Inyo County, CA Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Inyo County's framework functions as a strict on-site-host (effectively owner-occupancy-adjacent) requirement rather than a pure 'primary residence' definition. When the ordinance was first adopted in 2018 it allowed both hosted and non-hosted permits, but on February 11, 2020 the Board of Supervisors amended Chapter 18.73 to allow only hosted short-term rentals on residentially zoned property. Section 18.73.030(C) states that all short-term rentals shall be hosted rentals. Section 18.73.010 defines a 'hosted rental' as a short-term rental of a room or rooms within a dwelling where the owner or a designated representative of the owner resides on the parcel where the rental occurs, during the duration of the transient renter's stay. In practice this means an absentee owner cannot rent out an entire dwelling: a person must be on the property at all times during the rental, which makes the short-term rental of a whole housing unit by an absentee owner a zoning violation. The County actively enforces this; in 2025 it commenced revocation proceedings against a hosted permittee who advertised and rented a 'whole house' with no host on site, finding violations of Sections 18.73.030(B), (C) and (D). Note the ordinance allows a 'designated representative' to satisfy the on-site host requirement, so it is not strictly limited to the owner's personal primary residence, but unhosted operation is prohibited.