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

Do you own a place in Perris and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you're allowed to, and you won't need a public hearing, a conditional use permit or a sympathetic neighbor to get there. Perris sits in Riverside County, California, and its zoning code permits short-term rentals in every district where residential uses are allowed. There's no cap on the number of licenses the city issues, and no rule saying you have to live in the house.

The catch is administrative rather than legal. You need a short-term rental business license from the city's Finance Department, it expires one year after it's issued, and you have to collect a 10% hotel tax and send it to Perris yourself. Airbnb won't handle that part for you here, which catches people out, since Airbnb does collect the identical 10% rate in the unincorporated county right next door.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: the two ordinances that govern, what the license involves in 2026, the tax you'll be collecting and remitting, the operating rules that trip hosts up, how the city enforces any of it, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from the Perris Municipal Code, the city's own pages or California statute, checked in July 2026, and where I couldn't pin something to an official source I've said so rather than guessed. Before you spend a dollar furnishing anything, run the property through BNBCalc first.

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

Two ordinances do all of the work, and they arrived three months apart.

The zoning half is Chapter 19.88 of the Perris Municipal Code, added by Ordinance 1378 on February 12, 2019. It's one sentence long, and it's the sentence that matters most to you: short-term rentals are permitted in dwellings, apartment houses, boardinghouses, rooming and lodging houses, multi-family dwellings, mobile homes, one-family dwellings and single-room occupancies, so long as the property sits in a zoning district where residential uses are allowed, or exists as a legal nonconforming use.

That's the whole zoning question. No overlay district, no minimum lot size, no distance rule keeping you a certain number of feet from the next listing.

The operating half is Chapter 5.38, added by Ordinance 1374 on November 13, 2018, and it lives in Title 5 with the business licenses rather than in the zoning code. That placement tells you how Perris thinks about this. A short-term rental is a business you license, not a land use you get entitled.

Section 5.38.020 defines a short-term rental as the rental of any structure, or any portion of one, for at least one night and no more than 27 consecutive calendar days. Twenty-seven, not thirty. The same section then says a short-term rental "historically and continues to be included in the definition of 'hotel'" for transient occupancy tax purposes, which is the hook that makes the city's hotel tax apply to your spare bedroom.

Read those two chapters together and you'll notice what isn't there, because the missing pieces are what close other California cities to hosts. Perris sets no cap on the total number of licenses. It imposes no primary-residence requirement, so an out-of-town owner can hold one. It runs no lottery, no waitlist and no annual application window.

California doesn't get in the way either. No state statute preempts local short-term rental rules, and Revenue & Taxation Code § 7280 expressly authorizes any city to tax occupancy of 30 days or less, with no ceiling on the rate. That section is printed at the head of Perris's own tax chapter as the authority it runs on. Our California statewide guide covers the rest of the state framework, though the short version is that in California, the city decides.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Perris

Since nothing in the code caps or rations licenses, the question then stops being "will they let me" and becomes "does my particular property qualify". Three things decide that, and each one has ended a plan before.

• You have to own it. Section 5.38.040 is blunt: the license "shall be issued only to the owner of the short-term rental." An owner may retain an agent to file the application and run the property, as long as the owner signs and notarizes the application, and the agent's failures count as the owner's failures. A tenant subletting on Airbnb has no route to a license at all.
• Your HOA can still say no. Civil Code § 4741(c) lets a common interest development prohibit "transient or short-term rental" of 30 days or less, even though it can't ban longer rentals. Much of Perris's newer housing sits inside HOA tracts, so do check your CC&Rs before you check anything else. The city won't referee that fight, and Chapter 5.38 in fact requires you to summarize your CC&Rs in the rental agreement.
• An ADU probably can't be your listing. Under Government Code § 66323(e), accessory dwelling units approved under that section must be rented "for a term longer than 30 days", and AB 1154 (Ch. 507, 2025) applied the same floor to junior ADUs. Building a casita out back and putting it on Airbnb nightly is the one obvious move that state law blocks.

