Redwood City Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Redwood City and you're wondering whether you can put it on Airbnb or Vrbo in 2026? Well, the good news is, you can, so long as it's the home you live in. Redwood City, in San Mateo County on the San Francisco Peninsula, has permitted short-term rentals since 2018, and the rule that anchors everything else hasn't moved since then: no primary residence, no rental.

The catch is what trips up almost everyone who calls about this. You can host guests for as many nights as you like while you're physically there, but leave the property empty and rent it out and the city caps you at 120 nights a year. Buy a second home purely to run it as a full-time Airbnb, and Section 31.3 of the Zoning Code won't let you register it. The whole ordinance is built around owner-occupants, not investors. No exceptions.

So let's get into what it takes to do this properly in 2026: who can register, what the city charges, the tax you'll collect, and how seriously Redwood City enforces its own rules. Every figure below comes from the city's own ordinance and its Community Development Department pages, checked in July 2026. If you're weighing a Redwood City property against a market where a whole unit can legally go on Airbnb, run the numbers through BNBCalc first.

What Are Short Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Redwood City, California?

Every one of those figures traces back to a single piece of law: Section 31.3 of the Redwood City Zoning Ordinance, adopted by the City Council on March 26, 2018 as an amendment to Article 31 (Special Uses). Before that date, short-term rentals didn't legally exist here at all. Redwood City runs what planners call a permissive zoning code, meaning any use not specifically listed as allowed is prohibited by default, and until 2018 short-term rentals weren't on that list at all.

The ordinance defines a short-term rental as the use of any room, or a whole dwelling unit, for lodging purposes for fewer than 30 consecutive calendar days, counting partial days as full ones. Stay 30 nights or longer and you've left the ordinance's jurisdiction entirely. That's an ordinary tenancy, governed by landlord-tenant law instead of the rules in this guide.

A "host" can be the owner of record or a tenant renting under a written lease, and either way the same underlying rule governs everything: the unit has to be your primary residence. The ordinance defines that as the dwelling where you're physically present and which you regard as home, evidenced by things like a driver's license or income tax filings. You can only have one primary residence at a time, and if your property holds more than one dwelling unit, including an accessory dwelling unit, each one gets judged separately.

Short-term rentals are permitted in any primary residence that meets the ordinance's operating standards, registration, and tax requirements. Everywhere else, meaning second homes, investment condos, and units where the owner doesn't live day to day, short-term rental use stays flatly prohibited, no matter how the listing is worded.

California itself stays almost entirely out of the way here. The state issues no statewide short-term rental permit or registry, and Revenue and Taxation Code Section 7280 lets any city or county tax stays of 30 days or less however it wants, with no cap on the rate. Redwood City is one municipality regulating under that authority, not a special case, and our California short-term rental guide walks through what the state does and doesn't touch statewide.

One state guardrail is worth ruling out early, because it trips up hosts researching other California cities: the Coastal Commission's short-term rental oversight, which matters a lot in beach towns up and down the coast, has no role in Redwood City. The city fronts San Francisco Bay, not the Pacific coastline, so that layer of state review doesn't reach it. It's a bay city, not a beach city.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Redwood City

None of that state-level detail changes who can register a listing here, though, and that's where Redwood City gets restrictive fast. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to buy a place purely to run it as an Airbnb, there's no path to that in this city. What's available is room-share or whole-home hosting in the place you live day to day, and even that comes with conditions that narrow the field further. Make sure you check each one against your own situation before you assume you qualify:

• Individual hosts only. The ordinance requires a host to be a natural person, not a company, so the LLC structure a lot of investors default to doesn't work here.
• Tenants need a track record. If you rent rather than own, the city's own FAQ says you must have lived in the unit for the 12 months before applying and intend to stay another 12 months after.
• Duplex and triplex owners are boxed in. Live in one unit of a multi-unit building and you can only rent out the portion you occupy, never a second, vacant unit in the same building, even if you're on site the whole time.
• Leases and HOA rules still apply. The ordinance doesn't override a lease or CC&Rs that ban subletting, so check those separately before you register anything.
• ADUs are mostly shut out. An accessory dwelling unit or junior ADU only qualifies if it was both permitted and registered with the city before January 1, 2020, and the host still lives in the main house. Build a new ADU today and you can rent it long-term, never short-term.

