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

The only county-level registration that clearly reaches short-term rental operators in unincorporated Kings County is the Transient Occupancy Tax registration in County Code Chapter 22, Article III. Under Section 22-41, within 15 days after commencing business each operator of any 'hotel' renting occupancy to transients must register the property with the Tax Collector and obtain a transient occupancy registration certificate, which must be 'at all times posted in a conspicuous place on the premises.' The certificate must state the operator's name, the property address, and the issuance date. The code defines 'hotel' broadly in Section 22-37 to include 'any structure, or any portion of any structure, which is occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes,' which can capture a dwelling rented for stays of 30 days or less. Importantly, the definition excludes 'a private home, or similar facility which is needed by a person who is not regularly engaged in the business of renting such facilities and does so only occasionally and incidentally to his own use thereof' - meaning a genuinely occasional, incidental rental of one's own home may fall outside the tax, while a property run as a regular short-term-rental business does not. The registration certificate is expressly not a permit. Operators should confirm how the County applies these definitions to their specific situation.