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

Section 88-32.602(c) of the Short-Term Rental Ordinance draws the line at the type of rental, not the property. A non-hosted short-term rental may not be rented for more than ninety days in a calendar year, and a hosted short-term rental may not be rented for more than one hundred eighty days in a calendar year. The section adds a hard ceiling regardless of hosted status: the maximum number of days a short-term rental may be rented in a calendar year is one hundred eighty days.

Hosted status, defined in Section 88-32.206(c), requires the host to be physically present at their primary residence on the same lot for the entire rental period; without that continuous presence the rental is non-hosted and subject to the tighter ninety-day cap. A permittee must keep written rental records under Section 88-32.618 documenting every date the unit was rented, the guest count each night, and the rent collected, and must retain those records for at least three years, providing copies with each permit renewal application. These day caps apply on top of the chapter's other operational limits, including Section 88-32.604(d)'s hard limit of no more than twenty people, including children, gathered at the rental at any one time.