10 county-level rules, plus city-specific rules for 1 city in Kings County, California.
Verified from official government sources
Kings County has no dedicated short-term rental or vacation rental ordinance for its unincorporated areas. There is no STR permit, license, or registration program separate from general zoning approval and the County's Transient Occupancy Tax. STR operators are treated under existing land-use rules plus the TOT operator registration in County Code Chapter 22, Article III.
Kings County has no short-term rental ordinance, so STR noise is not governed by a vacation-rental-specific quiet-hours rule. Instead, guest noise at unincorporated rentals is addressed under the County's general nuisance and disturbance provisions and California state law, enforced by the Sheriff and county code enforcement.
Unincorporated Kings County imposes a 10% Transient Occupancy Tax on the rent for stays of 30 days or less (Code Sec. 22-38). Operators collect the tax from guests, register with the Tax Collector, and file quarterly returns. Stays over 30 days and rent under $20 per day are exempt. There is no separate STR license fee.
Kings County Code of Ordinances Sec. 22-38 (Transient Occupancy Tax; Levy)
For the privilege of occupancy in any hotel, each transient is subject to and shall pay tax in the amount of ten percent of the rent charged by the operator.
There is no short-term rental parking standard in unincorporated Kings County because the County has not adopted an STR ordinance. Parking for a rental dwelling is governed by the general off-street parking requirements in the County Development Code for the applicable zone, not by a vacation-rental-specific rule.
Kings County has no short-term rental ordinance and therefore sets no STR-specific guest or occupancy cap for unincorporated areas. Occupancy is governed only by general standards - building and housing code limits tied to dwelling size and septic capacity, plus any zoning conditions - not by a vacation-rental maximum-occupancy rule.
Kings County mandates no liability insurance for short-term rentals, because it has no STR ordinance. There is no county-required coverage minimum or proof-of-insurance condition for unincorporated-area rentals. Operators carry insurance voluntarily or as required by a hosting platform or lender, not by county code.
Unincorporated Kings County sets no annual or per-booking night cap on short-term rentals, because it has no STR ordinance. The only night-based threshold in county law is the Transient Occupancy Tax line between taxable transient stays (30 days or less) and exempt long-term stays (over 30 days), not a limit on how many nights a property may be rented.
Unincorporated Kings County has no STR-specific registration scheme, but the Transient Occupancy Tax ordinance requires every operator of a 'hotel' (broadly defined to include transient lodging) to register with the Tax Collector within 15 days and post a transient occupancy registration certificate. The certificate is a tax document, not a land-use permit.
Kings County does not require an on-site host or a designated local contact for short-term rentals, because it has no STR ordinance. Hosted and unhosted (whole-home) rentals are both allowed under general rules, with no mandated 24-hour responsible-person or response-time requirement for unincorporated areas.
Unincorporated Kings County imposes no primary-residence or owner-occupancy requirement on short-term rentals, because it has no STR ordinance. Non-owner-occupied and investor-operated rentals are not prohibited by any county STR rule; the only constraints are general zoning permissibility and Transient Occupancy Tax compliance.
1 cities in Kings County have their own short-term rentals rules. Each link goes to that city's dedicated page with code citations.
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