Clovis Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Clovis and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you're allowed to, and this Fresno County suburb has written a fairly detailed rulebook for exactly this, rather than leaving hosts to guess. Short-term rentals here run through a home occupation permit from the Planning Division, and once you clear that, you're operating a legal business rather than something the city merely tolerates.

That said, Clovis is not a hands-off market. The city treats a short-term rental like any other home business: it caps how many guests you can sleep, how many cars can be in the driveway, and how loud things can get after 10 p.m., and it backs those rules with a City Council that has been actively reviewing enforcement data as recently as November 2025. None of that makes Clovis unfriendly, but it does mean the paperwork matters more here than in a city that never checks.

This guide walks through what the Clovis Municipal Code requires in 2026: the permit process and its cost, the documents you'll need, the taxes that attach to every stay, and how the city has been enforcing all of it lately. Every figure below comes from Clovis's own ordinances and city pages, checked in July 2026, and where the city's public record still leaves a gap I've said so rather than guessed.

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

Clovis handles short-term rentals as a category of home occupation, which is a narrower and more specific approach than most cities take. Under Clovis Municipal Code §9.58.040(B)(10), short-term rentals sit on the list of home occupations allowed by right in residential zoning districts, right alongside things like tutoring or a home-based consulting business. That framing matters, because it means the same chapter that governs your neighbor's home bakery also governs your Airbnb, only with a much longer set of extra rules attached.

Those extra rules live in §9.58.065, added by Ordinance 17-30 effective February 7, 2018 and still the operative law as of this writing. It defines a short-term rental as renting a dwelling, or part of one, for occupancy purposes for less than 30 consecutive calendar days, and it carves out one clear exception: units inside a City-approved hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, or time-share project don't count. Everything else, a spare bedroom, a whole house, a converted garage apartment, falls under this section if it's booked short-term.

Above the city sits California, which is where the "can I even do this" question gets settled. No state statute broadly preempts what Clovis has written, and cities regulate short-term rentals under their own police power. What state law does do is set outer limits: Revenue and Taxation Code §7280 is what lets Clovis levy its lodging tax in the first place, and Government Code §36900(d) caps how large a fine a city can attach to an STR-ordinance infraction. Our California statewide guide covers that framework in full if you're weighing Clovis against a market somewhere else in the state.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Clovis

Since the state leaves the real decisions to Clovis, the city's own numbers are worth sitting with before you commit any money. As of late 2024, city staff estimated roughly 137 active short-term rentals, clustered mostly in southwest Clovis and around Old Town. That's a small market by California standards, and it means you won't be competing with hundreds of similar listings the way you might in a bigger city nearby.

It's also a market the city watches closely. A staff report presented to the City Council found short-term rentals were generating close to 150 police calls a year, roughly double the rate for an equivalent hotel room, with officers citing incidents involving large uncooperative parties and, in a handful of cases, weapons.

Revenue tells a similar story. The same report found hotels bring in about $4,290 per unit annually in lodging tax, against roughly $753 per unit from short-term rentals, a gap the city attributed partly to the added police and fire load. None of that has changed the legal status of STRs; it's the backdrop against which the rules below get written and enforced.

Multi-family buildings carry one more restriction worth flagging early. Under §9.58.065(U), a short-term rental can't exceed one unit per address in any complex of two or more residential units, so an investor eyeing a duplex or small apartment building can only run one of the units as an STR, not all of them. Single-family homes don't carry that cap, which is why most of the city's existing inventory sits in detached houses rather than multi-unit buildings.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Clovis

Assuming your property clears that multi-family cap, the actual permit is a Home Occupation Permit, filed with the Planning Division at Clovis City Hall, 1033 Fifth Street. The City's current Home Occupation Application lists two paid tiers: $150 for a Small Home Occupation and $271 for a Large Home Occupation, both due at submittal, plus a fee-free Exempt tier that only covers businesses no customer or guest ever visits. Since guests physically stay in a short-term rental, that exempt category doesn't apply to you.

