Franklin Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Franklin, Tennessee and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that Franklin has never banned short-term rentals outright, and state law wouldn't let it even if the city wanted to. The catch is that Franklin rewrote its entire zoning ordinance, and since January 13, 2026 a new short-term vacation rental in one of the city's residential districts has to be a home the owner personally lives in.

That's the headline change, and it lands hard on anyone who bought here as an investor. Franklin is the Williamson County seat just south of Nashville, and its rules come from two places at once: the Municipal Code, which sets the operating conditions, and the Zoning Ordinance, which decides where a rental is allowed at all. Above both sits Tennessee's Short-Term Rental Unit Act, which stops any city here from prohibiting the use outright and protects units already permitted when a new local ordinance arrives.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly here: which properties still qualify after the 2026 rewrite, what the permit costs and what it demands of you, the four separate taxes a nightly stay picks up, how hard the city pushes when a neighbor complains, and who to call when something doesn't fit. Every figure below comes from Franklin's own documents, Williamson County's, or Tennessee's, checked in July 2026, and where a number is still moving I've said so.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Franklin, Tennessee?

Those two rulebooks do almost all of the work, so it's worth taking them one at a time.

The Municipal Code came first, and it still governs how you operate. Title 13, Chapter 2 of the Franklin Municipal Code was adopted by Ordinance 2015-06. It defines a short term vacation rental as "a residential dwelling unit containing not more than four sleeping rooms that is used and/or advertised for rent for transient occupancy by guests." Anything rented to the same occupant for more than 21 continuous days is excluded, as are bed and breakfast establishments, boarding houses, hotels and motels.

Two things fall straight out of that definition.

A five-bedroom house isn't eligible, full stop. And a booking longer than 21 days isn't a short-term rental at all, so it sits outside this chapter and outside the permit.

Section 13-202 is the one people trip over. You may not operate a STVR or advertise a residential property for use as one until the owner has applied to Building and Neighborhood Services to update the certificate of use and occupancy. Listing a house to test demand before you're approved is itself the violation, so don't put it up "just to see" what it books at.

The city also fixes both ends of a stay. Under section 13-212 the owner can't take money for occupancy of less than 24 hours, and no guest may stay longer than 21 consecutive days.

Then there's the shape of the rental. The city's own STVR checklist says a dwelling of four bedrooms or fewer "shall be rented in its entirety" to someone 21 or older, that renting individual rooms is not allowed, and that the owner is not allowed to stay in the home during the rental.

The reasoning is in the same document. Buildings where individual rooms are rented have to meet R-1 or R-2 construction standards, which means sprinklers, fire alarms and rated corridors, and a single-family house isn't built to that. So the Airbnb spare-room model that works in plenty of cities is closed here.

The Zoning Ordinance answers the other question, which is where any of this is allowed. The permitted principal use table runs short-term vacation rentals across 22 zoning districts with only two possible statuses: permitted, or permitted with additional use regulations under Subsection 5.1.4. Some districts carry neither, which means the use isn't allowed there.

The city's STVR FAQ puts it plainly: "Some zoning districts within the City of Franklin do not have any restrictions for STR while other zones have additional use regulations, and still others are not permitted at all."

The city's checklist names AG, OR, CC and DD as the base districts, with ER, R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4, R-6, MR and PD carrying the extra regulations. Keep in mind that the checklist still cites the subsection letter used before the 2026 rewrite, so treat it as a guide to the shape of the rule rather than a final answer, and do check your specific address against the city's zoning map before you buy anything.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Franklin

Those additional use regulations are exactly where the 2026 rewrite bites, so that's the paragraph to read twice.

Paragraph 5.1.4.W of the Franklin Zoning Ordinance, effective January 13, 2026, attaches four conditions on top of the Municipal Code:

• One short-term vacation rental per lot. No stacking a house and a garage apartment as two listings.
• The owner of the lot has to be a permanent occupant of the premises.
• On a lot with both a dwelling and an accessory dwelling, the owner may live in one and rent the other out nightly.
• On a lot with a dwelling and no accessory dwelling, the owner may rent the house out only if nightly rentals stay under 113 nights in any 12-month period, calculated on a rolling basis, and only if the owner vacates the premises for the duration of the rental.

"Permanent occupant" isn't a box you tick either. Chapter 23 of the ordinance tests it five ways: you occupy the dwelling more than 21 days a month on average across any 12-month period, you register to vote at that address, you receive mail there, you register a vehicle or apply for a driver's license there, and you're registered to attend school there if that applies. That's a documented life at the address, not a mailing arrangement.

