Apple Valley Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Apple Valley and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that the Town allows it, and it allows it across the residential zones rather than penning short-term rentals into one tourist strip. The catch is that permission isn't automatic. Apple Valley treats a short-term rental as a land use needing discretionary approval, so you apply for a Special Use Permit, every owner within 300 feet gets a letter about it, and a planner decides.

That's the Town of Apple Valley in San Bernardino County, out in the High Desert, and none of this is new. Ordinance No. 561 built the framework on February 14, 2023, and nothing has amended it since. What surprises people is the cost of the front door. The application opens at a $1,946 deposit billed against actual cost, the Town inspects the house every year before renewing the certificate that lets you take guests, and the 7% lodging tax is yours to file monthly, because Airbnb doesn't collect it here.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly: which zones allow it, what the permit costs, how long the Town takes, the documents you'll be assembling, the occupancy and parking caps, the tax nobody collects for you, and who to call when something stalls. Every figure below comes from Apple Valley's own code, fee schedule and forms, checked in July 2026, and where I couldn't confirm something I've said so.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Apple Valley,California?

That planner is working from a surprisingly short set of rules, so it helps to know exactly which ones. Apple Valley has no short-term rental chapter, no rental registry, and no standalone ordinance with a name. What it has instead is three hooks bolted onto codes that already existed, plus the lodging tax.

Section 8.34.030(j) supplies the definition, and it's broad. A short-term rental is "any dwelling unit in which overnight accommodations are provided to guests for compensation that is rented, leased, or subleased for 30 consecutive days or less."

No carve-out for a spare room, no threshold of nights below which the Town stops caring, and no distinction between a resident host and an absentee owner. Rent a bedroom for two nights and you're inside the definition.

The zoning hook comes next. Row 16 of Table 9.28.030-A, the residential permitted-use table, lists "Short-term rentals" and marks them SUP in ten of the eleven residential districts, from Very Low Density and Estate Residential through Single Family, Multi-Family, Mixed Use and Planned Residential Development. The table's legend defines SUP as "subject to Special Use Permit process, Department review," which puts the decision with Planning Division staff rather than the Planning Commission.

One column is worth flagging. The Mobile Home Park cell is left blank, not marked with the dash the legend uses for prohibited uses. Blank isn't the same as banned, and it isn't the same as allowed, so if your property sits in an MHP zone, do check with Planning before you spend anything.

Footnote 14 to that same table carries the third hook: short-term rentals "shall also be subject to Sections 8.34.030 and 8.34.080 of Chapter 8.34." That's where the operating rules live, and I'll come back to them. Then Chapter 3.24 attaches the 7% transient occupancy tax to any stay of 30 days or less.

Now, notice what isn't in that list. Apple Valley sets no cap on how many permits it issues, no primary-residence requirement, no minimum-night rule, no density spacing between listings, and no 24-hour local contact obligation. Several California cities stack all five. Compared with the coastal markets covered in the San Mateo County guide, the substantive rules here are light. The process is where the weight sits.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Apple Valley

All of that weight comes down to one distinction, and it decides whether this works as an investment. A ministerial permit is a form you fill in correctly and receive. A discretionary permit is a decision somebody makes about you, and Apple Valley's Special Use Permit is the second kind.

Chapter 9.16 describes the purpose as "allowing reasonable public notice for uses with limited impacts which may be of concern to surrounding property owners." Staff review it, staff attach conditions, staff approve or deny. Before any of that, though, the Town mails notice.

That notice is the part most owners underestimate. Under Section 9.13.050(A), "all Special Use Permits and Variances shall require mailed notice to surrounding property owners," at least ten days before the Director acts, and on a site of five acres or less, surrounding means everything inside a 300-foot radius. Your neighbours learn your plan from the Town, in writing, before you have a permit.

They also get a veto trigger. Under Section 9.16.070, written opposition from two or more of the noticed owners, or ten percent of them, whichever is greater, means "the application shall automatically be forwarded to the Planning Commission for a final decision."

Two annoyed neighbours turn a staff approval into a public hearing. Keep that in mind when you're deciding whether to knock on a few doors first.

Assuming you clear that notice, you still have six findings to satisfy under Section 9.16.090. The one with teeth says the use "will not be detrimental to the public health, safety or welfare, nor be materially injurious to properties or improvements in the vicinity." That's the language a neighbour objection is aimed at, and the language a revocation would later rest on.

