2023 Tennessee Code › Title 7 - CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENTS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTIONS AND ENTITIES (§§ 7-1-101 — 7-91-104) › METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT (§§ 7-1-101 — 7-21-408) › Chapter 4 - METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT-TOURIST ACCOMMODATION TAX (§§ 7-4-101 — 7-4-206) › Part 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 7-4-101 — 7-4-112) › Section 7-4-101 - Chapter definitions

(a)
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Consideration" means the consideration charged, whether or not received, for the occupancy in a hotel valued in money whether to be received in money, goods, labor or otherwise, including all receipts, cash, credits, property and services of any kind or nature without any deduction therefrom whatsoever. Nothing in this definition shall be construed to imply that consideration is charged when the space provided to the person is complimentary from the operator and no consideration is charged to or received from any person;
(2)
"Convention center" means any land, improvement, structure, building or part of a building comprised of facilities for conventions, public assemblies, conferences, trade exhibitions or other business, social, cultural, scientific and public interest events, along with any associated hotel accommodations; transportation infrastructure; tourism, theatre, retail business and commercial office space facilities; parking facilities or any other structure or facility constructed, leased, equipped, renovated or acquired for any of the purposes set forth in this chapter, and also includes, but is not limited to, parks, greenways, open spaces, roads, streets, highways, curbs, bridges, flood control facilities and utility services, such as water, sanitary sewer, electricity, gas and natural gas and telecommunications that are constructed, leased, equipped, renovated or acquired as a supporting system or facility for any of the purposes set forth in chapter 89 of this title; provided, that any such supporting system or facility is dedicated for public use;
(3)
"Counties and municipalities" means the counties having a metropolitan form of government and municipalities with a population of five thousand (5,000) or more, according to the 1980 federal census or any subsequent federal census, located partly within such counties and partly within adjacent counties;
(4)
"Hotel" means any structure, or any portion of any structure, that is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, and includes any hotel, inn, tourist court, tourist camp, tourist cabin, motel, short-term rental unit or any place in which rooms, lodgings or accommodations are furnished to transients for a consideration;
(5)
"Occupancy" means the use or possession, or the right to the use or possession, of any room, lodgings or accommodations in a hotel for a period of less than thirty (30) continuous days;
(6)
"Operator" means the person operating the hotel, whether as owner, lessee or otherwise;
(7)
"Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, social club, fraternal organization, joint stock company, corporation, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, trustee, syndicate, or any other group or combination acting as a unit;
(8)
"Residential dwelling" means a cabin, house, or structure used or designed to be used as an abode or home of a person, family, or household, and includes a single-family dwelling, a portion of a single-family dwelling, or an individual residential dwelling in a multi-dwelling building, such as an apartment building, condominium, cooperative, or timeshare;
(9)
"Short-term rental unit" means a residential dwelling that is rented wholly or partially for a fee for a period of less than thirty (30) continuous days and does not include a hotel as defined in §
68-14-302
or a bed and breakfast establishment or a bed and breakfast homestay as those terms are defined in §
68-14-502
;
(10)
"Short-term rental unit marketplace" means a person or entity, excluding a vacation lodging service, that provides a platform for compensation, through which a third party offers to rent a short-term rental unit to an occupant;
(11)
"Tax collection official" means the department of finance of the county or municipality, as applicable, or the county clerk, if so designated by ordinance of the legislative body of any municipality having a metropolitan form of government and a population of more than four hundred fifty thousand (450,000), according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent federal census;
(12)
"Tourism" means the planning and conducting of programs of information and publicity designed to attract to the county tourists, visitors and other interested persons from outside the area and also to encourage and coordinate the efforts of other public and private organizations or groups of citizens to publicize the facilities and attractions of the area for the same purposes. "Tourism" also means the acquisition, construction and remodeling of facilities useful in the attraction and promoting of tourist, convention and recreational businesses;
(13)
"Tourist commission" means a seven-person body established subject to the same local organic law as other boards and commissions established by the charter of the metropolitan government;
(14)
"Transient" means any person who exercises occupancy or is entitled to occupancy for any rooms, lodgings or accommodations in a hotel for a period of less than thirty (30) days; and
(15)
"Vacation lodging service" means a person or entity that is engaged in the business of providing the services of management, marketing, booking, and rental of short-term rental units.
(b)
Terms used in this chapter that are not otherwise defined shall have the same meaning ascribed to them in chapter 88 of this title.
Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 264, Secs.s1, s2 eff. 4/30/2021.
Amended by 2020 Tenn. Acts, ch. 787, s 2, eff. 1/1/2021.
Amended by 2020 Tenn. Acts, ch. 787, s 1, eff. 1/1/2021.
Acts 1976, ch. 704, § 1; T.C.A., § 6-3726; Acts 1990, ch. 636, §§ 1, 2; 1994, ch. 758, § 3; 2007 , ch. 461, § 1; 2009 , ch. 474, § 2.