Tennessee has 111 professional vacation rental managers. The Smoky Mountains and Nashville look like two separate industries.
According to the VRMA Public Member Directory (March 2026), Tennessee's 111 member companies manage a combined 11,862 self-reported units. But those numbers hide a stark split: the Smoky Mountain cabin corridor (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville) is a mature, high-density market with large operators founded in the 1990s. Nashville is a newer, fragmented urban STR market with small portfolios. iTrip Vacations, listed twice from Brentwood and Knoxville, accounts for 8,500 of those units and creates one of the highest mean-to-median skews of any state.
iTrip Vacations appears twice in the VRMA directory: 4,500 units from Brentwood and 4,000 from Knoxville. Those two entries alone account for 72% of all reported Tennessee units. Remove them and the mean drops from 233 to roughly 69, cutting the skew from 9.3x to under 3x. The 9.3x figure is among the highest of any state we have analyzed.
The cabin corridor vs the urban market
Pigeon Forge's median portfolio size (150 units among VRMA members who reported) is nearly 10x Nashville's (16 units). Gatlinburg and Sevierville sit between. Knoxville's numbers are distorted by iTrip's 4,000-unit listing. Chattanooga is still nascent, with five companies and a median of just 5 units. All figures reflect self-reported VRMA membership data; individual hosts and non-member companies are not captured.
A few giants, many small operators
Of the 51 Tennessee VRMA members who reported a unit count, 19 manage 10 units or fewer. The statewide median is 25. But the top 3 companies (iTrip x2 and Cabins For You) hold 9,108 of the state's 11,862 reported units, which is 77% of the total. This is extreme concentration even by national standards.
What PMS Tennessee operators run
Among the 44 Tennessee VRMA members who reported a PMS, Streamline leads with 5 companies (11.4%), concentrated in the Smoky Mountain cabin market where its channel management and owner-reporting features fit the traditional vacation rental model. Guesty follows with 4 (9.1%), split between Nashville and Knoxville. Hostaway has 3 (6.8%). Two companies still report HomeAway/Escapia. Two run Brightside, both in the Smokies (Mountain Laurel Chalets and Summit Cabin Rentals). Nearly half (47.7%) selected "Other," suggesting heavy PMS fragmentation across Tennessee's smaller operators.
When Tennessee's VRMA members were founded
The Smoky Mountain market has operators dating back to the early 1970s. Mountain Laurel Chalets (1972), Eagle Property Management (1993), and Auntie Belhams (1994) represent a generation of family-run cabin rental businesses. Nashville's operators are clustered in the 2015-2020 window, born from the Airbnb-era explosion of urban short-term rentals. The statewide median founding year is 2014.
Two eras of Tennessee vacation rentals. The Smoky Mountain cabin rental businesses (1972-2004) and the post-Airbnb wave (2015-2022). The gap between 2004 and 2008 marks the period before online distribution reshaped the industry. 2020 saw the most new VRMA members, likely pandemic-driven market entrants.
The 15 largest VRMA members in Tennessee
Self-reported unit counts from VRMA membership profiles. iTrip's two directory entries (Brentwood HQ and Knoxville office) together claim 8,500 units, more than the rest of the top 15 combined. The next tier is the Smoky Mountain legacy operators: Cabins For You (608), American Patriot Getaways (465), and Cabins USA (375). Nashville's largest VRMA member, The Lease Killers, reports 150 units.
The Smokies and Nashville are not the same business
A cabin rental company in Pigeon Forge managing 150 units is right at the local median among VRMA members. The same portfolio in Nashville would make you the largest professional manager in the city. These are structurally different markets with different competitive dynamics, different guest profiles, and different operational demands.
The Smoky Mountain corridor has 30+ years of operational history. Companies like Mountain Laurel Chalets (1972) and Eagle Property Management (1993) represent a generation of family-run cabin businesses that professionalized before online distribution existed. They run legacy PMS (Streamline, Brightside), manage hundreds of standalone cabins spread across mountain roads, and have built deep relationships with local maintenance crews.
Nashville's professional VR market is barely a decade old. The median operator was founded in 2016. Portfolios are smaller, PMS choices lean modern (Guesty, Hostaway), and the properties are urban. The operational challenge isn't coordinating cabin turnovers across mountain terrain. It's navigating an increasingly regulated urban STR environment while competing with hotels.
This is VRMA membership data only. It captures the professionalized layer of each market. Individual hosts, non-member companies, and the broader Tennessee vacation rental landscape extend well beyond what's shown here.
Sources
- VRMA (Vacation Rental Management Association) Public Member Directory. Self-reported company data including unit counts, PMS, founding year, HQ city, and operating states. Compiled March 2026. 111 member companies headquartered in Tennessee. https://www.vrma.org/directories/vacation-rental-managers