That local cutoff predates a wider state trend, mind you. California's own ADU law now requires units approved under the streamlined process to rent for 30 days or more (Gov. Code § 66323(e)), and AB 1154 (2025) extended the same floor to junior ADUs statewide. Redwood City got there five years earlier, and for a different reason: preserving housing stock, not standardizing ADU rules.

If your numbers only work as a full-time, nightly-rate rental on a property you won't live in, that plan almost certainly belongs somewhere else. Our California guide can point you toward markets where entire-home listings are legal outright.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Redwood City

Assuming your situation clears all of that, registration is where the real paperwork starts. You have to register before you advertise or make the unit available at all, and as of my last check in 2026 that happens online through the city's Deckard-powered STR portal, which replaced an older, more manual process.

The application itself asks for the host's name and contact information, the property address, contact details for a local contact person, and an acknowledgment that you'll comply with the zoning ordinance, municipal code, and applicable health and safety standards. The city's registration fee is set by City Council resolution and adjusted from time to time: it ran $420 for Fiscal Year 2024-25, and as of July 2026 the Master Fee Schedule effective July 2025 puts it at $437, since city fees are revised administratively every July 1. Treat that number as one that moves a little each year rather than a fixed price.

Register partway through the fiscal year and the fee gets prorated in your favor: apply between September 30 and April 1 and it drops by 25%, and apply between March 31 and July 1 and it drops by 75%. The City Manager or a designee decides applications. Approval requires that you can meet the ordinance's requirements, that the property hasn't had an active compliance order or citation in the past 12 months, and that a registration for that residence hasn't been denied or revoked in the prior 24 months.

An approved registration runs on the city's fiscal year, is personal to you, and automatically expires the moment the unit sells or transfers. It can't be assigned, transferred, or loaned to anyone else, and renewing it each year means paying the renewal fee and staying current on transient occupancy tax. You don't need a separate business license for this, mind you. When the ordinance was drafted, the Planning Commission recommended dropping that requirement, and the Council agreed, so the registration fee is the only cost of the permit itself.

Required Documents for Redwood City Short Term Rentals

Since that $437 doesn't come with any guarantee of approval, it's worth having the paperwork ready before you submit rather than after. The application itself is short, but a few pieces of supporting evidence matter more than the form suggests:

• Proof you live there. Documentation like a driver's license or income tax statement showing the property as your primary residence.
• Lease evidence, if you're a tenant. Something demonstrating the 12 months of prior residency and your intent to stay another 12 months.
• Local contact person details. A name and 24/7 contact method for whoever will handle complaints when you're not home.
• Every listing you plan to run. The ordinance caps you at two listings per primary residence on the same days, so be ready to account for each one.
• Proof of TOT registration. Renewal depends on your transient occupancy tax remittance being current, so keep that documentation on hand alongside the permit paperwork.

Clear any open compliance issues before you apply, too. Since the city won't approve a registration where the property has an active compliance order or citation from the past year, do check for those first rather than finding out mid-application.

Redwood City Short Term Rental Taxes

That TOT paperwork isn't optional busywork, either. It's the other half of what keeps a registration alive, and it's worth understanding before your first guest checks in.

Redwood City charges a Transient Occupancy Tax of 12% on the total rent paid for any stay under 30 days, administered under Chapter 32, Article IV of the Redwood City Code. Collecting and remitting it is technically the host's responsibility, but Airbnb states directly that it "has an agreement with Redwood City to collect and pay the City's transient occupancy tax on overnight stays on behalf of hosts." Rent exclusively through Airbnb and you shouldn't owe anything further on that front. Nothing more to file. Keep in mind, though, that booking through Vrbo, a direct site, or any platform without a signed collection agreement with the city puts the remittance responsibility back on you.

That revenue doesn't go into the general fund. The Council dedicated it to the city's Affordable Housing Fund when it adopted the ordinance, and at the time, staff projected that short-term rental TOT could add roughly $400,000 a year on top of the roughly $6.5 million the city was already collecting from hotels. That figure is an eight-year-old estimate from the 2018 staff report, not a current collection number, so treat it as historical context rather than something to plan around.

Above the city, California adds very little. There's no state occupancy tax at all, and your rental profit is ordinary taxable income under the Franchise Tax Board's rules, same as any other rental income. A statewide Tourism Assessment applies to some larger accommodations providers, too. From what I can tell going through the state's own filing guidance, though, the small-host exemption threshold isn't published clearly enough for me to say with confidence whether it touches an individual room-share host. I'd check that directly with the California Office of Tourism rather than take my word for it.

