Unincorporated Lake County sets no specific guest-occupancy cap for whole-house vacation rentals, because it has no dedicated STR ordinance. The only transient-lodging occupancy limits in the County zoning code are room counts for Bed and Breakfasts - a maximum of two guest rooms (Sec. 21-27.3(c)) - and Bed and Breakfast Inns, three to eight rooms (Sec. 21-27.13(b)).
Because Lake County has not adopted a vacation-rental ordinance, there is no County rule capping the number of overnight guests in a short-term rental home in the unincorporated area. The occupancy figures that do appear in the County Zoning Ordinance apply to the recognized transient-lodging use types rather than to whole-house rentals. Under Section 21-27.3(c), a Bed and Breakfast "shall contain no more than two (2) guest rooms used, designed or intended to be used, let or hired out for occupancy for one (1) or more guests," and no cooking facilities are permitted in the guest rooms. Under Section 21-27.13(b), a Bed and Breakfast Inn "shall contain three (3) but not more than eight (8) guest rooms," and the maximum stay for guests at an inn "shall not exceed fourteen (14) consecutive days." For an actual short-term rental dwelling, practical occupancy is instead governed by general building, health, and septic constraints - the number of bedrooms and the capacity of the on-site water and wastewater system - rather than by a County-set guest cap. The California Health and Safety Code and the County's building and environmental health rules limit how many people a dwelling and its septic system can serve. Owners should confirm any applicable limits with Lake County Community Development and Environmental Health.
Exceeding the two-room limit for a Bed and Breakfast under Section 21-27.3(c), or the eight-room limit for a Bed and Breakfast Inn under Section 21-27.13(b), would place the use outside its zoning approval and make it subject to County code enforcement. For a vacation-rental dwelling, overcrowding beyond what the building and septic system can safely support is addressed through the County's building and environmental-health authority rather than through a fixed guest-number ordinance. There is no County-imposed per-night occupancy penalty specific to short-term rentals because no such cap exists in the code.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how Lake County's occupancy limits rules stack up against other locations.
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