Bellflower, CA Short-Term Rentals: Registration Rules (2026)

Many California cities that allow short-term rentals pair them with a registration ordinance that collects host contact information, a 24/7 local contact, and a posted permit number. Bellflower has no such scheme because it does not authorize STRs in residential neighborhoods in the first place. There is no online STR portal, no registration deadline, and no annual renewal for home-share hosts in the Bellflower Municipal Code. The only registration obligation tied to transient stays appears in Chapter 3.16, the city's Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax Ordinance (adopted by Ordinance No. 673 after the April 12, 1988 election). That chapter requires the operator of a hotel or other transient-lodging establishment to register with the city's Tax Administrator and obtain a Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate so the operator can collect and remit the bed tax. Under the code, a hotel is a building whose rooms are rented for temporary lodging where the owner or operator keeps control of and access to the premises, and a transient is someone occupying such a room for 30 consecutive days or less. Those provisions are aimed at established lodging businesses in commercial zones, not at residents listing a spare bedroom. A homeowner cannot satisfy the law by simply registering for TOT; the underlying use must be permitted, and residential STR use is not. Anyone considering a lodging business should verify zoning eligibility with the Planning Division and tax registration with the Finance Department before operating.