Yes. Metro Nashville requires every permitted short-term rental to have a local responsible party who lives within 25 miles of the property and answers calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of every guest stay. Their name and phone number must be posted conspicuously inside the unit. There is no exemption for out-of-state owners, and no way to list your property legally without naming someone.
For owners who live out of state, this single requirement is usually the hardest part of the entire permit process; not because it's complicated, but because you can't satisfy it yourself from another time zone.
In this article:
Metro Nashville's short-term rental rules — codified at Metropolitan Code of Laws § 6.28.030 — impose three connected obligations:
1. Proximity — and it may be a business. The Code requires a "person or business" serving as responsible party, residing or located within twenty-five miles of the property, responsible for addressing all maintenance and safety concerns. The application requires their name, telephone number, address, and email address. § 6.28.030.A.3.b.i / B.3.b.i
2. Availability. Metro's operating requirements state that the responsible party must answer calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for the duration of each short-term rental period, to address problems associated with the unit. This is a continuous operating condition, not a one-time application checkbox.
3. Disclosure. The name and telephone number of the local responsible party must be conspicuously posted inside the unit, visible to guests, and by extension to anyone documenting a complaint.
The purpose is straightforward: Metro wants a real human within reach when a neighbor calls about noise at 11 p.m., or when a guest is locked out, or when Codes needs to reach someone about the property. Enforcement in Nashville is both complaint-driven, through hubNashville and 311, and proactive, with Codes scanning listing platforms directly.
This is where owners underestimate the requirement. It is not "provide a phone number." It is a standing obligation to be reachable, for every night a guest is in the property, indefinitely.
Practically, that means the named person needs to:
A phone number that goes to voicemail during a noise complaint is not meaningfully different, from an enforcement standpoint, from having no local contact at all.
The consequences compound, and they attach to the property rather than to you personally.
The asymmetry is worth sitting with. A local contact is a small line item; losing the permit can end the property's use as a short-term rental permanently.
Option 1: Name a friend or family member.
Free, fast, and the most common approach — and the one that quietly fails most often. You are asking an unpaid person to accept a standing 24/7 obligation, in writing, on a municipal document, for a property they don't own. It usually works fine until the first 1 a.m. call, the first vacation, or the first awkward conversation with an angry neighbor. When it stops working, you often find out through a complaint rather than a heads-up. Your permit's validity now depends on someone else's goodwill holding indefinitely.
Option 2: Hire a full-service property manager.
This solves the requirement completely, because a local contact is bundled into the service. It also costs 15–30% of your gross revenue for short-term rentals, because you're buying guest communication, cleaning coordination, dynamic pricing, and multi-platform listing management along with it.
If you want all of that, it's a legitimate choice. But if you're already self-managing successfully — handling your own bookings, your own pricing, your own cleaners — you're paying a full-service rate to solve one line item on a permit. We break the math down in Property Manager vs. Local Contact: The Real Cost for a Nashville STR.
Option 3: Retain a dedicated local contact of record.
Contract with a company whose only job is being the named local contact the ordinance requires — with real infrastructure behind the phone number instead of one person's goodwill. You keep self-managing everything else. You pay a flat fee rather than a share of revenue.
This is the category HostDelegate operates in, and it's why we exist.
We serve as your named local contact of record on the Metro permit. Specifically:
What we are not: a property manager. We don't take your bookings, message your guests, set your pricing, coordinate your cleanings, or run your day-to-day operations. You keep doing all of that — that's the entire point. We solve the one requirement you can't solve from out of state, for a flat annual fee rather than a percentage of your revenue.
Does the local contact have to be a Nashville resident?
The requirement is proximity, not city limits — the responsible party must be within 25 miles of the property.
Can I be my own responsible party if I visit often?
No. The requirement is continuous availability during every rental period, not periodic presence. If you don't live within 25 miles, you can't satisfy it yourself.
Does this apply to owner-occupied rentals too?
The local responsible party requirement is a general operating condition. It's most consequential for non-owner-occupied properties, where the owner is by definition not living on site. See Who Can Be the Responsible Party on a Nashville STR Permit?
Can I use a call center or answering service instead of a person?
The permit names a responsible party. Answering infrastructure supports that person's availability — it doesn't replace the requirement to name someone.
What if my responsible party moves or backs out?
You need to update the responsible party information on file. Operating with an invalid or unreachable contact puts you out of compliance.
The local contact requirement is one line item on a much longer list — zoning eligibility, safety certification, neighbor notification, insurance, tax registration, and annual renewal all have their own rules.
→ Download the free Nashville STR Compliance Checklist — every requirement in order, in one page.
→ Join the Nashville waitlist. HostDelegate is launching in Nashville soon. Waitlist members get early-access pricing and first availability.
Governing law: Metropolitan Code of Laws § 6.28.030, amended through Ordinance BL2024-478 (2024). This article is general information as of July 2026 and is not legal or tax advice. Requirements change and individual properties vary — confirm current rules with the Metro Codes Department before acting.