Short-term rentals in Riverside County (unincorporated areas), explained properly.

The definition of a short term rental excludes properties subdivided under California Government Code sections 65852.21 or 66411.7 (SB 9) and units or dwellings subject to conditions of approval, legal deed restrictions or other legal requirements prohibiting this type of rental or occupancy. See the California section of this page for state ADU rules. The County has adopted Ordinance No. 927.3, which amends this chapter but is not yet in the published code, so the chapter text this rule is based on has not been updated for it: confirm current requirements with the County.

The chapter lists uses that do not qualify as a legal privately owned residential dwelling and so cannot obtain a certificate, including any hotel, motel, studio hotel, rooming house, dormitory, club, bed and breakfast inn, cottage inn or country inn; a camping site, recreational vehicle or park model; care and detention facilities; employer and institutional housing; single room occupancy units; and any multiple owner group (MOG) unit. Short term rentals are also not allowed in tents, recreational vehicles, treehouses, yurts, non-habitable structures or other structures not intended for permanent residential occupancy, or in dwellings that violate health or safety laws. The County has adopted Ordinance No. 927.3, which amends this chapter but is not yet in the published code, so the chapter text this rule is based on has not been updated for it: confirm current requirements with the County.

A responsible operator may enter into, or allow a hosting platform to enter into, only one booking transaction to one responsible guest for a specified period, unless operating a hosted stay. For a hosted stay, multiple booking transactions are allowed if the number of rooms rented does not exceed five and occupancy stays within the limits of the certificate and the chapter. If a lot has multiple one family dwellings, only one certificate may be issued for the lot and the dwellings are rented together as one short term rental. The County has adopted Ordinance No. 927.3, which amends this chapter but is not yet in the published code, so the chapter text this rule is based on has not been updated for it: confirm current requirements with the County.

The County determines the maximum occupancy of each rental. Operators above ten occupants must comply with the County building official's pre-approved list of upgrades. In Wine Country the limits are further limited by the class requirements. The County has adopted Ordinance No. 927.3, which amends this chapter but is not yet in the published code, so the chapter text this rule is based on has not been updated for it: confirm current requirements with the County.

The responsible guest is the guest who entered into the booking and is legally responsible for all guests. The age requirement must appear in rental agreements and advertisements.

The operator must provide adequate on-site parking for the maximum occupants approved; off-site parking is not permitted. Occupants must follow County Ordinance No. 847 (quiet hours 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.) and No. 924 (loud or unruly gatherings), and the operator must install and run a noise monitor on the exterior (a meter that has no camera, records no conversations and stores no personal data). Outdoor fire areas are permitted only when not prohibited by fire bans or rules, on a non-combustible surface, and are put out when no longer in use or by 10:00 p.m., whichever is earlier. A temporary event needs a temporary event permit.

Failure to respond to complaints or meet a code enforcement officer within sixty minutes is a violation of the chapter and may be cause for revocation of the certificate. Contact changes must be given in writing to the Planning Department and to neighbors within 300 feet.

The exterior sign states the certificate number, the operator's name and 24-hour phone number, the maximum occupants and the County's 24-hour code enforcement number. Advertisements and rental agreements must also show the number of on-site parking spaces and that off-site parking is not permitted, the maximum occupancy and the guest age requirement. The interior posting includes an evacuation plan, the good neighbor brochure and copies of the operational requirements.

Before a guest occupies the rental the operator must get the responsible guest's name, address and copy of a valid government identification, give and have the guest sign the good neighbor brochure and acknowledgment, and obtain a formal acknowledgment of responsibility for all occupants. Within ten days of certificate approval, notice goes to owners within a 300-foot radius for properties under five gross acres, or a 600-foot radius for five gross acres or more, at the operator's cost.

The inspection checks for the exterior sign, adequate on-site parking and a working noise monitor. For renewals, it applies to rentals that were the subject of a notice of violation in the past twelve months. The code enforcement department may request later exterior inspections at any time.

For the purposes of Ordinance No. 495, a short term rental qualifies as a hotel. The responsible operator is legally responsible for collecting the tax and assessments from the guest and remitting them to the treasurer-tax collector. The tax rate is set in Ordinance No. 495, which we haven't reviewed yet, so this page does not state a rate.

Citations may be issued to the responsible operator or the responsible guest, and to a guest without first issuing a notice of violation. Violations are treated as a public nuisance and a strict liability offense. Procedures follow County Ordinance No. 725. Ordinance No. 927.3, adopted August 25, 2026 and not yet in the published code, amends Ordinance 927 and incorporates the abatement and cost recovery procedures of Ordinance No. 725, so penalties and procedures may differ from this text: confirm current requirements with the County.

Revocation lasts until all the owners of the property change. Only one notice of violation per 24-hour period counts. Revocation is subject to an administrative hearing officer under section 1.16.100. A rental with three verified notices in twelve months or seven in total also cannot be approved or renewed. Ordinance No. 927.3 has since been adopted and may change enforcement procedures: confirm current requirements with the County.

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.

In a December 6, 2016 letter to coastal cities and counties, the California Coastal Commission said that regulating short-term or vacation rentals in the coastal zone must happen within the local coastal program or under a coastal development permit, because it changes the intensity of use and access to the shoreline and so counts as development under the Coastal Act. The Commission said it does not believe outright bans adopted outside that process are legally enforceable in the coastal zone, that it has not historically supported blanket bans, and that it has supported limits such as caps on numbers by area, limits on days, occupancy limits, 24-hour response, parking, noise and signage rules and payment of transient occupancy tax. This applies only to places inside the coastal zone.