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Acme House Company is a DBA of Acme CA, Inc., operating as Casago Coachella Valley. California DRE #02420145. Michael E. Flannery, Designated Broker.
Guide · Rules and permits
Five cities, five programs, one county fallback and a layer of private documents that can override all of it. Here is the order to work through, and what each authority actually said when its page was read on 2026-09-20.
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Homes a mile apart in this valley can look identical and operate under completely different rules. That is not a quirk of enforcement; it is five separate ordinances written at different times for different reasons. An owner who plans a weekend rental strategy and then discovers the address sits in Indian Wells, where a new licence carries a 29-night minimum for most of the year, has not made a small mistake.
So the first question is never “what do people do here?” It is “which authority governs this parcel?” Use the assessor record and the city’s own map. Palm Desert publishes an interactive zoning map and a public short-term rental portal, La Quinta publishes a weekly active and suspended permit list plus a public portal map, and Indio publishes a map of registered rentals. All three make the answer checkable rather than assumed.
A short-term rental is defined as a privately owned residential dwelling offered for twenty-seven consecutive nights or less, and a permit is required before advertising or renting. Eligibility is set by zone: the page states short-term rentals are prohibited within the R1 and R2 zones, excluding On-Site Owner permits. PR and HPR require an HOA approval letter or an on-site owner, and in HPR the page states existing off-site permits may be renewed but will permanently cease operation by December 31, 2026, with no new off-site permits issued. A home in an HOA community must submit a Letter of Approval annually. Operators must meet and greet the renter on site, supply the Good Neighbor Brochure, and be reachable 24 hours a day.
The City page states that Municipal Code section 3.25.055 imposes a permanent ban on new STVR permits in the General and Primary categories, and that those permits can only be issued to properties located within a few exempt areas. Two pathways sit outside the ban. A Homeshare permit requires the owner to occupy the property throughout the visitor’s stay. A Large Lot exemption is open to a single parcel of 25,000 square feet or more meeting the criteria in section 3.25.057, considered by Council at a public hearing. The City invites owners to contact its STVR team to verify whether a specific property is inside an exempt area.
An owner seeking a new short-term rental licence and permit is restricted to a 29-night minimum throughout the year, with one exception: a 7-night minimum from one week before the tennis tournament until three days after it ends. An association may opt out of the City’s minimum-stay regulation only, using the City’s opt-out form; the licence, the transient occupancy tax and every other part of the ordinance still apply. Licences grandfathered in July 2015 are described as permanently expired. A local contact must be reachable 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Indio requires a business licence, a short-term rental permit and transient occupancy tax registration; since June 15, 2017 the licence and permit have been issued as one combined document that renews together, and the current ordinance was adopted at the December 1, 2021 Council meeting. Coachella states that a legal owner cannot rent or advertise without an active City permit, that submitting an application does not grant the right to rent or advertise, that only a person or entity with legal interest on county records may be listed as owner, and that permits are not transferable to another person, entity, parcel or owner.
A very large share of housing in this valley sits inside country clubs, gated communities and condominium associations. A recorded CC&R or association rule can prohibit short-term rental outright even where the city would happily issue a permit, and can separately cap guest counts, restrict parking and deny access to shared amenities that a listing might otherwise advertise.
Two of the city programs acknowledge this directly. Palm Desert requires an annual HOA Letter of Approval in defined zones, updated each year with a current date to confirm the CC&Rs have not changed. Indian Wells lets an association opt out of the City minimum-stay rule and publishes both an opt-out form and an opt-out map. Neither replaces the other: a permit is a public permission and a letter is a private one, and you need both where both apply.
If the parcel genuinely sits outside all five city limits, the Riverside County Short-Term Rental Program applies instead. The County defines a short-term rental as a dwelling rented for less than 30 consecutive calendar days but not fewer than two consecutive days and one night, and says it can include an ADU, junior ADU, second unit, guest quarter or ranchette unit. Commercial and venue activity is prohibited without the correct event permit. The County page states that the Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance No. 927.3 on August 25, 2026, that it is effective September 24, 2026, and that the renewal grace period has been eliminated, so a certificate must be renewed before it expires.
Today the operative instrument is Ordinance No. 927, as amended through 927.2. County Planning states the Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance No. 927.3 on August 25, 2026 under Board agenda item 3.74, and that it is scheduled to take effect September 24, 2026; Section 17 of the published text sets the effective date at thirty days after adoption. Updated registration fees under Ordinance No. 671.25 are scheduled for October 25, 2026, at $1,077 initial and $775 renewal. Anything read here before those dates may be superseded.
Reading the published 927.3 text on 2026-09-20, no Coachella Valley community is named in it: its added-restriction sections apply to Wine Country and Idyllwild only, so an unincorporated valley parcel is governed by the general countywide provisions. Four of those change. Hosted Stay becomes a status the Planning Department must verify and designate, and may suspend or revoke on violation; where it applies the occupancy ceiling rises by two at every lot size, to twelve on half an acre or less, eighteen up to two acres and twenty-two above that, against an unchanged base of ten, sixteen and twenty at 200 square feet per person. A short term rental is redefined as a stay of less than thirty consecutive calendar days and twenty-nine nights total, and hourly rental is expressly prohibited. A new Urgent Circumstance provision lets the Code Enforcement, Planning or TLMA director immediately suspend or revoke a certificate under the summary abatement process of Ordinance No. 725. And Notice is newly defined to include a notice of violation, a cease and desist letter or an administrative citation, while the required identification sign must now be readable from the public right-of-way. Administrative citations are unchanged at $1,500, $3,000 and $5,000, and a responsible guest must still be at least 21 outside Wine Country. Confirm with County Planning which version and which fee schedule apply on the day you file.
Transient occupancy tax here is imposed by the city, not by the state. California’s tax agency publishes the list of programs it administers and transient occupancy tax is not on it. Palm Desert states an 11% monthly TOT plus a 1% Greater Palm Springs TBID assessment that Airbnb does not collect on your behalf. Indian Wells states 12.25% effective January 1, 2019, remitted quarterly. Coachella’s page gives two different rates and two different filing frequencies in different places, so confirm that one with the City in writing.
None bans them across the whole city, but La Quinta comes closest for new entrants: its page, checked 2026-09-20, states a permanent ban on new STVR permits in the General and Primary categories outside a short list of exempt areas, leaving Homeshare (owner present throughout the stay) and a large-lot Council exemption as the routes in. Palm Desert prohibits them in the R1 and R2 zones except under an On-Site Owner permit, and ends HPR off-site operation permanently on December 31, 2026.
Not in Coachella, where the City states permits are not transferable to another person, entity, assessor's parcel number or property owner, and that issuing a permit gives no vested property right. Elsewhere, treat an existing permit as a question to confirm with the city rather than an asset that comes with the house.
No. A city permit is permission from the city. It does not override a recorded CC&R, an association rule or a lease. In a valley this dependent on country-club communities, the private documents are often the binding constraint, and they should be read before any money is spent.
Next step
Continue to the Owner Portal for a property-specific conversation. Prospective owners choose I’m considering the program. Existing owners sign in as an owner. Nothing about your home is sent from this page.