Sit with the 113 nights for a moment, because it's the number that decides the business case.

113 nights is roughly 31% occupancy, and it's a ceiling rather than a target. Whole-house hosting in a Franklin residential district is a part-time operation by design, and you have to leave your own house every time it's booked. Pair that with an accessory dwelling instead and the cap disappears, which makes a legal garage apartment or guest house far more valuable here than the square footage alone suggests.

Now for the part that saves existing owners. Subsection 2.2.4 says the new use regulations don't apply to a property legally established and issued a permit as a short-term vacation rental before the effective date, which tracks the legacy-status protections in Tenn. Code Ann. § 13-7-603.

That grandfathering runs until the property is sold, transferred, sits unused as a STVR for 30 continuous months, or racks up three or more violations of generally applicable local laws. One useful carve-out: a transfer to a family member, by blood, marriage, civil union or adoption, keeps the protection alive.

Unfortunately for most investors reading this, that's the whole story. A non-owner-occupied house bought purely to rent nightly in a Franklin neighborhood is no longer a permit you can obtain, and buying a grandfathered one doesn't help, because the sale is what ends the grandfathering.

Where that model does still work is next door. Look at how Nashville regulates short-term rentals, at the wider Davidson County picture, or at Murfreesboro further down I-24, then run all three through BNBCalc before you commit to a market.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Franklin

Assuming your lot and your living arrangements clear all of that, there's still the permit to get, and it comes back around every year.

Franklin doesn't issue a standalone short-term rental license. What you're applying for is an update to your certificate of use and occupancy, granted by Building and Neighborhood Services, and section 13-214 requires a fresh application every 365 days. The city's STVR FAQ puts the permit at $60 as of July 2026, with Appendix A of the Municipal Code as the governing fee schedule, so treat that as the posted figure and confirm it when you apply.

Applications are electronic only. Paper has not been accepted since November 7, 2022, and the city's step-by-step submission guide walks you through the portal at franklintn.geocivix.com, where you pick application type "13f) Short Term Vacation Rentals (STVR)" and supply your 24-hour contact and your number of sleeping rooms.

The conditions attached to approval are where the real work sits:

• $1,000,000 in liability coverage. Section 13-204 requires homeowner's fire, hazard and liability insurance presented annually, with liability limits not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence, kept continuous the whole time you operate.
• A responsible party within 25 miles. Section 13-203 requires a person or business inside that radius who handles maintenance and safety, and section 13-213 requires them to answer calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the duration of every rental. The checklist adds that the owner can't fill this role unless they keep another residence within 25 miles.
• Neighbor notification before you file. Section 13-205 applies where the unit shares a common wall or a common driveway, and proof of that written notice goes in with the application.
• A fire alarm inspection by a city Building Inspector, plus UL 217 smoke alarms in all sleeping areas, in every room along the egress path, and on every story including basements.
• Postings inside the unit: the maximum occupancy, the updated certificate of use and occupancy, and the responsible party's name and phone number.
• A business license, renewed annually, with proof presented to Building and Neighborhood Services each year.
• Your HOA's covenants, checked by you. The checklist puts that duty on the owner, and Tennessee law lets covenants restrict short-term rentals regardless of what the city allows.

Maximum occupancy is worth its own line, because two rules interact. Section 13-211 caps a property at ten occupants at any one time and bars renting to more than one party under separate contracts, while the checklist calculates the posted maximum as twice the number of sleeping rooms plus two, up to that ceiling of ten. A three-bedroom house therefore posts eight, not ten.

The city doesn't publish a turnaround time, and the inspection is the step most likely to move your date, so make sure you apply well before the season you're hoping to book.

Franklin Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get the permit and are able to start taking bookings, there's still tax to deal with, and Franklin stacks four separate charges on a single night's stay.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Tennessee state sales tax	7%	Platform on platform bookings, otherwise you, to the TN Department of Revenue
Williamson County local sales tax	2.75%	Platform on platform bookings, otherwise you, to the TN Department of Revenue
City of Franklin hotel occupancy tax	4%	Platform via the state, otherwise you, to Franklin Billing and Licensing
Williamson County occupancy tax	4%	Platform via the state, otherwise you, to the Williamson County Clerk

Start with the sales tax, since it's the least surprising layer. Tennessee charges 7% statewide and lets each county add its own piece, and the Department of Revenue caps that local rate at 2.75%. Williamson County has sat at the full 2.75% since April 2018 per the University of Tennessee's county and city local tax rate list, which puts a Franklin stay at 9.75% before any occupancy tax.

