Short-term rentals in Pasadena, explained properly.

The section defines a vacation rental as a dwelling unit that is not a primary residence and is available for temporary lodging for compensation. The definition leaves out single-room occupancy buildings, bed and breakfast inns, hotels, a dwelling unit rented month to month with monthly payments, and corporate housing. Home-sharing in the host's own primary residence, with a permit, is the permitted form (subsections C to E).

A hosted stay is one where the host remains on-site throughout the guest's stay, except during daytime or work hours; an un-hosted stay is one where the host remains off-site during the guest's stay (subsections B.3 and B.6). How the 90 days are counted is not shown in the section text, so ask the Planning and Community Development Department.

This is the list of eligible dwelling types in subsection C. Rentals must also meet the primary-residence and permit rules above.

The host must show that an accessory structure is legally permitted and habitable from its building permit history. If there is no building permit record, the building official decides whether the structure is suitable for habitability, and an inspection may be required. State law on ADUs is on the California section of this page.

Subsection F.5 sets the limit for the short-term rental as a whole.

Subsection F.2 also says no person shall advertise, undertake, maintain, authorize, book or facilitate any renting to transient guests in a manner that does not comply with the section.

The affidavit confirms that the unit is the host's primary residence and that the local responsible contact person or property management company will be available 24 hours per day; that the space meets fire and life safety requirements, including smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and adequate means of egress; that abutting property owners and occupants will be notified before the activity starts; and, for tenants, that the landlord or owner has been told. The indemnification agreement is in a form approved by the city attorney.

This is a host requirement in subsection G.4, in addition to the fire and life safety statement in the affidavit.

The dwelling also may not be rented for the sole purpose of accommodating such uses (subsection F.6).

Subsections F.7 and F.8.

The use may not generate noise, vibration, glare, odors or other effects that unreasonably interfere with any person's reasonable enjoyment of his or her residence. We haven't reviewed Chapters 9.36 and 8.64 yet, so their quiet hours and limits are not shown here.

Subsection F.9.

The Planning and Community Development Department and the Finance Department may inspect the records at all reasonable times (subsection G.2).

Enforcement follows Chapters 1.24 and 1.25 of the Municipal Code. A person convicted in a criminal case, or found in violation in a civil case brought by a law enforcement agency, must reimburse the city and other participating agencies their full investigative costs, pay back transient occupancy taxes, and remit all illegally obtained rental revenue to the city. The remedies are not exclusive. We haven't reviewed Chapters 1.24 and 1.25 yet, so dollar amounts are not shown here.

The hearing is before the city manager or his or her designated administrator, under Chapter 1.25.

California Revenue and Taxation Code section 7280 lets the legislative body of any city, county, or city and county levy a tax on the privilege of occupying a room or other living space in a hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel or other lodging, unless the stay is longer than 30 days. A county's tax applies only in its unincorporated areas. The rate, registration and filing rules are set by each city or county, so the local tax is shown in the city's own section of this page.

Government Code sections 50990 to 50996 (Senate Bill 346, 2025) apply only in a city or county that adopts an ordinance making them apply. Where they apply, a booking platform must, on the local agency's request, report the physical address with nine-digit ZIP code of each short-term rental it facilitated (no more often than every 3 months, or monthly if the local tax is remitted monthly), and must include in each listing any applicable local license number and any transient occupancy tax certification issued by the local agency. The local agency may fine a platform that does not report. The act does not stop a city or county from regulating short-term rentals, platforms or tax collection in other ways.

Government Code section 66333(g) requires a city's junior accessory dwelling unit ordinance to require that a rental of a junior ADU be for a term longer than 30 days (as amended by Assembly Bill 1154, in force January 1, 2026). Section 66323(e) requires a city to require that a rental of an ADU created under that section (the ministerial, by-right approvals) be for a term longer than 30 days. For other ADUs on a lot with a single-family home, section 66315 bars standards beyond section 66314, including owner occupancy, except that a city may require that the property be used for rentals of terms 30 days or longer. Cities can be stricter in their own codes; see the city section.

Civil Code section 4741 says an owner in a common interest development is not subject to a governing-document provision that prohibits, has the effect of prohibiting, or unreasonably restricts renting or leasing a separate interest, ADU or junior ADU, and an association may not cap rentals below 25 percent of the separate interests. The same section says it does not prohibit an association from adopting and enforcing a provision that prohibits transient or short-term rental of a separate property interest for 30 days or less. Check your association's governing documents.

Civil Code section 1940 applies the chapter on hiring of real property (Civil Code sections 1940 to 1954.071) to tenants, lessees, boarders, lodgers and others who hire dwelling units, but excludes a person in transient occupancy in a hotel, motel, residence club or other facility when the stay is or would be subject to a transient occupancy tax under Revenue and Taxation Code section 7280 (stays of 30 days or less). Stays longer than that are not covered by this exclusion.