Then there's the operational constraint that quietly filters out remote investors. Section 5.38.050 requires a 24-hour emergency contact located within a 25-mile radius of the property, available to respond to issues, and the same person has to be reachable by your guests. Owning from Sacramento or Seattle is fine. Owning without a real human inside that radius isn't.

Now, the harder question is demand, because Perris is not a resort town and pretending otherwise costs money.

Ordinance 1374's own recitals say the city "anticipates a proliferation of short-term rentals in the coming years due to the City's growing population and burgeoning tourism industry." That's an honest way of saying the tourism was expected rather than already there.

What draws visitors is specific and seasonal. The city's own activities page lists four things: Perris Auto Speedway, hot air balloon rides, indoor and outdoor skydiving, and the Southern California Railway Museum. Lake Perris, which the city counts among its landmarks, adds the summer weekends.

So you're modeling a weekend-event market sitting on top of a commuter city, and your assumptions should stay conservative because of it.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Perris

Assuming the numbers still work after all that, the license is the first thing you buy, and section 5.38.030 makes it unlawful to own, establish, operate or permit a short-term rental without one. The application goes to the Director of Finance, not to Planning, and it's a revocable privilege that creates no vested right in the property.

Three features of the license shape how you should plan around it.

It expires automatically one year from the date of issuance. It's not transferable, so a buyer of your house has to apply fresh rather than inherit yours. And renewal is a full re-application: you have to file no less than 60 days before expiration, meet every requirement that applies to a new license, and pay again. Miss that window and the license is "immediately invalid upon expiration," which means your calendar goes dark rather than lapsing quietly.

Diarize the renewal date the day you're approved. That one is entirely on you, because Chapter 5.38 promises no reminder.

The Finance Director investigates what you filed and must grant the license unless one of four things is true, per section 5.38.060:

• You made false or misleading statements or omissions, on the form or during the process.
• You haven't satisfied every requirement of the chapter and the wider Municipal Code.
• You aren't in compliance with applicable state law.
• You haven't paid the fees set by council resolution.

The director can also attach extra conditions to your specific license where the property warrants it, which is worth knowing before you assume approval means the standard rulebook.

On price, I have to be straight with you about a gap. Section 5.38.150 says the application fee is "set by resolution of the city council," and I couldn't find that resolution published anywhere I could open.

What the code does publish is the general business license fee schedule in Chapter 5.12. As of July 2026, rental units there run $15.00 per unit annually with a $300.00 yearly cap, anything unclassified runs $100.00 annually, and a replacement license costs $15.00.

Late payment is where it turns expensive, mind you. Chapter 5.04 adds 25% for the first month an unpaid license sits there, 35% for the second and 50% thereafter. So call licensing on (951) 404-0586 and have them classify your property before you budget, rather than after.

Get denied and you're not finished. Section 5.38.120 gives you 10 calendar days to file a written appeal with the Perris City Clerk, the city has 30 days to notice a hearing, and the hearing itself must happen within 60 days of filing. The City Council's determination is final.

Required Documents for Perris Short Term Rentals

Since the license turns on what's in that application, there's then a small pile of paperwork to gather before you start typing. The city's business license process is online only, per the Business Licensing page, which says plainly that "we do not have paper applications" and puts an initial response at three to five business days.

Section 5.38.050 lists what the form has to carry:

• Your name, address and telephone number as the owner.
• The name, address and telephone number of your agent, if you're using one.
• The name, address and telephone number of a 24-hour emergency contact within 25 miles of the property, who has to be available to respond to issues. Change that person and you're required to update the director.
• Evidence of a valid transient occupancy tax registration certificate issued by the city for that property under Chapter 3.24.
• An acknowledgement that you've received and inspected every regulation covering short-term rentals in Perris.
• Payment of applicable fees, plus anything else the director reasonably needs to administer the chapter.

