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

5 targets advertising, not just operation, of short-term residential rentals that violate the Monterey City Code. It bars any 'responsible party' from posting, publishing, circulating, broadcasting or maintaining an advertisement, defined broadly to include a magazine, newspaper, handbill, notice, display, billboard, poster, email, internet website, platform or application, or any television or radio broadcast whose primary purpose is to propose a commercial transaction, for a short-term rental prohibited under Chapter 38's zoning definitions. ' That carve-out means Airbnb, Vrbo and similar booking platforms are not directly liable under this section for hosting a listing that violates the city's short-term rental rules; enforcement responsibility runs to the property owner or tenant who placed or authorized the listing.

Each day an unlawful advertisement stays posted, published, circulated, broadcast or maintained is treated as a separate offense, which can compound daily fines or citations for a listing that is not promptly taken down after notice. The section was adopted by Ordinance 3564 in 2017, well before the current wave of state and local short-term rental platform-liability laws, and its cross-reference to the 'meaning set forth in Chapter 38' means the definition of 'short-term residential rental' itself, and whether a given rental is prohibited at all, is controlled by the zoning code rather than by this advertising section.