Short-term rental permit rules in Merced, CA — also called Airbnb permits, vacation rental licenses, or STR registration — list the application steps, fees, and operating requirements for hosting.
The City of Merced has no dedicated short-term-rental permit or ordinance in its Municipal Code. STRs are not separately licensed. The applicable city requirements are a general business license (Title 5) and the Transient Occupancy Tax (Chapter 3.08). A bed and breakfast use needs a conditional use permit under Section 20.44.030.
A review of the City of Merced Municipal Code found no short-term-rental, vacation-rental, transient-rental, homestay, or home-sharing ordinance. The city's zoning code (Title 20) does not list short-term rental as a land use and creates no STR registration or permit. Instead, an operator renting lodging to transients for 30 days or less is treated under two existing frameworks. First, Chapter 3.08 (Transient Occupancy Tax) defines a broad "hotel" that includes inns, tourist homes, lodging houses, rooming houses and similar structures, and requires the operator to obtain a Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate from the finance officer (Section 3.08.050) and collect a 10% tax (Section 3.08.030). Second, the city's business license requirements under Title 5 apply to businesses operating in the city. The one related land use that is expressly regulated is a bed and breakfast: Section 20.44.030 requires a conditional use permit in any zoning district and the owner must reside on the premises. Note this is the incorporated City of Merced; unincorporated Merced County operates a separate short-term-rental administrative-permit program under its own zoning code, which does not apply inside city limits. Because the city has no STR ordinance, prospective hosts should confirm current rules directly with the city before operating.
There is no STR-specific permit to violate, but operating without collecting and remitting the Transient Occupancy Tax is a misdemeanor under Section 3.08.130, and operating a bed and breakfast without a conditional use permit, or any business without a required city business license, would violate Title 20 and Title 5 respectively.
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