Stanislaus County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

Stanislaus County has not adopted a vacation-rental ordinance, so there is no STR-specific maximum-guests or maximum-occupancy figure in the County code for unincorporated areas. Occupancy is instead controlled by the underlying residential use. Title 21 distinguishes a single dwelling occupied by a household from larger lodging uses: a "boardinghouse" is defined (Section 21.12.080) as a dwelling, other than a hotel or residential care home, where lodging and meals for five or more persons are provided for compensation, and a "roominghouse" is defined (Section 21.12.520) as a dwelling occupied by five or more persons who pay rent for specific space. These thresholds matter because providing lodging for compensation to a larger group can shift a property out of an ordinary residential category into a lodging use that the zone may not permit. Day-to-day occupancy of a dwelling is otherwise limited by the California Building Code and the Uniform Housing Code (bedroom sizing, egress, sanitation) rather than by any County guest-count cap. Operators should therefore size occupancy to the dwelling's legal residential capacity and avoid crossing into the boardinghouse or roominghouse definitions. California has no statewide STR occupancy cap either.