Redwood City wide Short Term Rental Rules

Assuming you're square on registration and tax, the operating rules are what you have to live by night to night, and they apply the same way across the whole city.

• Legal dwelling only. Short-term rentals can only happen in a legally permitted dwelling unit, full stop.
• Two listings, maximum. You can't run more than two separate listings for the same primary residence on the same days, even across different platforms.
• The 120-day line depends on presence. A primary residence can be rented unhosted for no more than 120 days a year. Host it yourself and there's no limit, but watch out for what "hosted" actually means here: you have to be on the premises every night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
• A local contact is mandatory for unhosted stays. That person has to be reachable by guests and neighbors 24 hours a day, respond to complaints within 60 minutes, and take remedial action, not just acknowledge them.
• Parking has to be made available. No new parking is required, but whatever spaces already exist on-site must be offered to renters.
• Special events are banned outright. Weddings, corporate retreats, and similar commercial functions can't happen at a short-term rental, period.

These standards apply citywide, to every residential zone, from single-family homes to condos to apartments. What they don't cover is anywhere outside city limits. A handful of unincorporated pockets near Redwood City follow San Mateo County's own short-term rental rules instead, which run separately from the city's, and our San Mateo County guide is the place to check if your address sits outside the city boundary.

Does Redwood City Strictly Enforce STR Rules? Is Redwood City Airbnb Friendly?

Redwood City's rules end at the city line, but they don't end at the ordinance's text once you're inside it. The city built a real enforcement mechanism into Section 31.3, and it's a more formal process than a lot of California cities bother with.

A registration can be revoked by the Zoning Administrator for fraud or misrepresentation in the application, fraud in how the rental is operated day to day, any violation of the ordinance or municipal code, or any violation of federal, state, or local law. Before that happens, though, you get written notice and a hearing, with at least 10 days' notice of the date. You can appeal a denial or revocation to the City Manager or a designated hearing officer within 10 days, and that decision is final. Lose your registration, and you're barred from reapplying for 24 months, so this isn't a fine you pay and quietly move past. It sticks.

In practice, the city's own FAQ describes a graduated approach for straightforward noncompliance: up to three courtesy letters, spaced roughly 60, 30, and 30 days apart, before it opens a formal code enforcement investigation. That investigation is where things get expensive, since it can trigger administrative fees on top of suspending your short-term rental privileges entirely. Whatever fine amount the city's own Zoning Code enforcement article ultimately applies, it can't exceed the statewide caps California sets for cities under Government Code § 36900(d): $1,500 for a first offense, $3,000 for a second within a year, and $5,000 for anything after that.

The city also moved registration and monitoring onto a dedicated third-party platform, run by Deckard Technologies, which suggests it's taking compliance more seriously than a purely paper-based system would allow. Going back to the last hard number available, a 2018 staff report counted about 380 active Airbnb hosts in Redwood City the year before the ordinance existed. I couldn't find a current, city-published count of active registrations for 2025 or 2026, so I won't pretend to have one. What's clear either way is that Redwood City isn't a place that ignores its own ordinance once it's on the books.

Put it all together and Redwood City reads as moderately Airbnb-friendly for the exact host it was built for: an owner or long-term tenant renting out their own home or a spare room. It's not remotely friendly to the "buy a unit, run it as a hotel" investor model that thrives in some other California markets. If that's the model you're weighing, our California statewide guide and the best Airbnb markets in California are worth a look before you commit capital to a Redwood City property specifically for that purpose.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Redwood City

Assuming your situation still fits after all of that, the order below matters more than it might look, since the early steps decide whether the later ones are worth bothering with at all.

1. Confirm the property is your primary residence, or that you're a qualifying tenant with 12 months of history and 12 more planned. Everything else depends on this.
2. Check your lease or HOA CC&Rs for a subletting ban before you spend anything on registration.
3. Design the listing around the rules: two listings maximum, on-site presence 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. if you want unlimited nights, and no more than 120 unhosted nights otherwise.
4. Don't forget to line up your local contact person, since unhosted stays can't legally proceed without one who's reachable around the clock.
5. Register online through the city's Deckard STR portal and pay the current fee, which was $437 as of the fee schedule effective July 2025.
6. Set up transient occupancy tax collection. Confirm whether your platform has a signed agreement with the city, the way Airbnb does, or whether you need to collect and remit the 12% yourself.
7. Post your registration details and keep your listing information matched to what the city has on file.
8. Keep records for at least three years, since the ordinance requires you to produce compliance and TOT documentation to the city on request.
9. Diarize your renewal date. Registrations run on the fiscal year, and renewal depends on your TOT payments being current, too, not the fee alone.