That fourth item is the sequencing trap. You can't complete the license application without the tax certificate already in hand, so register for transient occupancy tax first and license second. And if an agent is filing for you, remember that section 5.38.040 requires your signature on the application to be notarized, which is a scheduling problem rather than a hard one.

In case you're wondering whether any of this covers a single spare room, the city answers that on the same page. Asked directly whether the requirements cover short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo, the Business Licensing page answers: "Yes. Short-term rentals are considered rental businesses under the municipal code and require a valid business license."

Perris Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and this is where most guides about Perris get it wrong.

Chapter 3.24 of the Perris Municipal Code imposes a transient occupancy tax of 10% of the rent charged, and it's the city's tax, collected by the city's finance director. Riverside County levies its own 10% under a separate ordinance, but the county's Treasurer-Tax Collector states that it applies to occupancy "in unincorporated Riverside County". Perris is incorporated, so the county's tax and the county's short-term rental certificate both stop at the city line.

Charge	Rate	Who collects it
Perris transient occupancy tax	10% of rent	You, remitted quarterly to the city's finance director
Perris business license, rental units	$15.00 per unit a year, $300.00 cap	City of Perris Finance Department
Short-term rental application fee	Set by city council resolution, not published in the code	City of Perris Finance Department
Riverside County transient occupancy tax	10% of rent	Does not apply inside Perris city limits
California Tourism Assessment	$1,950 per $1 million of assessable revenue	You, filed with the California Office of Tourism

Now the piece that costs people real money. Airbnb does not collect the Perris tax.

Its California occupancy tax list carries a Riverside County entry reading "does not include the incorporated cities," and Perris appears nowhere on that list, so nobody is quietly handling this behind the scenes for you. Every dollar of the 10% is yours to collect from the guest and remit. Before you rely on any other platform doing it, get their answer in writing, because I couldn't verify Vrbo's California collection from any source.

The mechanics are old-fashioned and strict. You register with the finance director within 30 days after commencing business and post the transient occupancy registration certificate conspicuously on the premises. Returns are due on or before the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter, with the full amount remitted at filing, and the director can put you on a shorter cycle. Taxes you've collected are held in trust for the city, not owned by you.

Miss a deadline and section 3.24.080 adds 10% immediately, another 10% if you're still delinquent 30 days later, 25% where the director finds fraud, plus interest at 0.5% per month. Failing to register or filing a false return is a misdemeanor under section 3.24.140. Keep your records for four years, which section 3.24.110 requires and any audit will want.

The two chapters don't run on the same clock, either, and the gap between them costs money. Chapter 5.38 caps a short-term rental at 27 consecutive days, while Chapter 3.24 defines a transient as someone staying 30 consecutive days or less. So a 29-night booking sits outside the short-term rental rules and still owes hotel tax. Make sure you don't treat "not a short-term rental" as "not taxable."

Exemptions are narrow: federal and state officers or employees on official business, and foreign government officers exempt by treaty or federal law. Each claim has to be made when the rent is collected, under penalty of perjury, on the city's form.

Two more layers sit above the city. The California Tourism Assessment applies to accommodations revenue at $1,950 per $1 million, self-assessed and filed with the Office of Tourism rather than collected by any platform, and since the published rate sheet is not clearly current I'd confirm this year's figure before filing. Your profit is also ordinary income to the Franchise Tax Board, for residents on everything and for nonresidents on California property.

Perris wide Short Term Rental Rules

Tax is the part you file. Section 5.38.080 is the part your guests experience, and it reads like a list of every complaint a city council has ever received about a rental house.

The headline numbers first. Overnight occupancy is capped at two people per bedroom plus two more for the property, so a three-bedroom house sleeps eight. Vehicles are capped at one for a one-bedroom unit, or two where there are two or more bedrooms, and you have to make enough parking accessible to cover it. The director can approve higher numbers on either count where size, layout or parking justify it, but that's a decision you request as part of the application or renewal, not something you assume.