Two provisions cut in the investor's favour, mind you. Section 9.16.140 says a use permit "shall continue to be valid upon a change of ownership," so the approval runs with the land and survives a sale. That makes it an asset rather than a licence you'd hand back at closing.

And because there's no primary-residence rule, an owner who lives in Los Angeles or Las Vegas can hold an Apple Valley short-term rental outright. That combination is rare in California, and it's the strongest argument for the market.

The clock is the counterweight. Section 9.16.100 voids a use permit three years after approval unless the site is occupied in accordance with it, and it expires anyway if the use stops for more than one continuous year. A permit obtained speculatively, then parked while you renovate, can quietly die. Before you commit to the deposit, run the property through BNBCalc and see whether the nightly numbers carry roughly $2,000 of permitting plus an annual inspection in year one.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Apple Valley

Because that deposit doesn't come back, it's worth getting the sequence right, and the sequence trips people up because Apple Valley doesn't issue one short-term rental licence. It issues three separate things, from three different counters.

The Special Use Permit is the land-use approval, and it's the expensive one. The Town's Municipal Fee Schedule, adopted September 26, 2023 and still the current schedule as of July 2026, prices a Special Use Permit at a $1,946.00 initial deposit against actual cost.

The Conditional Use / Special Use Permit application prints the same figure with a warning attached: "Should processing time exhaust the initial deposit amount, the applicant will be required to deposit additional funds." So $1,946 is a floor, not a price. A separate $447 deposit covers Apple Valley Fire Protection District review, and that cheque goes to the Fire District rather than the Town.

The Property Maintenance Certificate is the annual one, and it's the piece owners forget. Section 8.34.080(a) and (b) subject short-term rental operators to the certificate requirement in Section 8.34.040 and the inspection requirement in Section 8.34.050. No certificate, no lawful occupancy. It expires one year after issuance, and the fee schedule prices it at $107.50 for up to four units, with second and third inspections at $107.50 each.

Section 8.34.050 is blunt about what a failed inspection costs you: "If after a second inspection the premises have not been brought into compliance with the provisions of this Code, the property maintenance certificate shall be revoked." Getting it back means a reinspection fee plus the Town's administrative costs, so make sure the smoke alarms, egress and general condition are sorted before the first visit.

The transient occupancy registration permit is the cheap one and the easiest to skip by accident. Section 3.24.060 requires every operator renting to transients to apply for one for each place of business, pay a $5.00 registration fee, and keep the permit "at all times posted in a conspicuous place on the premises."

What you pay for	Amount	Who charges it
Special Use Permit application	$1,946.00 deposit, then actual cost	Town Planning Division
Fire review of the application	$447.00 deposit, then actual cost	Apple Valley Fire Protection District
Property Maintenance Inspection Certificate	$107.50 per year, up to four units	Town, annually
Transient occupancy registration permit	$5.00	Town Finance, once
Appeal to Planning Commission or Town Council	$324.00	Town, if you need it

Then there's the business licence question, which I could not settle from the code. Section 5.02.024 makes it unlawful to conduct any business in the Town without one, at $50.00 a year for zero to five employees under Section 5.02.250.

Yet Section 5.02.300 says "only those property owners who have for rent and/or lease ten or more residential, commercial, industrial and/or office units shall be required to obtain a business license," and Section 8.34.080 never mentions a licence at all. Those readings point opposite ways for a one-house host, so ask Finance and get the answer in writing. A delinquent licence carries a 25% penalty per month.

On timing, the Town's Planning Applications page says "most projects take 30 to 60 days," with appeals adding "about 45 more days." Nothing in the code sets a shorter clock for a house that already exists, so plan on a season rather than a fortnight.

Required Documents for Apple Valley Short Term Rentals

Sixty days assumes the Town accepts your package on the first pass, and that's where the document list starts to matter. The Conditional Use / Special Use Permit application is explicit that it won't budge otherwise: "The project application will not be accepted for processing unless all requested information and materials have been submitted and determined to be complete and adequate."

The general requirements on that form are:

• The completed general application form, a written project description, and the filing fees.
• A preliminary title report dated within thirty days of filing, showing all recorded easements, plus the assessor's parcel map and grant deeds for every parcel involved.
• The property owners mailing list: two sets of adhesive labels for the owner, applicant and every surrounding owner including vacant parcels, one copy of the label sheets, a radius map drawn from your exterior boundaries, and a signed certification that the list came from the latest equalized San Bernardino County Assessor's roll.
• A dimensioned site plan showing structures, driveways, designated parking spaces, setbacks, walls and fences, septic location, and every fire hydrant within 300 feet.
• A floor plan drawn to scale and fully dimensioned, with the proposed use of each area.
• Seven full sets of plans, collated into individual packets and folded to 8½ by 11 inches, plus one reduced site plan and one CD containing the graphics as both .jpg and .pdf.

