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

Section 32.80 lets any hosting platform that helps arrange transient stays enter into a voluntary collection agreement with the City. Once signed, the platform 'shall have the same duties and liabilities of the operator under this Article,' and compliance by either the operator or the platform counts as compliance by both, so the City can pursue whichever party actually holds the tax. To satisfy the registration duty in Section 32.78, the platform registers in its own name with the Tax Administrator, the City's Collector, and posts its Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate on its website rather than at each host's address. A host who books exclusively through a hosting platform that has completed this registration is excused from separately registering or posting a certificate on-site.

Section 32.71 backs this up on the definitions side: 'operator' already reaches 'a person who is a host as provided for in Section 31.3 of the Redwood City Zoning Ordinance,' so a host remains personally on the hook for the 12% tax under Section 32.75 even before any platform agreement exists. If a platform never signs a collection agreement, its individual hosts must register, collect at the time rent is paid, and file the quarterly returns Section 32.79 requires. Because a signed agreement makes the platform liable 'to the same extent' as an operator, the City can enforce Section 32.85's late-payment and fraud penalties, or Section 32.90's misdemeanor charge for a false return, directly against the platform rather than chasing each individual host.