Renton, WA Short-Term Rentals: Host Presence Rule (2026)

RMC 4-4-055(B)(2) states the owner-occupancy condition plainly: the dwelling must be owner-occupied if multiple parties rent at the same time. That means a host renting individual bedrooms to separate, unrelated bookings, rather than the whole unit to one party, has to be living in the dwelling during those overlapping stays. A short-term rental booked in full by a single party is not covered by this owner-occupancy trigger, since only one party is renting at that time. The rule connects directly to the occupancy cap in RMC 4-4-055(B)(3): when the unit is owner-occupied during a multi-party rental, the owner or related family staying there count toward the same two-guests-per-bedroom limit as the paying guests, so an owner can't use occupancy to add capacity beyond what the section allows.

Owner-occupancy also interacts with the parking requirement in RMC 4-4-055(B)(4), which adds one additional off-street parking space specifically when the unit is owner-occupied, on top of the parking otherwise required under Title IV RMC. All of this sits within the section's broader definition of a short-term rental as a dwelling advertised for stays under thirty (30) continuous days.