Read that against a three-bedroom house on a quarter acre and you'll notice it was written for construction projects. Grading plans, hydrology studies and landscape plans all sit on the same form.

Nothing in the code says which items a planner waives for an existing dwelling, so take the step the Town itself recommends on page one. Attend a Development Advisory Board conference "prior to any substantial investment," and settle the submittal list there.

One document is specific to short-term rentals and easy to miss. Where vehicle access to your property is shared with other owners and privately maintained, Section 8.34.080(d)(i) requires a Parking Plan showing how the rental will avoid encumbering parking, plus the instructions you'll give guests about keeping shared maneuvering areas clear. Plenty of Apple Valley's larger desert lots sit on exactly that kind of shared dirt access, so check your title report before assuming this one skips you.

The mailing labels come off the San Bernardino County Assessor's roll at 15900 Smoke Tree Street, Suite 221, Hesperia, which the application names directly. An incorrect list is grounds for rejection, so paying a title or radius-map service to build it is usually the cheaper mistake.

Apple Valley Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and Apple Valley's version has one feature that catches nearly every new host out. Nobody collects it for you.

The Town's own charge is the transient occupancy tax, and Section 3.24.030 sets it at 7% of the rent charged by the operator. A transient, under Section 3.24.020(8), is anyone occupying for 30 consecutive calendar days or less, "counting portions of calendar days as full days," so a Friday-to-Sunday booking is fully taxable.

The chapter's definition of "hotel" reaches single-family dwellings expressly. There's one carve-out, for a house "rented only occasionally (infrequently) and incidentally to the normal occupancy by the owner," yet the code puts "the burden of establishing that the housing or facility is a hotel" on the owner. Don't lean on that exemption without confirming it in writing.

Airbnb's California occupancy tax page lists San Bernardino County's 7% collection for unincorporated areas only, and names Apple Valley in the exclusion list alongside Adelanto, Barstow, Hesperia and Victorville. There's no separate Apple Valley entry, so Airbnb neither collects nor remits your Town tax. I couldn't verify Vrbo's California collection from any source either. Assume the filing is yours until a platform states otherwise in its own documentation.

Charge	Rate	You remit it to	Who collects it
Transient occupancy tax	7% of rent	Town of Apple Valley, monthly	You do, not the platform
Transient occupancy registration permit	$5.00, one time	Town of Apple Valley	You do, at registration
California Tourism Assessment	$1,950 per $1M of assessable revenue	California Office of Tourism, annually	You do, self-assessed
San Bernardino County lodging tax	Does not apply inside town limits	Nobody	County collects in unincorporated areas only
State or county sales tax on lodging	None in California	Nobody	California levies no state occupancy tax

Filing is monthly and the deadline is an odd one, so put it in a calendar. Sections 3.24.070 and 3.24.080 make the tax due when collected and delinquent if the Tax Administrator hasn't received it "on or before the last working day of the month following the close of each calendar month," on a return signed under penalty of perjury.

One line inside Section 3.24.080 costs real money if you miss it. Taxable receipts "may not be reduced by any business expenses including but not limited to the amount of service charges deducted by credit card companies or commissions paid to travel agencies." You owe 7% on the gross rent, not on what lands in your account after Airbnb's cut.

Section 3.24.040's exemptions are narrow to the point of being theoretical, covering occupancies the Town has no power to tax and foreign officers exempt by treaty. There's no de minimis threshold for small hosts of the sort New York offers. First dollar, first night, 7%.

Above that sits one state layer. The California Office of Tourism runs a self-filed Tourism Assessment, and its filing instructions put Accommodations at $1,950 per $1 million of assessable travel and tourism revenue, or roughly 0.195%, with stays of 31 or more continuous days excluded. I couldn't confirm the current-year figure or the small-business exemption floor from a live page, so verify both before you file.

Beyond that, rental profit is ordinary income to the Franchise Tax Board, and California levies no state occupancy tax of its own, since Revenue & Taxation Code § 7280 only authorises cities and counties to charge one.

Apple Valley wide Short Term Rental Rules

Tax filed, the day-to-day rules are short enough to read in one sitting, and two of them will shape the listing you write. Section 8.34.080 is the whole operating code, and you can read it in five minutes.

