San Luis Obispo County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

The Adelaida/Willow Creek Area, an agricultural and rural residential district near Highway 46 covered by Figure 30-1 in the County Land Use Ordinance, carries its own package of vacation-rental standards layered on top of the county's general rules in Sec. 510. One of those standards is the local contact person requirement in Sec. 510(b)(xi): every residential vacation rental in the area must designate a local property manager who is available 24 hours a day to respond to tenant and neighborhood questions or concerns. A property owner who lives in the Adelaida sub-area is allowed to name themselves as that contact, but the round-the-clock availability requirement still applies either way.

The rule comes with a paperwork trail. Sec. 510(b)(xi)(1) requires a notice naming the contact person, along with the standards for noise, parking and maximum occupants, to go to the Department of Planning and Building, the local Sheriff substation, the main Sheriff's Office, the local fire agency, and every property owner within a 1,500-foot radius of the rental. Sec. 510(b)(xi)(2) requires the contact's name, address, and phone number to be permanently posted inside the rental unit, and any change of address or phone number must promptly go back out to those same agencies and neighbors. Complaints route through the same contact first: Sec. 510(b)(xv) directs neighbors to try the local contact person before calling the Sheriff's Dispatch line.