Airbnb's Tennessee tax page confirms it collects both pieces on reservations of 89 nights or shorter, and the state's short-term rental tax manual explains why: a marketplace facilitator with $100,000 or more in Tennessee sales has to collect and remit.

Occupancy tax is the layer that actually differs by address. Franklin's own hotel-motel tax return form is headed as a hotel 4% occupancy tax and computes the tax at 4% of taxable receipts, filed monthly under Title 5 of the Municipal Code with the Business Licensing Office by the 20th. File and pay on time and you deduct 2% of the tax as operator's compensation. Miss the date and interest runs at 12% a year with a 1% monthly penalty on top.

That 4% is the number I'd watch this year, though. Franklin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved an increase from 4% to 5% on third and final reading on February 24, 2026, and the city's own ordinance index lists it as Ordinance 2025-15, amending section 5-703. As of my last check in July 2026, the return form the city publishes still computes 4%, so call Billing and Licensing before you file rather than trusting either number blind.

Williamson County levies its own 4% on top, under House Bill 552, and the County Clerk's return mirrors the city's: 4% of taxable receipts, 2% operator's compensation for timely filing, same 20th-of-the-month deadline.

From what I can tell the two stack inside the city limits, since the University of Tennessee's County Technical Assistance Service reads county hotel/motel taxes as applying within incorporated municipalities, and the state's cumulative ceiling of 8% across an incorporated area would make little sense otherwise. It's a call worth making to the county at 615-790-5732 for your own address.

Here's the mechanical part that saves most hosts the headache. Since January 1, 2021, a short-term rental unit marketplace has had to collect the local occupancy tax and remit it to the Department of Revenue, which then distributes it. Book through Airbnb or Vrbo and those taxes are handled. Take a direct booking and you owe them yourself, to the city and to the county, on paper forms, by the 20th.

Two more layers sit behind the nightly charges. Franklin requires a business license from both the city and Williamson County: a Minimal Activity license at $15 if you gross between $3,000 and $100,000 a year, or a Standard license at $15 that you renew by filing a state business tax return once you pass $100,000. And registration for any of the state taxes runs through the Tennessee Taxpayer Access Point, free of charge.

Franklin-wide Short Term Rental Rules

Tax is the one part of this a platform will mostly carry for you. The operating rules are yours alone, and they apply in every district that allows the use.

• No signage. Section 13-206 bars any sign, advertising or display on the property indicating the unit is being used as a STVR.
• No food service. Under section 13-209 neither the owner nor the responsible party may prepare or serve food to guests, which is what separates a STVR from a bed and breakfast.
• Renters must be at least 21. Section 13-210 applies that to the principal renter.
• Noise and waste rules bite. Section 13-207 pulls guests under Title 11, Chapter 4 on offenses against the peace and quiet, and Title 17 including section 17-203 on keeping premises clean.
• One party at a time, with the posted maximum enforced and simultaneous rentals under separate contracts prohibited.
• 24 hours minimum, 21 days maximum, per section 13-212.

Above the city sits the state framework, and it's more protective than most hosts realize. The Tennessee Short-Term Rental Unit Act, Public Chapter 972 of 2018, bars a local government from effectively prohibiting short-term rental use after reasonable compliance with generally applicable local laws, and it grandfathers units already operating when a new local ordinance arrives.

What the Act deliberately leaves alone is permitting, zoning, occupancy caps, noise rules and revocation, which is why Franklin can require owner occupancy and a 113-night cap without running into the statute. Our Tennessee statewide guide covers how that split plays out elsewhere in the state.

One last piece of Franklin history is still live in the ordinance. Subsection 1.2.6 lets an applicant who can show earnest money exchanged or a contract executed before midnight on December 10, 2019 apply under the regulations in force before the current ordinance. That date is when Franklin's restrictions on non-owner-occupied rentals took hold, and the carve-out has survived every rewrite since.

Does Franklin strictly enforce STR rules? Is Franklin Airbnb friendly?

Rules like those are only as real as the enforcement behind them, and Franklin's enforcement runs on the neighbors.