Occupancy runs at two people per bedroom, with bedroom defined by the California Building Code, plus two more where the rental provides a separate living space. Then subsection (c) adds a ceiling that overrides the arithmetic: "In no instance can a short-term rental provide a total occupancy that is greater than the capacity of the number of vehicles which can be accommodated by the off-street parking requirements of subsection (d)."

Parking is what makes that ceiling bite. Subsection (d) requires "sufficient designated and easily identified off-street parking spaces to meet the occupancy level offered," a separate set of designated spaces for each rental where a property hosts more than one, and it fixes vehicle capacity at four individuals per vehicle.

Work it through on a three-bedroom house with a separate living area. Bedrooms give you six, the living space adds two, so eight guests on paper. Eight divided by four per vehicle means you need two designated off-street spaces before you can advertise eight. With only one usable space on the lot, your legal maximum drops to four regardless of how many beds you own. Count the spaces before you write the listing.

Two more things get enforced around the edges of the ordinance. Guest cars parked outside the designated spaces, or anything blocking a shared maneuvering area, are violations by name under subsection (d)(i).

Noise is the other. Table 9.73.050-A sets the exterior standard in single-family residential areas at 40 dBA between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., 50 dBA during the day, as levels not to be exceeded more than 30 minutes in any hour. That's quiet. A hot tub with six people in it at eleven at night will clear it.

A few limits sit above the Town and apply whatever your permit says. Your HOA can still ban you outright, because Civil Code § 4741(c) lets a common interest development prohibit rentals "for a period of 30 days or less" even though it cannot ban longer ones.

An accessory dwelling unit is off the table entirely, since Gov. Code § 66323(e) requires ADU rentals approved under that section to run "for a term longer than 30 days," and AB 1154 extended the same floor to junior ADUs in 2025.

One newer state law hasn't reached Apple Valley yet. Gov. Code § 50990, the Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025, took effect on January 1, 2026 and makes platforms report each listing's address and carry local licence numbers, though only where the local agency opts in by ordinance. Searching the code as codified through Ordinance No. 575 on January 27, 2026, I found no such ordinance. One council vote could change that, so treat it as a live risk rather than a settled answer.

There's an alternative route as well, if hosting alongside guests appeals to you. Section 9.29.040 permits a bed and breakfast inn of up to six rooms on a Special Use Permit, though it adds conditions a short-term rental doesn't carry, starting with a requirement that the operator reside at the inn.

Do note that subsection (C) still sends you to the County Tax Collector, which reads as a holdover from before the Town levied its own tax. Confirm with Town Finance if you go that way.

Does Apple Valley strictly enforce STR rules? Is Apple Valley Airbnb friendly?

Both questions have honest answers, and they point in different directions.

On enforcement, I'll be straight about the limits of what I could find. No Apple Valley short-term rental enforcement case, lawsuit, staff report or news story surfaced anywhere I looked, and the Town publishes no register of approved permits and no compliance statistics. So I can't tell you how often the Town acts. The machinery, though, is sharper than the light rulebook suggests.

The fine structure is the sharpest part. Section 8.34.080(f) makes a violating operator a public nuisance, then sets an administrative fine at twice the rental value for the first night's violation, three times for the second, four times for the third, and "continuing at the same ratio for each and every additional night's violation."

That's not a flat citation. It scales with what you charge and compounds nightly, which is how a city makes an unpermitted operation unprofitable rather than merely irritating. California does cap city fines for short-term rental ordinance infractions at $1,500, $3,000 and $5,000 under Gov. Code § 36900(d), with a hardship waiver required, yet I found no Apple Valley determination on how the Town's multiplier and that ceiling meet in practice. Plan around the ladder.

Underneath it, the ordinary code enforcement ladder still runs. The fee schedule prices administrative citations at $102.50, $204.50 and $511.50 for a first, second and third violation of the same section inside a year, and the Town's code enforcement page adds a 50% late fee on anything unpaid after 30 days.

Beyond the citations, a code violation can be charged as a misdemeanor carrying up to $1,000 and six months under Section 1.01.200, with each day a separate offence.

Two permits can be pulled rather than fined, too. Section 9.16.130, amended by the same Ordinance 561, lets the Director revoke a Special Use Permit where a condition goes unmet, where the use violates any law, or where it becomes a nuisance. Section 8.34.050 revokes your Property Maintenance Certificate after a second failed inspection. Losing either closes the business, and the permit you'd reapply for is the $1,946 one.

