Short-term rentals: emergencies and special events.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary does not provide details on how local governments will enforce new rules against existing regulations.

Short-Term Rentals During Emergencies and Special Events

AB-1953 requires the Office of Emergency Services and the Office of Tourism to create a public registration system for short-term rentals during declared emergencies or special events, allowing registered parties to offer their homes without local restrictions.

What This Bill Does

• Requires both the Office of Emergency Services and the Office of Tourism to establish a public registration system for short-term rental facilitators.
• Allows individuals who register their homes through this system to rent them out during declared emergencies or special events.
• Requires the Office of Tourism to define specific periods as 'special event' periods and post information about these events online at least 180 days in advance.
• Prohibits local governments from enforcing rules that prevent registered short-term rental facilitators from offering their homes during declared emergencies or special events.

Who It Names or Affects

• People who want to rent out their homes as short-term rentals during emergencies or special events.
• Local government agencies responsible for regulating short-term rentals.
• Tourism offices and emergency services in California.

Terms To Know

Short-term rental

A temporary lodging arrangement where a person rents out their home, apartment, or room to visitors for less than 30 days at a time.

Eligible residential dwelling

A house or apartment that meets certain requirements and can be registered as a short-term rental during emergencies or special events.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if someone tries to register their home but is denied.
• It's unclear how local governments will enforce the new rules against existing regulations.
• The effectiveness of the public registration system in managing short-term rentals during emergencies or special events remains uncertain.

Official Summary Text

AB 1953, as amended, Lowenthal.
Short-term rental facilitator.
Short-term rentals: emergencies and special events.
Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, establishes the Office of Emergency Services and vests the office with responsibility for the state’s emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or man-made disasters and emergencies, as specified. Existing law establishes the Office of Tourism within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and requires the office to establish the California Travel and Tourism Commission for the purpose of increasing the number of persons traveling to and within California.
This bill would require both the Office of Emergency Services and the Office of Tourism to establish a public registration system. The bill would require the offices to adopt regulations to administer their
respective public registration systems. The bill would provide that registration authorizes the registered party to immediately commence offering an eligible residential dwelling, as defined, as a short-term rental during a declared state of emergency or a special event period, as applicable. The bill would require the Office of Tourism to define specific special event periods, as provided, and to post that information online at least 180 days prior to the event.
This bill would prohibit a city, county, city and county, or any other political subdivision of the state from maintaining, enforcing, prescribing, or continuing in effect any law, rule, regulation, requirement, standard, or other provision that prohibits an individual or entity that controls an eligible residential dwelling that has been registered from offering that dwelling as a short-term rental during a declared state of emergency or a special event, as applicable.
The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
Existing law, the Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025, authorizes a local agency, defined to mean a city, county, or city and county, to enact an ordinance to require a short-term rental facilitator, as defined, to report, in the form and manner prescribed by the local agency, the physical address of each short-term rental, as defined, during the reporting period. Existing law defines key terms for its purposes.
This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to these provisions.

Current Bill Text

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