Doña Ana County, NM Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Section 280-4(I) sets the occupancy formula directly: the total number of persons occupying a short-term rental unit may not be more than twice the number of beds plus sleeping sofas on the premises, and persons under 18 must be accompanied by an adult at all times. A four-bedroom home with, say, six beds and one sleeping sofa is capped at 14 overnight occupants under that formula. The chapter layers a separate gathering limit on top of the sleeping-occupancy cap in § 280-4(M): short-term rental properties cannot be used for gatherings of more than 10 additional persons above the allowed number of renters, including children, or serve as a venue for a large gathering of more than twice the renter limit, whichever produces the lower number.

That means a party or day-visitor crowd is capped even when no one is staying overnight beyond the sleeping limit. Read together with § 280-4(L), which lets the owner impose and post its own conditions limiting parties and gatherings, the occupancy and gathering caps give CDD and law enforcement a numeric benchmark to cite against short-term rentals generating oversized crowds, rather than relying only on a general nuisance standard.