Once you file, the Director has ten calendar days to approve or deny the application under §9.58.030(E), and a denial can be appealed to the Planning Commission within 15 days. Keep in mind that a home occupation permit is nontransferable, so selling the property or handing off management doesn't carry the permit with it; whoever takes over has to apply fresh. It also expires automatically if you stop operating for 30 straight days, and the city can revoke it outright for noncompliance with the operating standards covered below.

There's a second piece that's easy to miss: the permit alone doesn't let you open for business. §9.58.060(B)(4) requires a current business tax certificate before the home occupation can begin, obtained through the Finance Department's Business Registration process, separately from the Planning Division's permit. Do check both boxes before you accept your first booking, since operating with only one of the two is still a violation.

Required Documents for Clovis Short Term Rentals

Because that permit fee doesn't come back if you're denied, it's worth having the paperwork ready before you file rather than after. The Home Occupation Application itself asks for the applicant's name, home address, business name, contact and business phone numbers, and a description of the activity, along with detailed floor plans identifying which room or rooms of the dwelling the business occupies, per §9.58.030(B).

Short-term rentals carry a few extras on top of the standard form:

• Business Registration and Tax Certificate Application, filed separately with the Finance Department, since the Home Occupation Application explicitly says it "does not include" this piece.
• Written certification of neighbor notification, signed under penalty of perjury and submitted to the Director within 30 days of the permit issuing, confirming you mailed or hand-delivered your 24/7 contact information to every property contiguous to and directly across the street from the rental, as required by §9.58.065(E).
• A local contact person's name and phone number, whether that's you or a designated agent, available by phone 24 hours a day and able to be on-site within 45 minutes of a complaint.
• A posted sign inside the unit listing the operating standards for occupants, which the city treats as a permit condition rather than optional signage.

Once approved, keep everything on file rather than filing it away for good. If your local contact information ever changes, you're required to re-notify those same neighbors and file a fresh certification, and an enforcement officer can ask for proof of any of this during an inspection.

Clovis Short Term Rental Taxes

With the permit and paperwork sorted, the next layer is tax, and Clovis stacks three distinct charges on a short-term stay. The largest is the city's own lodging tax, and each one is administered differently, so it's worth taking them one at a time rather than assuming a single filing covers all three.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)	12% of gross rent	Operator, remitted to the City via HdL
Business tax (home-based, under $5,000 gross receipts)	$76 flat per year	City of Clovis Finance Department
Business tax (above that threshold)	Calculated rate or quarterly-prorated minimum, capped at $10,251/year	City of Clovis Finance Department
California Tourism Assessment	Roughly $1,950 per $1 million of travel-and-tourism revenue	California Office of Tourism

The City's TOT page puts the rate plainly, as of July 2026: 12% of the gross rent charged to a guest, covering the room rate and any charges directly tied to the room. Clovis contracts the actual administration out to HdL (Hinderliter, de Llamas & Associates), reachable at [email protected] or (559) 342-8751. The "operator" responsible for collecting it is defined broadly: owner, property manager, or host. There's no way to structure around who owes it.

New Clovis hosts often assume Airbnb collects this tax automatically, the way it does in plenty of other California cities. It doesn't. Airbnb's own California occupancy-tax collection list includes the city of Fresno, at the same 12% rate, but not Clovis, which is a different jurisdiction entirely despite sitting right next door. That means you, not the platform, are the one who has to register with HdL, collect the 12% from each guest, and remit it.

I couldn't confirm Vrbo's collection status for Clovis from any source I could open, so treat that the same way until you've checked directly.

Business tax runs alongside TOT rather than instead of it. Per the City's 2026 fee schedule, a home-based business grossing under $5,000 a year pays a flat $76, while anything above that pays the greater of a calculated rate tied to gross receipts or a minimum fee prorated to the quarter you started, up to a $10,251 annual ceiling.

Above both of those sits a state-level charge most hosts never hear about: the California Tourism Assessment. It's a self-assessment on accommodations revenue that funds the state's tourism marketing arm, filed directly with the Office of Tourism rather than through the city.

Clovis wide Short Term Rental Rules

Once the tax side is handled, the day-to-day operating rules in §9.58.065 are what shape how the property runs. Occupancy is capped by bedroom count on a fixed schedule. A studio sleeps two, a one-bedroom sleeps four, and the cap climbs to 19 for anything with eight or more bedrooms. A permit can also set a lower limit than the table allows, and that lower number governs.