Who to Contact in Redwood City about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever step trips you up, Redwood City keeps short-term rental questions concentrated in a small number of places rather than scattered across departments.

Registration, eligibility, and zoning questions

The Planning Division, part of the Community Development Department, owns the ordinance itself and the registration process.

• Address: 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA 94063
• Phone: (650) 780-7234
• Fax: (650) 780-0128
• Email (general planning): [email protected]
• Email (short-term rentals specifically): [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with walk-in and virtual appointments available 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.

Reporting a problem listing

Redwood City's Code Enforcement Hotline takes complaints about unregistered or noncompliant short-term rentals.

• Phone: (650) 780-7577

Transient occupancy tax questions

TOT administration sits with the city's Finance division, though the short-term rental page itself directs most TOT questions to the same [email protected] address as registration, since the two are handled together for STR hosts specifically.

General business licensing (not needed for STR registration itself)

Redwood City contracts its general business license administration to HdL, though remember that short-term rentals don't need a separate business license on top of their STR registration.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (650) 780-7214

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Redwood City on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think About Local Regulations?

I'll be upfront about the limits of this section before getting into it. Reddit blocks the kind of automated access this research would need, and going through BiggerPockets directly, I couldn't find a thread that substantively debates Redwood City's ordinance the way you'll find for bigger, more contested markets. So what follows is a read of the visible pattern rather than a survey of either community.

The pattern itself is fairly loud, even without a dedicated thread to point to. Airbnb's own Redwood City help page spells out the primary-residence rule and the 120-night cap directly to hosts before they list, which tells you the platform expects a fair number of would-be hosts to arrive with the wrong assumption: that any property they own can go on Airbnb here. It can't, and that mismatch is probably why general Bay Area investing discussions rarely single Redwood City out. The ordinance quietly filters out the exact question most investors show up asking.

What does show up in adjacent real estate discussions is people weighing whether to rent a Redwood City property long-term instead, which tracks with what the ordinance pushes people toward in practice. If you're comparing this city against other Peninsula or North Bay markets with different rules, Sonoma County's guide is a useful contrast since its short-term rental rules run meaningfully differently from Redwood City's owner-occupant model.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Redwood City in 2026?

Yes, but only from your primary residence. Redwood City allows short-term rentals under Zoning Code Section 31.3 as long as the host is an individual owner or qualifying tenant who lives in the unit day to day. Hosted stays, where you're on-site between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. every night, have no limit. Unhosted stays are capped at 120 nights a year. Second homes, investment condos, and units where the owner doesn't live are not eligible at all, regardless of how the listing is worded.

How much does a Redwood City short-term rental registration cost?

The registration fee is $437 a year, per the city's Master Fee Schedule effective July 2025, up from $420 the prior fiscal year. Fees adjust administratively each July 1, so expect this number to shift slightly year to year. Registering partway through the fiscal year gets you a discount: 25% off if you apply between September 30 and April 1, and 75% off between March 31 and July 1. No separate business license is required for the STR registration itself.

Can you rent out an ADU or in-law unit as a short-term rental in Redwood City?

Only if it was both permitted and registered with the city before January 1, 2020, and the host who registered it still lives in the main house. Any ADU or junior ADU permitted after that date can be rented long-term but never as a short-term rental. This local cutoff predates newer California ADU laws that now require a similar 30-day-plus minimum statewide, so Redwood City's rule isn't new; it's stricter and older than the state's version.

Do you have to pay transient occupancy tax on a Redwood City Airbnb?

Yes, at a rate of 12% of the total rent for any stay under 30 days. Airbnb has a signed agreement with the city to collect and remit that tax on behalf of hosts, so if you rent exclusively through Airbnb, you generally don't need to do anything further. If you use Vrbo, a personal website, or any platform without that kind of agreement, collecting and remitting the 12% becomes your responsibility directly.

What happens if you run an unregistered short-term rental in Redwood City?

The city typically starts with up to three courtesy letters over a 120-day span before opening a formal code enforcement investigation. That investigation can trigger administrative fees and a suspension of your ability to register a short-term rental at all, and any registration that does get revoked carries a 24-month wait before you can reapply. Fine amounts are capped statewide at $1,500 for a first offense, $3,000 for a second, and $5,000 for anything beyond that under California's Government Code.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.