How Mid-Term Rentals Work in Kentucky: The 30-Day Rule, Taxes, and Tenant Law
How Mid-Term Rentals Work in Kentucky: The 30-Day Rule, Taxes, and Tenant Law
Quick answer: A mid-term rental in Kentucky is a furnished home or private room rented for a continuous period of 30 days or more, which Kentucky has exempted from both the state and local transient room tax since January 1, 2023. HobKnob rents fully furnished mid-term rooms and apartments across Louisville, KY and Southern Indiana, starting at around $749 per month for a private room at the Burnett Gentlemen Home in Louisville, and pricing can change with availability; one monthly payment covers rent, all utilities, and high-speed WiFi. There is a 30-day minimum stay and the lease is month-to-month after that — extend or give notice anytime, no year-long lease.
A nurse called me a few weeks ago with a question I hear constantly: "If I only need a place for three months, am I booking an Airbnb or am I signing a lease?"
It is a fair question, and almost nobody answers it plainly. Kentucky treats a stay of a month or more very differently than it treats a weekend booking, and that difference shapes what you pay and what rules you live under.
So here is how mid-term rentals work in Kentucky, in plain English: what the 30-day minimum actually is, the tax rule behind it, and the tenant-law framework that applies once you move in.
What Counts as a Mid-Term Rental in Kentucky
A mid-term rental sits between a hotel and a year-long lease. The home arrives fully furnished, the utilities and WiFi are already on, and the stay is measured in months instead of nights.
At HobKnob the stay starts with a 30-day minimum, and after that the lease runs month to month with no maximum. Some residents stay a few months while others have been with us for years.
The 30 days is a floor, not a penalty. Once you are past it, giving notice is a normal month-to-month notice — there is no lease-break fee waiting for you and no year-long term to buy your way out of.
The 30-Day Rule and Kentucky's Transient Room Tax
That 30-day figure is not something our industry made up. Under changes that took effect January 1, 2023, receipts from a continuous stay of 30 days or more are excluded from both the 1% statewide transient room tax and local transient room taxes.
The Kentucky Department of Revenue takes it a step further: when a continuous stay runs 30 days or more, the charges for the first 29 days are exempt as well.
Short-term stays work the other way. A weekend at a hotel or a nightly rental carries the state room tax, the local room tax, and in Louisville a Tourism Improvement District assessment on top of the rate you were quoted. Once a stay crosses into mid-term territory, that room tax comes off the table — which is part of why a month in a furnished rental often reads closer to a normal rent figure than a nightly rate would suggest.
How Mid-Term Rentals Work in Kentucky Under Local Tenant Law
Kentucky is unusual here, and it catches people off guard. The state has a Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in KRS Chapter 383, but it only carries force where a city or county has formally adopted it. Under KRS 383.500 a local government has to adopt it in its entirety and without amendment — it is all or nothing.
Most Kentucky jurisdictions have never adopted it. Louisville-Jefferson County has. That means a residential lease in Louisville sits under a different framework, including the notice periods and security-deposit rules in KRS 383.505 to 383.705, than one signed in a county that never adopted the act.
One honest caveat: we rent homes, we are not attorneys or accountants. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. If your situation involves a dispute, an employer paying your housing, or a tax question with real money attached, talk to your own attorney or tax professional about your specific facts.
What One Monthly Payment Covers
The reason mid-term rentals are simpler than a traditional apartment is that the monthly number is close to the whole number. At HobKnob, one payment typically covers:
A fully furnished private room or apartment — bed, dresser, blackout curtains, and a dedicated workspace already in place
All utilities: electric, water, gas, and trash
High-speed WiFi, including 1-Gig fiber in our Louisville co-living homes
Free on-site laundry and parking at most of our homes
Common-area cleaning every other week, with shared essentials like paper towels kept stocked
A $75 application fee, which is the same at every property
What is not in there: linens. Bring your own sheets and towels, or plan on picking up a set your first day.
Private Rooms or a Private Apartment
There are two ways to do a mid-term stay with us. Co-living private rooms give you a private furnished bedroom in a shared home with common kitchens and living areas — our Ladies Homes and Gentlemen Homes across Louisville, Jeffersonville, New Albany, and Clarksville. Private rooms run from around $749 per month at the Burnett Gentlemen Home in Louisville up to about $1,099 per month at the Mellwood Ladies Home in Louisville, and pricing can change with availability.
If you would rather have your own front door, our private furnished apartments start at around $1,699 per month at The Spring in New Albany, Indiana, and The Brownsboro in Louisville's Crescent Hill neighborhood starts at around $1,749 per month. The terms are the same either way: furnished, utilities and WiFi included, 30-day minimum, then month to month.
Who a Mid-Term Rental Actually Fits
Travel nurses on 13-week assignments at Norton Healthcare, UofL Health, Baptist Health, or Clark Memorial. Professionals relocating while they wait on a closing date. Remote workers trying a city on before committing to it. Interns and graduate students. Families between houses after a sale or a claim.
The common thread is a plan measured in months. That is the stretch where a hotel gets expensive fast and a year-long lease does not fit the calendar.
If you are working out whether a mid-term rental fits your next few months in Louisville or Southern Indiana, the quickest way to find out is to look at what is actually open right now. You can schedule a tour or call us at (502) 625-6670. We are locally owned and managed, so the person who picks up has been inside the homes.
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