California SB 346 Platform Disclosure, Explained

California SB 346 allows cities to compel platforms to disclose short-term rental listing information, including address, URL and parcel details, and to carry licence and transient occupancy numbers, with fines to $10,000 per day for platform non-compliance. The law targets platforms as data holders, but its practical effect falls on hosts: listings become traceable to city permits and tax accounts through platform data, whether or not a neighbour complains. A host's listing details are therefore city records in effect, not only marketing.

That traceability changes host incentives. Before SB 346-style disclosure, a listing with a missing permit number or a vague address might go unnoticed unless complained about. After disclosure, the city can compare platform data with its own permit and tax records systematically. Hosts should assume that comparison happens, and should keep listing details aligned with city records as a matter of routine.

Platform disclosure under SB 346 generally includes identifying the listing, its address and parcel, its URL, and its licence and transient occupancy numbers, as compelled by the city. The exact disclosure set follows the city's compulsion and the platform's implementation, and hosts do not file the disclosure themselves for platform stays. Hosts do, however, supply the underlying details through listing fields and city applications, so accuracy at those two points determines disclosure accuracy.

Hosts should check, per city and per platform, which fields the platform shows and carries for their listings. A field completed on one platform but missing on another creates a disclosure gap for the second platform, even if the host is licensed. Audit disclosure fields per platform, per property, after every listing edit.

Fines to $10,000 per day apply to platforms for non-compliance, not directly to hosts as a tariff, but they matter to hosts because they give platforms a strong incentive to enforce listing accuracy strictly. A platform facing daily fines will block, suspend or remove listings with missing or mismatched licence and tax numbers rather than risk disclosure failure. Hosts should therefore expect rigorous platform checks and should treat a platform hold as a city-record problem to fix, not as a platform inconvenience.

Platform strictness also means hosts cannot rely on platform leniency to cover a city-record gap. A host whose city permit has lapsed, whose tax number is wrong, or whose address format differs from the city record will face platform action even if the city has not yet contacted them directly. Fix city records first, then listings, then verification.

A host record that matches SB 346 disclosure has city permit or licence details, transient occupancy number, address and parcel details as recorded by the city, listing URLs per platform, and stay logs. When those agree, disclosure will agree too, since disclosure draws from the same details. When they disagree, the host should investigate which record is wrong: the city record, the listing, or both, and correct the source, not only the display.

Monthly reconciliation should include a disclosure check: view each listing as a guest and as a city record would, confirming licence and tax numbers display where required and match city records. That check, added to the monthly stay-log reconciliation, catches disclosure mismatches before a city query. Note the check date per property.

Direct bookings sit outside platform disclosure by definition, since no platform holds the listing data to disclose. That does not remove city permit, tax or record duties for direct stays. A host who shifts stays off platform to avoid disclosure has not avoided city rules; they have changed the evidence channel and must still hold a city permit, collect and remit taxes where required, and keep stay records that the city could request directly.

Hosts who mix platform and direct bookings should keep one combined record per property, with channel labelled per stay, so city permit, tax and stay totals can be reconciled across channels. A direct stay missing from a host's own log creates a gap that platform disclosure cannot fill, and that gap will surface if the city requests host records.

Confirm city permit and tax numbers, align listing fields with city records on every platform, check public display, reconcile monthly, keep direct stays in the same log, and recheck city and state guidance before each season. This guide is general information only, last verified on 26 October 2026, and describes SB 346 in general terms, not as legal advice for a specific city compulsion.