Parking, noise, and where guests can be follow an equally specific script. Every property needs a minimum of two off-street parking spaces, and vehicles can't spill onto sidewalks, landscaped areas, or the street.

Quiet hours run 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. No amplified sound may be audible from outside the unit during that window, and outdoor use of pools, hot tubs, or similar features is barred entirely, not just muted. Only the habitable interior of the dwelling counts as rentable space, so garages, tents, and RVs parked in the driveway are off the table no matter how the listing describes them.

A few more rules round out the picture, and don't overlook the record-keeping ones just because they're less dramatic than the noise rules:

• No weddings, parties, or advertised events, even if the group fits within the occupancy cap.
• The city-issued permit number has to appear in every advertisement, on every platform.
• Trash containers have to be sufficient for the number of guests and kept out of public view outside of pickup day.
• The local contact person must respond to an enforcement officer's or the Police Department's request within 45 minutes, not by the end of the day.

Does Clovis strictly enforce STR rules?” Is Clovis Airbnb friendly?

Given how specific those operating rules are, the natural next question is whether Clovis checks them, and the honest answer is yes, more than most cities its size. The clearest evidence came at the November 10, 2025 City Council meeting, where HdL (the same contractor that administers the lodging tax) reported that roughly 90% of the city's short-term rentals were in compliance with the municipal code.

Complaint calls tied to STRs were down 30% year over year, and STR tax revenue was up 35%, both of which the city read as the ordinance doing its job rather than as a reason to loosen it.

That said, the Council didn't call the matter closed. Councilmember Lynne Ashbeck, who's pushed for tighter STR oversight since at least the November 2024 hearing that first prompted this review, told the meeting: "It's very difficult to have short-term rentals in your neighborhood. There's nothing about it that makes the neighborhood." The city flagged Old Town Clovis specifically as an area that may need additional rules, though as of this writing nothing new has been adopted. Assuming you're operating within the existing rules, though, you're not sitting on borrowed time; the city took no formal action at that meeting.

Penalties back this up on paper as well as in practice. Under Clovis Municipal Code §1.7.08, a general Municipal Code violation carries an administrative citation fine of $100 for a first offense, $500 for a second within a year, and $1,000 for a third, citing the city's authority under Government Code §36901 to impose civil fines up to that $1,000 ceiling.

It's worth knowing that state law now allows cities to go considerably higher specifically for short-term rental violations that threaten public health or safety, up to $1,500, $3,000, and $5,000 under Government Code §36900(d), though Clovis's own code as written still cites the lower figure. Either way, a permit can also be revoked outright. That's a faster and cheaper tool for the city than chasing a fine through the courts.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Clovis

Given everything above, the order you tackle these steps in actually matters, since a few of them gate the ones after. Working through them out of sequence tends to cost you the nonrefundable permit fee for nothing, so it's worth doing them in the order below.

1. Confirm your zoning and unit count. Make sure the property sits in a residential zoning district and, if it's part of a multi-family complex, that no other unit at the address already holds an STR permit.
2. Line up your local contact person. Decide who will be reachable 24/7 and able to reach the property within 45 minutes, since this has to be finalized before you can notify neighbors.
3. File the Home Occupation Application with the Planning Division, along with floor plans and the $150 or $271 fee, and wait for the Director's decision, expected within ten days.
4. File the separate Business Registration and Tax Certificate Application with the Finance Department; the home occupation isn't legally operating without both.
5. Notify contiguous and across-the-street neighbors in writing, then submit your signed certification to the Director within 30 days of permit issuance.
6. Register with HdL for TOT collection, so you're set up to collect and remit the 12% lodging tax from your very first guest.
7. Post the required signage inside the unit and add your permit number to every listing before it goes live.
8. Set a reminder for renewal and compliance checks, since the permit lapses after 30 days of inactivity and can be revoked for repeat violations.

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

Whichever step trips you up, four different offices split the responsibilities between them, so it helps to know which one to call first.

Permits, zoning, and the Home Occupation Application

The Planning Division handles the home occupation permit itself, along with zoning verification and appeals.

