Short-term rentals in Sacramento, explained properly.

Sec. 5.114.200 bars a permittee from renting to more than six people per short-term rental. If the permittee's primary residence is not on the same lot, the limit is six people per lot. The City's application form repeats the six-person maximum.

A permittee must record every date lodging was provided for compensation, the number of lodgers on each date and the rent paid for each night, keep the register in printed form for at least three years and give it to the City on request. For rentals that are not the permittee's primary residence, an updated copy must go to the City each January, April, July and October. The City provides a quarterly registry form online.

A permittee must post a copy of the permit in a conspicuous place in each room where a lodger is expected to sleep, and anyone operating a short-term rental must show the City permit number in any advertisement. A permittee may not post a sign or writing visible from outside the dwelling saying it is available for rent. No one may publish an advertisement for activity that violates the chapter.

Sec. 5.114.260 bars a permittee from allowing conferences, weddings, fundraisers or similar gatherings at the short-term rental dwelling unit.

Violating Chapter 5.114 carries criminal sanctions and administrative penalties under Chapter 1.28, is declared a public nuisance that the City Attorney can abate in a civil action, and makes a person liable for civil penalties of not less than $250 and not more than $25,000 for each day the violation continues. The City asks residents who think a rental is operating without a permit to file a complaint online or call 3-1-1.

The City Manager may suspend, revoke or condition a permit on any ground for denial or for a violation of the chapter. Conditions can include staying at the unit during certain hours, requiring a local property manager, reducing the number of guests and reducing the number of rental days. A hearing notice goes out at least 10 calendar days ahead, except that a permit can be suspended at once when needed to protect public health, safety or welfare. A permittee has 10 calendar days from service of the decision to appeal in writing to a hearing examiner and must return a suspended or revoked permit within three calendar days of the notice.

Sec. 5.114.400 bars a hosting platform from accepting a fee for any booking transaction unless the host has a valid City-issued short-term rental permit, and treats the platform as an operator for collecting and remitting the transient occupancy tax and keeping records. Sec. 5.114.410 requires platforms to collect and remit tourism district assessments for hosts who use them, unless the host gives the City an affidavit that the host will pay the district assessments directly.

The City's Transient Occupancy Tax page says the Sacramento Tourism Marketing District rate varies by the location of the property and, after a May 20, 2026 committee vote, is Zone 1: 4.00%, Zone 2: 3.33%, Zone 3: 2.66% and Zone 4: 1.33% from August 1, 2026, and that the Sacramento Tourism Infrastructure District fee is 1% of gross room rent for all short term stays. Chapter 5.114 says hosts who must pay a district assessment owe it, and that platforms collect it unless the host pays directly. Which zone a given address is in comes from the City's Land Information Lookup App. How these fees add to the 12% transient occupancy tax is not stated by the City in the pages read, so no combined total is given.

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.