Then the operating conditions, which apply every single night you host:

• No events. The property is for overnight lodging only, and weddings, parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties, conferences and similar gatherings are prohibited outright.
• A responsible adult books it. Your primary guest must be 18 or older and reachable by phone at all times.
• Keep a guest log for two years, recording the primary adult guest's name, address and driver's license number or a copy of their passport, along with their signed acknowledgement that they're legally responsible for everyone at the property. Any police officer or authorized city employee can ask to see it.
• One night minimum, and no transient may stay longer than 27 consecutive days. Military personnel and people displaced by a proclaimed emergency are the two exceptions, and for a service member staying past 27 days you also have to file their military orders in the log.
• No signage. Publicly visible advertisements or signs at the dwelling are banned, while a house number visible from the street day or night is required.
• Trash stays out of sight, except in proper containers between 9:00 pm the day before collection and 8:00 am the day after.

Every rental agreement also has to carry six disclosures, which then have to be posted somewhere conspicuous inside the property:

• The maximum guest count, plus notice that exceeding it violates the chapter.
• The parking spaces provided, where they are if they aren't next to the house, and the vehicle limit.
• Trash collection days and the rules on storing trash outside.
• Notice that the city can cite or fine a guest, and that you can evict one, for breaking any applicable law.
• The name of whoever manages the property, a number that reaches them at any hour, and 911 information.
• A summary of the HOA's CC&Rs and bylaws, including pool location and hours.

Two duties then sit on you personally, and they're the ones I'd read twice. You're required to ensure guests don't violate noise, disorderly conduct, overcrowding, alcohol or drug provisions, taking "any measures necessary" including calling law enforcement or evicting them. And once you've been notified about a disturbance, you have 24 hours to take action preventing a recurrence. Section 5.38.080(s) also makes you indemnify and defend the city against anything arising from the rental.

State law adds a thin layer on top of all that. Business & Professions Code § 22592 makes hosting platforms warn you that listing may breach your lease, and that your insurance may not cover short-term rental use.

Advertised nightly rates have had to include every mandatory fee since July 1, 2024 under § 17568.6. And since July 1, 2025, § 17568.8 has required cleaning tasks, and any penalty for skipping them, to be disclosed and acknowledged before a guest books.

One newer state law is worth tracking even though it isn't biting yet. SB 346, the Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025 took effect on January 1, 2026, and it lets a city compel Airbnb, Vrbo and the rest to report each listing's physical address and to carry local license numbers in listings.

It's opt-in, though, so it only operates where the local agency adopts an ordinance, and I found no such ordinance in the Perris code as published. Should Perris ever adopt one, the days of an unlicensed listing going unnoticed end that afternoon.

Does Perris strictly enforce STR rules? Is Perris Airbnb friendly?

Perris is friendly on paper and quiet in practice, and neither of those is the same as lenient.

Friendly is the accurate word for the rules themselves. Compare it with San Francisco County, where hosting requires primary residency and a registration regime with teeth, or with a tourism market like Sonoma County, where caps and zoning overlays decide who gets in. Perris has none of that. Legal citywide, no cap, no residency test, an annual license.

Quiet is the accurate word for enforcement. I could find no published caseload, no register of revoked licenses and no staff report on short-term rentals, which tells you this isn't a city running proactive sweeps. Section 5.38.090 puts revocation in the hands of the Finance Director acting on written findings from Code Enforcement, and Code Enforcement is complaint-driven. In a market this size, that usually means a neighbor calls about a party or a row of cars.

Quiet stops being reassuring the moment somebody does complain, though, because the penalties stack in an unusual way.

Any violation of Chapter 5.38 can be charged as a misdemeanor or an infraction at the city prosecutor's discretion. Under Chapter 1.16 that means up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine at the top end, or $100, $200 and $500 for a first, second and additional infraction.

