Short-term rental permit rules in Vacaville, CA — also called Airbnb permits, vacation rental licenses, or STR registration — list the application steps, fees, and operating requirements for hosting.
The City of Vacaville does not issue a short-term rental (STR) permit and has not adopted a stand-alone STR licensing chapter. Under Title 14 (Land Use and Development Code) of the Vacaville Municipal Code, a rental of less than thirty (30) consecutive days falls within the 'hotel/motel' or 'bed and breakfast' use classification rather than 'dwelling, single-family' or 'dwelling, multifamily,' and lodging uses are limited to commercial zoning districts under Chapter 14.09.070 (Commercial and Mixed-Use Zoning Districts). Operating a whole-home Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com listing in an R-E, R-L, R-M, or R-H residential district is not a permitted use, even with a city business license. Accessory dwelling units are independently barred from short-term rental use by Chapter 14.09.270 (Standards for Specific Uses and Activities), which prohibits ADU rentals of less than 31 days.
Vacaville's zoning code structures lodging as a commercial use, not a residential use. Title 14, Division 14.09 (Zoning) defines residential dwelling uses (single-family, two-family, multifamily) and lodging uses (hotel, motel, bed and breakfast inn) as distinct categories, and the use tables in Chapter 14.09.060 (Residential Zoning Districts) and Chapter 14.09.070 (Commercial and Mixed-Use Zoning Districts) assign lodging uses to commercial districts. A rental of less than 30 consecutive days to a transient occupant falls within the hotel/motel definition for purposes of Chapter 3.16 (Transient Occupancy Tax) and the corresponding zoning use; the city has consistently taken the position in code-enforcement guidance that whole-home short-term rentals in residential zones are not a permitted accessory or principal use. Chapter 14.09.270 reinforces this for accessory dwelling units by expressly barring ADU use for short-term rental of less than 31 days, consistent with Cal. Gov't Code Section 65852.2(a)(6). An operator who wishes to lawfully offer transient lodging in Vacaville must site the use in a zoning district that allows hotels or bed and breakfasts as a permitted or conditionally permitted use, obtain the corresponding city land-use entitlement (administrative or use permit, depending on zoning), pull a city business license under Title 5 (Business Taxes, Licenses and Regulations), and register for Transient Occupancy Tax under Chapter 3.16. The City Council has discussed updates to the TOT framework in 2025 and 2026 (including modernizing collection through HdL effective October 1, 2023, and a proposed rate increase considered for the November 2026 ballot), but those updates do not authorize STRs in residential districts.
Operating a short-term rental in a residential zoning district is a violation of Title 14 enforced by the city's Code Enforcement Division through notices of violation, administrative citations, and abatement under Chapter 1.28 (Abatement of City Ordinance Violations) and Chapter 9.20 (Abatement of Community Safety Violations). Code Enforcement may also refer the matter to the City Attorney for civil action and seek injunctive relief. Where the operator has not paid Transient Occupancy Tax under Chapter 3.16, the city may pursue back taxes, penalties, and interest through HdL Companies (the city's TOT processing agent effective October 1, 2023). Operating without a city business license under Title 5 is independently a misdemeanor and a separate civil penalty. ADU short-term rental use of less than 31 days is enforced by Community Development as a violation of Chapter 14.09.270 and may trigger revocation of the ADU's certificate of occupancy.
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