Hawthorne, CA Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)
Key Facts
- Contact availability
- 24 hours a day, by telephone
- Initial response deadline
- Within 2 hours of a call
- Action-commencement deadline
- Within 24 hours of the call
- Shared with
- Hawthorne police department
- Missed response penalty
- Administrative fine
Summary
Hawthorne does not require the host to physically stay on site, but the host or owner must be reachable by phone around the clock, answer complaint calls within two hours, and start fixing the problem within twenty-four hours.
Twenty-four hour contact information contained in the application will be shared with the Hawthorne police department. Either the applicant or owner must be personally available by telephone on a twenty-four-hour basis to respond to calls regarding the conditions and/or operation of the short-term rental. The designated person(s) must respond to an initial call within two hours and must commence action within twenty-four hours of the initial call to address any violation of this chapter. Failure to respond to calls or commence such actions in a timely and appropriate manner may result in an administrative fine.
Full Breakdown
060(H) is the chapter's stand-in for a host-presence rule: it requires round-the-clock availability rather than mandatory on-site lodging. It provides, "Twenty-four hour contact information contained in the application will be shared with the Hawthorne police department. Either the applicant or owner must be personally available by telephone on a twenty-four-hour basis to respond to calls regarding the conditions and/or operation of the short-term rental. 020(A)(1) and (2) require the twenty-four hour local emergency contact information of both the applicant and, if different, the property owner, before a permit issues. 060(H), which applies to every permitted short-term rental regardless of whether the host is physically present.
Violations & Fines
Section 17.74.060(H) states directly that "failure to respond to calls or commence such actions in a timely and appropriate manner may result in an administrative fine." Repeated failures also count toward the more-than-three-citations threshold in Section 17.74.020(H) that makes a unit ineligible for permit renewal, and the general misdemeanor and nuisance-abatement remedies of Section 17.74.090 remain available.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the host have to live at the Hawthorne short-term rental during a stay?
How fast must a Hawthorne host respond to a complaint about their short-term rental?
What happens if a Hawthorne STR host doesn't answer complaint calls?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Hawthorne
California rules heatmap·Compare Hawthorne to another location·View the California short-term rentals overview
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