Administrative citations run on that same $100, $200, $500 ladder under Chapter 1.18, and they double if you neither pay nor show up. California caps this sort of thing higher than Perris does, at $1,500, $3,000 and $5,000 under Government Code § 36900(d), so the city has room it hasn't used.

It's the daily counter that turns a small violation into a large bill. Every day counts as a separate offense under section 5.38.100(d). A non-compliant rental is declared a public nuisance, and all abatement costs including attorneys' fees and court costs fall on the licensee and the property owner. Take it to a second civil judgment inside one year and Chapter 1.17 lets the court order treble the city's enforcement and abatement costs. That's not a one-time fine. It compounds, and that's exactly where owners get badly hurt.

The likeliest way to get caught, though, isn't a party at all. It's the tax. You self-report a number that nobody else reports for you, so if the finance director thinks you've under-reported, section 3.24.090 lets them estimate what you owe from whatever facts they can gather and assess it against you, with penalties and interest attached. You then get ten days to ask for a hearing. Keep clean quarterly records and none of that ever starts.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Perris

Given how the license and the tax certificate depend on each other, the order below saves the most time.

1. Check the constraints that can't be fixed. Confirm you're the owner of record, read your HOA's CC&Rs for a short-term rental ban, and rule out an ADU or JADU as the unit you list.
2. Confirm the zoning of your specific address with the Planning Division. Chapter 19.88 permits short-term rentals wherever residential uses are allowed, so this is usually a five-minute call rather than an application.
3. Line up your 24-hour local contact inside the 25-mile radius, in writing, before you file anything. Their name and phone number go on the application and into every rental agreement.
4. Register for transient occupancy tax with the Finance Department and get the registration certificate. Nothing else can proceed without it.
5. Apply for the short-term rental business license online, with the owner's notarized signature if an agent is filing, and expect a first response in three to five business days.
6. Set the property up to match the rules before your first booking: house number visible from the street, no exterior signage, parking for the vehicle cap, trash containers, and the six required disclosures posted inside.
7. Load the operating limits into your listing. Cap the guest count at two per bedroom plus two, state the vehicle limit, and say clearly that events and parties aren't allowed. Guests who book expecting a party house are the ones who generate the complaint.
8. Start the guest log on night one and keep it for two years, along with four years of tax records.
9. Calendar two dates every year: your license renewal, filed at least 60 days ahead, and the four quarterly tax returns due at the end of the month after each quarter closes.

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

Working through that list, you'll deal with three offices, and they don't overlap much. Sending a zoning question to Finance is the fastest way to lose a week.

The license and the tax

The Perris Finance Department issues the short-term rental business license, registers you for transient occupancy tax and takes your quarterly returns. Matthew Schenk, CPA, is the Director of Finance.

• Address: Perris City Hall, 101 N. D Street, Perris, CA 92570
• Finance Department: (951) 943-4610
• Business license and licensing staff: (951) 404-0586, which the city lists as its license issuing agency
• Apply: online through the city's Business Licensing page, since paper applications aren't accepted
• City Hall hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, general line (951) 943-6100

Zoning, and anything about the property itself

The Planning Division, inside Development Services, answers whether your address sits in a district where residential uses are allowed, and handles ADU questions. Kenneth Phung is the Director of Development Services and Patricia Brenes the Planning Manager.

• Address: 135 N. D St., Perris, CA 92570
• Phone: (951) 943-5003
• Email: [email protected], which the Planning page gives for appointments and inquiries

Complaints, and the office that can end your license

Code Enforcement, part of Municipal Enforcement Services, is who your neighbors call and who makes the written findings that support a suspension or revocation. Roberto Trejo is the Director of Municipal Enforcement Services.

• Address: 227 N. D Street, Perris, CA 92570
• Phone: (951) 385-4131
• Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, per the Code Enforcement page

One office you can usually cross off: the Riverside County Treasurer-Tax Collector on (951) 955-3900, P.O. Box 12005, Riverside, CA 92502-2205. It runs the county's transient occupancy tax and the county's short-term rental certificate, and both of those cover unincorporated areas rather than incorporated cities like Perris. Worth knowing so you don't register twice, or worse, register there and assume Perris is handled.