Section 13-216 sets out the machinery. Three or more complaints in a calendar year about a permitted STVR, including calls to the Franklin Police Department, and Building and Neighborhood Services notifies the permit holder in writing. If BNS then determines that violations have occurred, the right to operate can be revoked by action of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Before that revocation reaches a board agenda, the responsible party gets 15 days' written notice.

Notice what that structure does. Your permit doesn't die by fine, it dies by vote, in public, at a board meeting your neighbors can attend.

The financial penalties are smaller than people expect, and that's a quirk of Tennessee law rather than a sign of a relaxed city. Chapter 22 of the zoning ordinance makes a violation a misdemeanor punished under the general penalty clauses of Title 12, with each day of continuing violation a separate offense.

The ceiling comes from the state constitution. Tenn. Const. art. VI, § 14 caps any fine at fifty dollars unless a jury assesses it, and city courts have no jury. So the exposure isn't one big number, it's fifty dollars a day, every day, until you stop, plus the loss of the permit at the end of it.

Section 22.6 adds a second route that has nothing to do with the city at all. An adjacent or neighboring property owner who would be damaged by a violation may bring their own injunction or other action. Be aware that a determined neighbor doesn't need the city to act first.

Then there's the state layer, which cuts against a serial offender. Three or more violations of generally applicable local laws is one of the four events that ends legacy status under the Short-Term Rental Unit Act, so a grandfathered operator who collects violations loses the very protection that makes the property worth what they paid.

So is Franklin Airbnb friendly? For a resident who wants to rent their own home while they travel, yes, and the process is clear, cheap and well documented. For an investor who wants a nightly-rental portfolio in the city's neighborhoods, no, and the January 2026 ordinance closed that door deliberately rather than by accident.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Franklin

Given how much of the above turns on your address and your living situation, the order of these steps matters more than it looks. Get the first three wrong and the rest is wasted effort.

1. Check your zoning district before anything else. Use the city's zoning map, then confirm with Building and Neighborhood Services on 615-550-6738 whether short-term vacation rentals are permitted outright at your address, permitted with the Subsection 5.1.4 regulations, or not permitted at all.
2. Confirm you can meet the permanent-occupant test, if your district requires it: voter registration, mail, vehicle or license, school if applicable, and more than 21 days a month at the address on average.
3. Count your sleeping rooms. Four or fewer, or the property isn't eligible for a STVR approval at all.
4. Read your HOA covenants. The city puts that duty on you, and covenants can bar short-term rentals in a subdivision the zoning would otherwise allow.
5. Notify the neighbors if you share a common wall or a common driveway, and keep the proof, because it has to go in with the application.
6. Line up the paperwork: $1,000,000 liability coverage, a responsible party within 25 miles who will genuinely answer at 3am, and a city business license from Billing and Licensing.
7. Apply through franklintn.geocivix.com under application type "13f) Short Term Vacation Rentals (STVR)", and budget the $60 permit fee.
8. Pass the fire alarm inspection, then post the occupancy maximum, the certificate of use and occupancy, and the responsible party's contact details inside the unit.
9. Register for tax through the Tennessee Taxpayer Access Point, and set up the city and county occupancy tax returns if you plan to take direct bookings.
10. Diarize your renewal. The application is due again every 365 days, and your insurance and business license have to be re-presented annually with it.

Who to contact in Franklin about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Working through that list, most questions land with one of four offices, and knowing which one owns yours will save you a morning.

The permit itself

Building and Neighborhood Services administers the STVR program, from eligibility through inspection to revocation.

• Neighborhood Resources Supervisor: Ben Onisa, [email protected], 615-550-6727
• Building and Neighborhood Services, general STR questions: 615-550-6738
• Neighborhood Resources, application help: 615-794-7012, extension 2
• Community Development office: 120 9th Ave South, Franklin, TN 37064
• Apply: franklintn.geocivix.com, application type 13f
• Program page: the city's Short Term Vacation Rentals page carries the current checklist, FAQ and code text

City taxes and the business license

Billing and Licensing handles the city business license and the monthly hotel occupancy tax return.

• Business Licensing Office: 109 Third Avenue South, Suite 141, Franklin, TN 37064
• City switchboard: 615-791-3217
• Mailing address: 109 3rd Ave South, Franklin, TN 37064
• Filing deadline: the 20th of each month, per the hotel-motel tax page

County occupancy tax and the county business license

The Williamson County Clerk collects the county's 4% occupancy tax.

