Berkeley, CA Short-Term Rentals: Host Platform Liability (2026)

020(A)(4) as any business or person that provides a means, usually an internet-based one, through which a host offers a dwelling for short-term rental, whether the transient pays the host directly or pays through the platform. Once that platform is in the transaction, Berkeley assigns it real financial obligations rather than treating it as a passive intermediary. 050(E) sets an enforcement fee equal to 2 percent of the rents the host charges during the initial enforcement period, while the City works out the actual cost of running the regulatory program; subsection (E)(2) then allows the hosting platform to pay that enforcement fee on the host's behalf, and lets the City Council revise the fee by resolution after that initial period.

050(H) goes further on taxes: it makes payment of the transient occupancy tax a joint duty, stating that either the host or the hosting platform must pay it, so the City can pursue whichever party actually remits. Read together, these provisions mean a platform that chooses to collect and remit fees and taxes on a host's behalf is doing so as an authorized payer under the ordinance itself, not as an informal courtesy, and the City's enforcement record can look to either party for compliance.