Palm Springs allows vacation rentals only in single-family homes, caps certificates at 20% of the dwellings in each organized neighborhood, and charges $1,046 a year for a standard registration. The rules live in Municipal Code Chapter 5.25 and were amended most recently on July 8, 2026 by Ordinance 2133. In a neighborhood already at its cap, new applications are returned and you join a waitlist. Enforcement runs without warning shots: for vacation rental citations, the code says pre-citation courtesy notices are not given.
The core rules, one ledger
Everything below is from the City of Palm Springs' vacation rental program pages and the fee resolution they publish, retrieved August 2026. The city's framing is worth quoting because it sets the legal posture for everything else: a Vacation Rental Registration Certificate "is a privilege, not a right," and rentals are allowed "only as ancillary and secondary uses of residential property."
The exact per-bedroom occupancy numbers appear in a chart the city publishes as an image; check the current chart in PSMC 5.25 or the city's vacation rentals page before setting listing occupancy.
What it costs
According to City Council Resolution 25344, adopted September 25, 2025, these registration fees took effect December 1, 2025:
The city's own pages disagree on the fee
As of August 31, 2026, the city's certificate application page lists a $1,072 certificate fee and a $453 estate-home Land Use Permit, while the main vacation rentals page carries the Resolution 25344 schedule above ($1,046 and $647). Both are live official pages. We show the resolution figures because a council-adopted fee resolution is the controlling document, but budget for the discrepancy and confirm the current amount with Special Program Compliance before applying.
Taxes: 11.5%, filed every month
According to the city's Transient Occupancy Tax pages (palmspringsca.gov), vacation rentals and homeshares collect 11.5% TOT from guests (group-meeting hotels pay 13.5%), rates unchanged since January 1, 2002, remitted under Municipal Code Chapter 3.24. The operational trap is the cadence: "A TOT form must be filed monthly for all Vacation Rental and Homeshare Properties. If you had no guests in any filing period, a TOT form is still due monthly with a '0' balance." Miss a filing and the penalty is 10% of the tax due or $50, whichever is greater, plus interest. A dark month still owes paperwork.
What Ordinance 2133 changed in July 2026
Most third-party guides to Palm Springs predate the city's latest amendment round. On July 8, 2026, the City Council adopted Ordinance 2133, which the city summarizes as three changes: it "amended various provisions of Chapter 5.25 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code concerning vacation rentals," amended Section 2.50.080 on appeals to the Administrative Appeals Board, and "added Section 3.24.085 to implement California's Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025 within the City." That last item is the one with statewide reach: California's 2025 facilitator law pushes tax collection duties toward booking platforms, and Palm Springs has now wired it into its own code. If you are working from a compliance checklist assembled before mid-2026, re-verify it against the current Chapter 5.25 text.
Palm Springs is also a useful contrast case for operators comparing markets: where San Diego runs a citywide 1% cap with a lottery, Palm Springs caps neighborhood by neighborhood with a waitlist, which means availability here is a street-level question, not a city-level one. Before buying, the neighborhood's current percentage is the first thing to pull from the city's density data.
Quick FAQ
Can I still get a vacation rental permit in Palm Springs?
Depends on the neighborhood. Certificates are capped at 20% of each organized neighborhood's dwellings; at or over the cap, applications are returned and you can join a first-in-time waitlist. Rentals are limited to single-family homes and prohibited in apartments.
What does the certificate cost?
Per Resolution 25344, $1,046 per year for a standard vacation rental, $523 for a junior vacation rental, $261 for a homeshare, plus a $25 TOT permit. The city's application page still shows $1,072 as of August 2026, so confirm before applying.
What taxes apply?
11.5% Transient Occupancy Tax, collected from guests and remitted monthly under PSMC Chapter 3.24. Zero-revenue months still require a filing; missed filings cost 10% of tax due or $50 minimum, plus interest.
What changed in 2026?
Ordinance 2133 (July 8, 2026) amended Chapter 5.25, changed the appeals path under Section 2.50.080, and added Section 3.24.085 implementing California's Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025 locally.
Sources
Sources are named at the publisher level with their root domain, rather than linked or titled; every figure is verifiable at the named source. Ordinance and code citations are kept precise because legal claims are not credible without them; every quoted phrase was read on the city's live pages on August 31, 2026.
- Vacation rental program, certificate application, density, citation, and TOT pages, City of Palm Springs, 2026 (implementing PSMC Ch. 5.25 and Ch. 3.24, Ordinances 2075 and 2133, Resolution 25344)palmspringsca.gov