California Short-Term Rental Rules, Explained

California has no single statewide short-term rental licence that covers every city. Hosting is city-first: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and other cities each run their own permit, registration or certification systems, with their own caps and conditions, while state law adds disclosure duties such as SB 346, under which cities can compel platforms to disclose address, URL and parcel details, require licence and transient occupancy numbers, with fines to $10,000 per day for platform non-compliance. A host must therefore satisfy the city for the address, plus state disclosure, plus building and coastal rules where they apply.

That city-first structure surprises hosts who expect a California licence. A Los Angeles permit does not authorise a San Francisco let, a San Francisco certification does not authorise a San Diego let, and a state disclosure duty does not substitute for a city permit. Each property needs its own city file, with the city, permit type, cap, tax note and building permission recorded separately.

Los Angeles operates a home-sharing system with a 120-night cap, centred on primary-residence hosting. San Francisco operates a certification system with a 90-night cap for unhosted stays, with hosted stays treated differently. Those two sentences already show why city files cannot be merged: different names for the permission, different caps, different hosted treatment. Hosts with properties in both cities need two trackers, two renewal calendars and two sets of platform settings.

Other California cities add further models. San Diego uses tiered licensing with a whole-home lottery, Monterey and Carmel have their own local approaches, Lake Tahoe straddles county and state lines, and coastal properties face coastal zone rules. The California guides in this cluster cover each major city separately, so hosts can follow the guide for their address without borrowing another city's numbers.

California SB 346 gives cities a tool to compel platforms to disclose listing details, including address, URL and parcel information, and to carry licence and transient occupancy numbers, with fines to $10,000 per day for platform breaches. For hosts, SB 346 means listings are increasingly traceable to city permits and tax accounts. A listing with a missing permit number, a wrong address or a tax number that does not match the city record becomes visible to the city through platform data, not only through complaints.

Hosts should therefore align listing details with city records exactly: permit or licence number, address format, parcel details where applicable, and transient occupancy number. A host who treats platform fields as marketing copy, rather than as city records, will create mismatches that SB 346 disclosure makes visible. Keep a city-record copy for each property and copy details from it, not from memory.

Transient occupancy tax in California is local: cities and counties levy it, platforms may collect it in some places, and hosts remain responsible where platforms do not collect. Hosts should check, per city, who collects, what must be declared, and what records support remittance. Income tax for rental income follows general principles and needs stay-level records; this cluster gives tax in general terms only, without rates, since rates and filing depend on the host and locality.

Coastal zone properties face an additional layer: California coastal rules can affect short-let use in the coastal zone, and hosts in coastal cities or counties should check coastal requirements for the address in addition to city permits. Building rules, including condo, homeowners association and lease rules, apply everywhere and can restrict hosting even where a city permit is granted. City, coastal and building permissions are separate.

Enforcement in California is city-led, with platform disclosure and data making unpermitted or over-cap letting easier to detect. Fines, permit revocation and listing removal are city-specific in scale and process, so hosts should not quote one city's penalty for another city. The cautious host keeps, per property, a city permit file, a cap tracker where a cap applies, a stay and tax log, a building permission note, and a coastal note where applicable, and rechecks the city portal before each season.

This guide is general information only, last verified on 26 October 2026, and is not individual legal or tax advice. Verify city rules for the exact address on planning.lacity.gov, sf.gov and the relevant city portal before acting, and do not apply one city's rules to another city.