Enforcement here will be complaint-driven, because there's no registry to audit and no platform data feed. Which brings the story back to that notice letter: every owner within 300 feet knows your address and knows you asked. Be aware that your standing with the neighbours is your enforcement risk.

So is Apple Valley Airbnb friendly? On substance, yes, and more so than most of California. No cap on permits, no primary-residence requirement, no minimum stay, no spacing rule, and an approval that transfers with the property. An out-of-area investor can own and operate here, which rules out a great deal of the coastal market before you even look at price.

On process, though, it's demanding. A discretionary permit, a neighbour notice, a nearly $2,000 deposit with no ceiling, an annual inspection, and monthly tax filings you do yourself. The rules are friendly. The paperwork is not, and the paperwork is what most owners quit over.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Apple Valley

Given that the paperwork is the real obstacle, the order below still matters more than it looks. The early steps are the cheap ones that tell you whether the expensive ones are worth starting.

1. Confirm your zoning district first. Look up the parcel with the Planning Division and check row 16 of Table 9.28.030-A. Ten residential districts show SUP; the Mobile Home Park column is blank, so ask rather than assume.
2. Read your CC&Rs. Civil Code § 4741(c) lets an HOA prohibit rentals of 30 days or less outright, and no Town permit overrides that. Remember that an ADU or junior ADU can't be rented short-term at all under state law.
3. Count your off-street parking spaces. Four guests per designated space is the hard ceiling on occupancy, so this one number decides your revenue model. Do this before you spend anything.
4. Book a Development Advisory Board conference. The application form recommends it "prior to any substantial investment," and it's where you learn which submittal items apply to an existing house.
5. Assemble the package. Title report dated within 30 days, parcel map, grant deeds, site plan, floor plan, seven collated plan sets, the radius map and certified 300-foot mailing labels, plus a Parking Plan where access is shared and privately maintained.
6. File the permit and pay the deposits. $1,946 to the Town, $447 to the Fire District, and expect 30 to 60 days. If two or more noticed neighbours object in writing, the file goes to the Planning Commission.
7. Book the property maintenance inspection. Pay the $107.50, pass on the first or second visit, and diarize the certificate's expiry, because it lapses one year after issuance.
8. Register for transient occupancy tax before your first guest. Apply under Section 3.24.060, pay the $5, and post the certificate somewhere conspicuous in the house.
9. Set up the monthly filing on day one. Returns fall due by the last working day of the month following each calendar month, on gross rent with no deduction for platform fees.

Who to contact in Apple Valley about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps stalls, three counters handle almost all of it, and knowing which one owns your question saves an afternoon on hold. All three sit in Town Hall and share the same hours: Monday to Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed every other Friday.

Zoning, the Special Use Permit, and the application itself

The Planning Division, inside the Community Development Department, owns the zoning determination, the Special Use Permit, the submittal list and the Development Advisory Board conference.

• Address: Town of Apple Valley Community Development Department, 14955 Dale Evans Parkway, Apple Valley, CA 92307
• Phone: (760) 240-7000, extension 7200
• Email: [email protected]
• Fax: (760) 240-7399
• Forms: the Planning Applications page carries the Conditional Use / Special Use, Appeal, and Extension of Time applications

One caution on the address, because a misdirected plan set costs you weeks. The Town's website footer prints 14995 Dale Evans Parkway on every page, while the Community Development Department's own application form prints 14955 on all fourteen pages, and the Town uses 14955 for in-person citation payments too. Call the main line and confirm before you courier seven sets of plans anywhere.

The inspection, and complaints about your listing

Building and Safety handles the Property Maintenance Certificate inspection, and Code Enforcement handles complaints, citations and the appeal of one.

• Building and Safety: (760) 240-7000, extension 7100
• Code Enforcement: (760) 240-7560, [email protected]
• Citation payments and extensions: the Town Rules page explains payment options, the hardship application, and how to request up to 30 extra days to correct a violation
• Pay by phone: (800) 969-6158, through the Town's citation processing centre

Requesting that extension in writing, with your case number and property address, is the cheapest move available once a citation lands, given the 50% late fee at day 30.

Transient occupancy tax and the business licence

The Finance Department administers Chapter 3.24, issues the transient occupancy registration permit, and answers the business licence question I couldn't settle from the code.

