 North Main Street, Memphis, TN 38103-2017
• Phone: (901) 522-1111
• Fax: (901) 636-9405
• Filing: monthly, by the 20th, for the preceding month

Do note that the city's Permits Office on (901) 636-6711 handles beer, dance, massage, taxi and liquor permits, and it now routes short-term rental questions straight to Develop 901, which makes calling it first the most common wrong turn.

State taxes

Sales tax, local occupancy tax remitted by platforms, business tax and franchise and excise all belong to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, and accounts open through the Tennessee Taxpayer Access Point at no charge.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Shelby County on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those offices tell you what the rules are, while the people already operating tell you how it feels to live under them. What follows is my read of public discussion rather than a survey, and Reddit blocked automated access here, so nothing below rests on a Reddit thread.

On BiggerPockets, the loudest 2026 topic among Memphis operators isn't permitting at all. It's the 2025 Shelby County reappraisal. Memphis property manager Andrew Glisson, in a March 2026 thread on how it landed, reports valuations up an average of 34% across the city, with jumps of 37% to 39% in Bartlett and Lakeland, and notes that the city rate falling from $3.20 to $2.58 per $100 doesn't translate into a lower bill. His point about which strategy absorbs it is the useful one: short-term operators "can reprice nightly," while a long-term landlord has "rent... locked until renewal, so that tax increase comes straight out of cash flow."

Three themes recur beyond that, and they line up with the documents. Hosts describe permitting as cheap to ignore and increasingly risky to ignore, which is what a 90% non-compliance rate and a council resolution in the same quarter look like from the inside. They treat the responsible-party rule, not the fee, as the real constraint on out-of-state ownership. And they treat the suburbs as a patchwork nobody has mapped, which matches my own experience researching this.

If you're weighing Shelby County against somewhere else in the state, the Tennessee market rankings will show you where it sits against Nashville, Knoxville and the Smokies. Wherever you land, the rule that travels is the same one: in a county stitched together from eight governments, the address decides the law long before the business plan does.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Shelby County, Tennessee in 2026?

In most of the county, yes. Tennessee's Short-Term Rental Unit Act stops a local government from prohibiting short-term rentals outright, so the question is which permit you need rather than whether you're allowed. Unincorporated Shelby County requires a permit from the County Clerk, and the City of Memphis requires a license under Ordinance 5856. Collierville is the exception: its zoning code prohibits the transient occupancy of short-term rentals in every district.

How much does a short-term rental permit cost in Shelby County?

It depends on the jurisdiction. In unincorporated Shelby County the County Clerk charges $100 for an original permit and $50 to renew. Inside Memphis, Ordinance 5856 sets a non-refundable $300 application fee and a $150 renewal. Both permits expire 365 days after issue and want the renewal at least 30 days before that. Memphis also charges double fees to anyone found operating without a permit.

What taxes do you pay on a short-term rental in Shelby County?

Four layers can apply. Tennessee charges 7% state sales tax plus a local sales tax, which is 2.75% in Memphis and varies elsewhere in the county. Shelby County levies a 5% room occupancy tax through the County Clerk. Memphis adds its own occupancy privilege tax, set at 3.5% in Ordinance 5856 and shown as 4.0% on the city's 2026 tax form, plus $2.00 per paid occupied room night. Airbnb and Vrbo collect the sales and local occupancy tax on bookings they facilitate.

Do you need a permit for an Airbnb in Memphis or just in unincorporated Shelby County?

They're separate permits from separate governments, and you need whichever one covers your parcel. A property inside Memphis needs the city license issued under Ordinance 5856 and administered through the Division of Planning and Development, while a property in unincorporated Shelby County needs the County Clerk's permit instead. A Memphis mailing address doesn't settle it, since many addresses outside the city limits still say Memphis, so check your property tax bill first.

How strictly does Memphis enforce its short-term rental rules?

Historically not very, though that's changing. Presenters told the Memphis City Council in March 2026 that 90% of the city's short-term rentals have no permit. After several shootings at rental properties between December 2025 and February 2026, the Council asked the administration to bring in outside help on monitoring and to report back within 90 days. Revoking a permit still takes three court findings with no appeal rights left, and the burden of proof sits with the City.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.