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

Article 49 of the Pacifica Municipal Code, adopted by Ordinance No. effective September 10, 2025, splits short-term rentals into hosted and unhosted categories and imposes extra restrictions on the unhosted kind because no operator is present during the stay. Sec. 4905(v) sets three additional operation requirements that apply only to unhosted rentals. First, subsection (v)(i) caps operation at 60 nights per year, on an annual cycle running from October 31 through October 30 of the following year, matching the City's October 31 permit renewal deadline in Sec.

4907. Second, subsection (v)(ii) requires a minimum stay of two consecutive nights for every unhosted booking, preventing single-night turnover. Third, subsection (v)(iii) bars unhosted short-term rentals from multi-family developments altogether; only hosted rentals are permitted as an accessory use within a duplex, triplex or apartment unit under Sec. 4903(f). The 60-night cap sits alongside the citywide permit cap of 150 total short-term rental permits set in Sec. 4902(c), so an operator must both hold one of the limited permits and stay within the per-property night limit.

At renewal, Sec. 4907(b)(ii) requires the operator to document the number of nights actually rented and whether the unit operated as hosted or unhosted, giving the Administrator the record needed to confirm compliance with the 60-night ceiling before reissuing the permit each October.