• Phone: (760) 240-7000, extension 7710
• Business licence portal: applevalley.hdlgov.com, linked from the Town's business licence page
• Main Town line: (760) 240-7000

Do check one thing before you assume the county handles anything for you. San Bernardino County's short-term rental programme covers unincorporated land only, so a property inside town limits deals with the Town alone. Plenty of High Desert parcels carry an Apple Valley mailing address while sitting outside those limits, and for those the county rules apply instead.

What do Airbnb hosts in Apple Valley on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

That mailing-address confusion is a fair proxy for the state of local discussion, which is thin. I'd rather be straightforward than paraphrase conversations I haven't read, so: I found no host thread anywhere discussing Apple Valley's Special Use Permit process, and I don't quote Reddit in these guides, because Reddit blocks our automated access and its Responsible Builder Policy rules out this kind of commercial use. What follows is my read of what's observable, not a survey.

• The High Desert investor conversation is about buy-and-hold, not nightly rates. BiggerPockets carries several active Victorville, Hesperia and Apple Valley threads, and they run on cash flow, tenant quality and appreciation. Permitting doesn't come up, which fits a market where the regulation arrived quietly in 2023 and nobody wrote about it.
• The absence of complaint is itself information, though it cuts two ways. Cities that enforce aggressively tend to generate forum threads within a year. Apple Valley generates none, which may mean light enforcement, or may mean very few permitted operators to enforce against. I can't distinguish those from public data, so I'd be cautious about reading the silence as permission.
• The mistake I watch owners make is treating the neighbour notice as a formality. Two written objections turn a staff decision into a public hearing, and those objections come from people who found out by mail rather than from you. In a town of large lots where neighbours notice unfamiliar cars, that's the risk to manage first.
• The economics still have to clear the permit cost. Roughly $2,000 in deposits, $107.50 a year in inspections, and a 7% tax you administer yourself is a real drag on High Desert nightly rates. If you're weighing Apple Valley against other inland options, the Stanislaus County guide and the San Joaquin County guide cover Central Valley markets with a similar buyer profile.

For the wider framework above all of this, our California statewide guide covers preemption, the state fine caps and the 2026 platform-reporting law in one place. And when you're ready to compare what a permitted Apple Valley listing might clear, the numbers for the California market are where to test the assumption before you spend $1,946 finding out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a permit to run an Airbnb in Apple Valley, California?

Yes, three of them. The Town of Apple Valley requires a Special Use Permit for short-term rentals in its residential districts under Table 9.28.030-A of the Development Code, at a $1,946 initial deposit billed against actual cost. You also need an annual Property Maintenance Certificate at $107.50, which requires a Town inspection, and a $5 transient occupancy registration permit posted inside the property. The framework dates from Ordinance No. 561, adopted February 14, 2023.

How much is the short-term rental tax in Apple Valley?

The Town of Apple Valley charges a transient occupancy tax of 7% of the rent on any stay of 30 consecutive days or less, under Chapter 3.24 of its municipal code. Airbnb does not collect or remit it, because Apple Valley is an incorporated town and sits outside San Bernardino County's collection arrangement. Operators file monthly returns, due by the last working day of the month following each calendar month, calculated on gross rent with no deduction for credit card charges or platform commissions.

How many guests can an Apple Valley short-term rental sleep?

Two people per bedroom, plus two more where the property provides a separate living space, under Section 8.34.080(c) of the Apple Valley Municipal Code. Off-street parking then caps the total: the ordinance counts four individuals per vehicle, and total occupancy can never exceed the capacity of the designated off-street parking available. A three-bedroom house with a separate living area advertises eight guests only if it has two designated off-street spaces.

What is the fine for an illegal short-term rental in Apple Valley?

Section 8.34.080(f) treats a violating short-term rental as a public nuisance and sets an administrative fine at two times the rental value for the first night's violation, three times for the second night, four times for the third, and continuing at the same ratio each additional night. Standard code enforcement citations of $102.50, $204.50 and $511.50 also apply, with a 50% late fee after 30 days. California caps city fines for short-term rental ordinance infractions at $1,500, $3,000 and $5,000 under Government Code § 36900(d).

Can an out-of-state owner run a short-term rental in Apple Valley?

Yes. Apple Valley imposes no primary-residence requirement, no cap on permits, and no minimum-stay rule, so an owner living elsewhere can hold and operate a permitted short-term rental. The Special Use Permit runs with the land under Section 9.16.140 and stays valid when the property changes hands. What an absentee owner still manages is the annual Town inspection, the monthly tax filing, and neighbours who receive written notice within 300 feet.

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