Mendocino County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Night Caps (2026)

Unincorporated Mendocino County does not impose an annual night cap (such as a 90-night limit) on short-term rentals. The defining time threshold in the County's rules is the 30-day mark: stays of under 30 days are 'transient' occupancy subject to the Transient Occupancy Tax, while rentals of 30 days or more fall outside the STR/TOT framework. The County's adopted code and the Board's February 2026 direction on the draft inland ordinance contain no per-year operating-day ceiling; in fact, supervisors rejected limits on the number or location of rentals. The only hard numeric limit in the enacted code is a cap on how many licensed rentals may exist in the Town of Mendocino - 'no more than ten (10) Vacation Home Rentals and twenty (20) Single Unit Rentals' - which restricts the number of rental licenses, not the number of nights any single property may host. There is no comparable license cap in the broader unincorporated inland or coastal areas. Because the inland ordinance was still in draft as of mid-2026, operators should confirm with Planning and Building Services whether any nightly or seasonal limits are ultimately adopted.