Aliso Viejo, CA Short-Term Rentals: Short-Term Rental Permits (2026)

AVMC 15.14.165, titled Short-term rental uses prohibited, is the City of Aliso Viejo's rule for renting homes to transient guests. Subsection (A) prohibits short-term rental uses such as transient bed and breakfast, hostel, hotel, inn, lodging, motel, resort and other transient lodging uses for remuneration in all residential districts, except as otherwise permitted by the municipal code. The section is a prohibition, not a licensing scheme: it contains no application, fee, inspection or registration step, and the only opening in the text is the phrase except as otherwise permitted by the municipal code.

The zoning definitions chapter fixes the terms. Short-term means for a duration of fewer than 30 days, and short-term rental means the use of any dwelling unit, or any portion of any dwelling unit, for short-term occupancy. Short-term occupancy is the short-term use or possession of any portion of any room or rooms offered for remuneration for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, regardless of the purpose for which such rooms are rented. A portion of a home counts, so renting a single bedroom for stays under 30 days falls inside the definition. The definition of family in the same chapter also excludes occupants of a short-term rental, which keeps transient guests from being treated as a household in the City of Aliso Viejo.

The prohibition sits in the residential development standards of Chapter 15.14 AVMC. Enforcement runs through the city's general code enforcement authority under Chapter 1.06 AVMC, covered in subsection (B), which makes the owner and anyone arranging the stay liable.