Palm Desert, CA Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Parking Rules (2026)

Palm Desert Municipal Code § 5.10.090.J puts the parking rule in one sentence: all parking associated with a short-term rental unit shall be entirely on site, in the garage, carport, and driveway or otherwise off of the public street. The rule covers every permit type, on-site or off-site, because § 5.10.090 is titled Operational requirements for all types of short-term rental permits. It prints a location requirement, not a count of required spaces, so the practical limit is how many vehicles the garage, carport and driveway of the particular property can hold.

The guest cap and the parking rule work together. Overnight occupancy is capped at two persons per bedroom under § 5.10.090.G, and daytime guests are allowed between seven a.m. and ten p.m. up to the table limit, with a maximum of twenty guests for five bedrooms or more. A host who books to the cap has to fit the arriving vehicles on the property.

Section 5.10.090.K gives the city manager authority to impose additional conditions on any given short-term rental unit to ensure that potential secondary effects unique to the unit are avoided or adequately mitigated, and § 5.10.120.A repeats that authority after a violation. Neighboring rules sit close by: § 5.10.090.I says no property use shall cross over any property line, § 5.10.090.H bars changing the residential character of the outside appearance, and § 5.10.090.L requires trash to stay out of public view except in proper containers on scheduled collection days.

Hosts must also hand the responsible person the rules before occupancy under § 5.10.100, and § 5.10.090.O says the city posts short-term rental unit information on its website for public access, which gives neighbors a way to see which addresses hold permits.