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

Which brings me to the thing hosts get wrong most often, and it's the same confusion those two phone numbers create. What follows is my read of the recurring themes rather than a survey, so weigh it accordingly. I looked for Perris-specific host threads and didn't find any I could read and cite, and I'd rather tell you that than invent a consensus.

The county-versus-city mix-up is the pattern I'd flag hardest. Plenty of published guidance, including advice still circulating in 2026, sends Perris owners to Riverside County for a short-term rental certificate and tells them to remit the county's 10% quarterly to the Treasurer-Tax Collector. Both county pages contradict that in their own words, and following it means you'd hold no valid Perris license while owing the city every quarter of tax you never filed.

The second theme is the one hosts notice in their bank account. Airbnb collects and remits the county's tax automatically for listings in unincorporated Riverside County, so an owner five miles outside the city limits never thinks about it, while a Perris owner has to register, collect, file and pay, four times a year, forever. Same rate, completely different workload. Do check your payout reports rather than assuming, since the money is arriving in your account rather than the city's.

Third, the rules that generate arguments here aren't the licensing rules. They're the party ban, the two-per-bedroom-plus-two cap and the vehicle limit, because those are what a listing has to advertise honestly and what a neighbor can count from the sidewalk. Hosts who market a Perris house to groups are on the wrong side of section 5.38.080(h) before anyone books.

And the investors' question underneath all of it is demand, not permission. Perris clears the regulatory bar more easily than almost any coastal California city, so the whole question comes down to whether nightly rates and occupancy support the purchase price. That's worth answering with data before sentiment: look at the California market to see where inland Riverside County actually lands against the rest of the state, then run your specific address.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Yes. Chapter 19.88 of the Perris Municipal Code permits short-term rentals in dwellings, apartment houses, mobile homes, single-family homes and single-room occupancies located in any zoning district where residential uses are allowed, or existing as a legal nonconforming use. There is no cap on the number of licenses, and no requirement that the owner live in the property. A short-term rental business license from the city Finance Department is still required before you list.

Do you need a permit to rent your house short term in Perris?

You need a short-term rental business license, issued by the City of Perris Finance Department under Chapter 5.38, not a planning permit. It goes only to the property owner, expires automatically one year after issuance and cannot be transferred to a new owner. Renewal applications must be filed at least 60 days before expiration. You also need a city transient occupancy tax registration certificate, and that certificate has to exist before the license application can be completed.

How much tax do you pay on a Perris short-term rental, and does Airbnb collect it?

Perris charges a transient occupancy tax of 10% of the rent under Chapter 3.24 of its municipal code. Airbnb does not collect it. Airbnb's California list covers Riverside County but excludes the incorporated cities, and Perris is not listed separately, so the host collects the tax from guests and remits it to the city's finance director. Returns are due on the last day of the month following each calendar quarter, and late payment adds 10%, then another 10%, plus 0.5% monthly interest.

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

Overnight occupancy is capped at two people per bedroom plus two additional people, so a two-bedroom home sleeps six and a four-bedroom home sleeps ten. Vehicles are capped at one for a one-bedroom unit and two for units with two or more bedrooms. The Finance Director can approve higher limits where unusual size, layout or parking justify it, decided as part of the license application or renewal. Weddings, parties and similar events are prohibited regardless of headcount.

What happens if you run a short-term rental in Perris without a license?

Operating without a license is unlawful under section 5.38.030 and can be charged as a misdemeanor or an infraction at the city prosecutor's discretion, carrying up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine at the top end. Administrative citations run $100, $200 and $500 and double if ignored. Every day counts as a separate offense, the rental is declared a public nuisance, and abatement costs plus attorneys' fees fall on the owner.

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