• Mail returns to: Williamson County Clerk, P O Box 624, Franklin, TN 37065-0624
• Business Tax Department, short-term rental questions: 615-790-5732
• Forms: the county's hotel/motel tax and short term property rental page

State taxes

Sales tax, business tax and the marketplace rules belong to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, not the city.

• Register and file: the Tennessee Taxpayer Access Point, no fee to open a sales and use tax account
• Reference: the department's short-term rental tax manual covers marketplace collection, business tax thresholds and the 2025 changes

What do Airbnb hosts in Franklin on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

Those phone numbers get dialed a lot, which tells you something about how hosts here experience the rules. What follows is my read of the public conversation rather than a survey, so weigh it accordingly. Reddit blocks automated access, so I haven't quoted any thread, and nothing below is presented as something a named forum said.

The recurring themes are consistent enough to name, though.

Investors treat Franklin as closed and say so early. The moment the owner-occupancy rule enters a conversation, the discussion moves to Nashville, to Murfreesboro, or to the unincorporated parts of Williamson County. That isn't hosts being dramatic. It follows directly from Paragraph 5.1.4.W, which makes a non-owner-occupied nightly rental in a residential district something the city will not permit at all.

Resident hosts describe a process that's fussy but fair. The friction people report clusters around the annual paperwork rather than the rules themselves: re-presenting insurance every year, keeping a responsible party who actually picks up, and a fire alarm inspection that lands later than planned. None of that is a fight over principle, and $60 a year is cheap next to most cities of Franklin's size.

The 113-night cap is the number that changes plans. It's new, it's specific, and it converts a full-time listing into a part-time one for anyone without an accessory dwelling. I'd expect the practical effect to be more owners looking hard at whether they can legally add a garage apartment, since that route removes the cap entirely.

Grandfathering is where the anxiety sits. Owners holding a pre-2026 permit know the protection ends the day they sell, which quietly changes what their property is worth to the next buyer. If you're buying a Franklin house that's currently listed on Airbnb, be aware the permit does not come with it.

Before you take any of that as a verdict on the market, do run the actual numbers. Nightly rates and occupancy in the Franklin market look very different once you cap yourself at 113 nights, and that's the calculation to do before the permit, not after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you run an Airbnb in Franklin, Tennessee in 2026?

Yes, in the right zoning district and under the right living arrangement. Franklin's zoning ordinance, effective January 13, 2026, requires the owner of the lot to be a permanent occupant of the premises in districts that carry additional use regulations, allows only one short-term vacation rental per lot, and caps nightly rentals at 113 nights in any rolling 12-month period where the lot has no accessory dwelling. Properties permitted before that date keep the older rules until they are sold or transferred.

How much does a short-term rental permit cost in Franklin, Tennessee?

The City of Franklin's short-term vacation rental FAQ puts the permit at $60, with a fresh application required every 365 days under Municipal Code section 13-214. On top of that you need a business license from both the City of Franklin and Williamson County, each $15, plus $1,000,000 in liability insurance presented annually. Applications are electronic only, through the city's portal at franklintn.geocivix.com.

What taxes do short-term rentals pay in Franklin, Tennessee?

Four layers. Tennessee state sales tax at 7% and Williamson County local sales tax at 2.75% apply to stays under 90 continuous days. Franklin levies a hotel occupancy tax, charged at 4% on the return form the city publishes, and Williamson County levies its own 4% occupancy tax. Airbnb and Vrbo collect the sales taxes and the local occupancy tax automatically, but direct bookings mean you file the occupancy tax returns yourself by the 20th of each month.

Can you rent out a whole house on Airbnb in Franklin without living there?

Not under a new permit in a residential district. Paragraph 5.1.4.W of the Franklin Zoning Ordinance requires the owner of the lot to be a permanent occupant of the premises, tested by voter registration, mail, vehicle or driver's license, school registration and more than 21 days a month at the address. Short-term vacation rentals permitted before January 13, 2026 are grandfathered, but that protection ends when the property is sold or transferred.

What happens if you run an unpermitted short-term rental in Franklin?

Operating or even advertising one without an updated certificate of use and occupancy violates Municipal Code section 13-202. Zoning violations are misdemeanors, each day counts as a separate offense, and the Tennessee Constitution caps a municipal fine at fifty dollars per violation, so the cost accrues daily rather than arriving as one penalty. Three or more complaints in a calendar year, including police calls, trigger written notice, and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen can revoke the right to operate after 15 days' notice.

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