• Address: 1033 Fifth Street, Clovis, CA 93612
• Phone: (559) 324-2340
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Business registration and tax certificates

The Finance Department, Business License Division issues the separate business tax certificate every home occupation needs.

• Phone: (559) 324-2112
• Email: [email protected]
• Online: the business license portal handles new registrations and renewals

Transient Occupancy Tax

HdL (Hinderliter, de Llamas & Associates) administers TOT registration, collection, and remittance for the city.

• Address: Lodging Tax Processing Center, 8839 N. Cedar Ave #212, Fresno, CA 93720
• Phone: (559) 342-8751
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Complaints and code enforcement

Code Enforcement / Neighborhood Preservation, part of the Clovis Police Department, takes complaints about an existing short-term rental.

• Phone: (559) 324-2800 (also the Police non-emergency line)
• Email: [email protected]
• Online: the city's Customer Service Request form

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

Calling one of those offices gets you the official picture. What hosts on the ground say fills in the rest, and the record is thin but consistent. Reddit's terms restrict the kind of commercial scraping this guide would need to summarize threads there, so I haven't sourced Reddit directly. What I did find on BiggerPockets is a short but genuinely useful thread, and the tone runs more positive than the ordinance's length might suggest.

One experienced investor in a BiggerPockets thread on Fresno and Clovis Airbnbs put it plainly: Fresno is "surprisingly a great market for Airbnb," and they named several people they knew succeeding there, pointing newer investors toward local Facebook groups for on-the-ground detail. Nobody in the thread raised Clovis's permit process as a dealbreaker, though the discussion didn't get into permitting specifics either, so I'd treat that as a gap rather than an endorsement of the paperwork.

That thinness fits the picture the city's own data paints: a small, tightly-watched market where the hosts who bother with the permit tend to stay compliant, and the ones who don't tend to get caught. If you're weighing Clovis against nearby Central Valley options, the Stanislaus County guide and the San Joaquin County guide cover two of the closest comparable markets. And before you commit to a specific address, it's worth running the numbers: BNBCalc can model projected revenue for a Clovis property, and the Fresno market page breaks down what similar listings in the surrounding metro are earning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Clovis, California in 2026?

Yes. Clovis treats short-term rentals as a permitted home occupation under Municipal Code §9.58.065, so long as you obtain a Home Occupation Permit from the Planning Division and a separate business tax certificate from the Finance Department. The rental also has to comply with occupancy limits, parking minimums, and quiet hours, and in a multi-family building only one unit per address can hold a permit. Operating without both approvals is a violation even if the property itself would otherwise qualify.

How much does a Clovis short-term rental permit cost?

The Home Occupation Permit costs $150 for a Small Home Occupation or $271 for a Large Home Occupation, due when you submit the application, on top of a separate business tax certificate fee from the Finance Department. Neither fee is refundable if the application is denied, so it pays to confirm your zoning, unit eligibility, and neighbor-notification plan before you file rather than after.

What is the transient occupancy tax rate in Clovis?

Clovis's Transient Occupancy Tax is 12% of the gross rent charged to a guest, covering the room rate and any directly related charges. The city contracts collection administration to HdL rather than handling it in-house, and unlike some nearby jurisdictions, Airbnb does not automatically collect or remit this tax for Clovis listings, so hosts need to register with HdL and handle collection themselves.

How many guests can stay at a short-term rental in Clovis?

Occupancy is capped by bedroom count under a table in the municipal code: two guests for a studio, four for one bedroom, seven for two bedrooms, rising to 19 for any dwelling with eight or more bedrooms. A specific home occupation permit can set a lower cap than the table allows, and that lower number governs if it's stricter. There's no path to exceed the table figure regardless of the property's actual size.

Does Clovis enforce its short-term rental rules?

Yes. A November 2025 City Council review found about 90% of Clovis short-term rentals in compliance, with complaint calls down 30% and tax revenue up 35% year over year, figures the city's own tax contractor reported directly to the Council. Violations can draw administrative citations starting at $100 and escalating to $1,000 for repeat offenses within a year, and the city can revoke a permit outright for repeated or serious noncompliance.

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