Title
Introduction of Ordinance Amending the Alameda Municipal Code by Amending Article 3.61 (Transient Occupancy Tax) of Chapter 3 (Finance and Taxation) to Implement Senate Bill 346 Authorizing Cities to Require Short Term Rental Platforms to Provide Additional Information to Cities.
This action does not constitute a “project” as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378. (Finance 10024051)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Adam W. Politzer, Interim City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Senate Bill 346 authorizes local agencies to require short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb and VRBO, to provide property-level information necessary to effectively enforce local Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) requirements. Currently, the City of Alameda (City) receives only limited, aggregated data from these platforms, making it difficult to identify which properties are actively operating as short-term rentals and whether the property owners are complying with City business license and TOT requirements.
Opting into SB 346 would allow the City to require short-term rental platforms to report identifying information such as property addresses and Assessor Parcel Numbers (APNs), enabling the City to better track short-term rental inventory, improve compliance, and equitably enforce TOT across all operators. Adoption of SB 346 does not create a new tax or impose new regulatory requirements on residents but instead strengthens the City’s ability to administer existing laws fairly and efficiently.
BACKGROUND
The City imposes a Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) of fourteen percent (14%) on the short-term rental of residential properties for stays of 30 days or less. This tax ensures that visitors contribute to essential City services, including public safety, infrastructure, and parks.
Over the past decade, short-term rental activity has increasingly shifted to online platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO, and similar short-term rental facilitators. These platforms act as intermediaries, advertising properties, processing payments, and managing reservations on behalf of property owners.
While these platforms have expanded lodging options within Alameda, they have also complicated local enforcement efforts as to the collection and payment of TOT. Unlike traditional hotels, short-term rentals are dispersed across residential neighborhoods and advertised primarily online, limiting the City’s ability to independently verify which properties are operating as short-term rentals and whether their operations comply with local laws.
Senate Bill 346 was enacted to address this growing enforcement challenge by authorizing cities and counties to require greater transparency and reporting from short-term rental platforms.
DISCUSSION
Current Limitations in Information Received
The City receives very limited information from short-term rental platforms. The data provided is typically aggregated and platform-level, such as total gross receipts or total tax remitted within the City, without identifying specific properties that are rented and that generate the TOT.
As a result, the City does not receive property addresses associated with short-term rental activity, Assessor Parcel Numbers (APNs), listing or unit-level identifiers, confirmation of which properties are properly licensed, or sufficient information to determine whether all TOT is being collected and remitted from operating short-term rentals.
This lack of property-specific data limits the City’s ability to effectively administer and enforce its TOT regulations. Without reliable identifying information, the City cannot accurately determine which properties are actively operating as short-term rentals, verify compliance with licensing requirements, ensure that operators/platforms are collecting and remitting TOT as required, or identify unregistered or underreported short term rental activity.
Without this information, staff must rely on manual internet searches, resident complaints, and self-reporting by hosts. This approach is time-consuming, reactive, and inherently inequitable, as enforcement is driven by visibility rather than objective or concrete data.
How SB 346 Improves Enforcement
SB 346 authorizes the City to require short-term rental platforms to provide identifying information necessary to link online listings to real property within Alameda. This includes information such as Assessor Parcel Numbers, physical property addresses, listing identification numbers, and relevant property and platform details. Access to this property-level data will provide the City with a clearer understanding of short-term rental activity occurring within the City.
Adopting this ordinance amendment will allow City staff to verify the amount of TOT remitted by the short-term rental platforms. In addition, staff would have the ability to review and confirm remittance information down to the property level, like staff does with hotel TOT remittances. This ordinance amendment would also improve the City’s ability to identify unregistered or noncompliant property owners. Ultimately, this would allow the City to administer and enforce existing TOT and licensing requirements more fairly, consistently and efficiently.
Benefits to the Alameda Community
Opting into SB 346 would provide several important benefits:
Revenue Protection: Improves the City’s ability to capture TOT that is already owed, protecting funding for public safety, parks and infrastructure.
Neighborhood Protection: Provides greater visibility into where short-term rentals operate, allowing better enforcement of safety, zoning and quality-of-life standards.
Transparency and Public Trust: Demonstrates the City applies its laws uniformly and responsibly across all types of lodging providers.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces staff time spent on manual investigations and complaint-driven enforcement by enabling data-driven compliance efforts.
What SB 346 Does Not Do
It is important to clarify that SB 346:
• Does not create a new tax
• Does not increase the TOT rate
• Does not ban short-term rentals
• Does not impose new obligations on property owners
This ordinance is purely administrative in nature. It should be noted that pursuant to earlier City Council direction, Planning staff has been working with the Planning Board on an updated short term rental ordinance. This ordinance would further regulate what types of units could be offered as short term rentals.
ALTERNATIVES
• Adopt the ordinance amending Article 3.61 (Transient Occupancy Tax) of Chapter 3 (Finance and Taxation) to implement Senate Bill 346
• Do not opt into Senate Bill 346 and limit the City’s ability to administer and enforce existing TOT requirements.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Implementing the ordinance amendment improves the City’s ability to review TOT remittances. While costs of data gathering and analysis will be currently covered within the approved allocations of the Finance Department, Finance may request additional funding from City Council to hire consultants to perform compliance review in the future. Approval of this ordinance does not directly impact TOT revenues, although revenues may increase with increased review and transparency.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
Amending Article 3.61 (Transient Occupancy Tax) of Chapter 3 (Finance and Taxation) to implement Senate Bill 346, authorizing the City of Alameda to require short-term rental platforms to provide additional information is consistent with good fiscal policy. This action is subject to the Levine Act.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action does not constitute a “project” as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378, and therefore no further CEQA analysis is required. Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(4), a "project" does not include the creation of governmental funding mechanisms or other governmental fiscal activities which do not involve any commitment to any specific project that may result in a potentially significant physical impact on the environment.
CLIMATE IMPACT
There are no identifiable climate impacts or climate action opportunities associated with the subject of this report.
RECOMMENDATION
Introduce the ordinance amending Article 3.61 (Transient Occupancy Tax) of Chapter 3 (Finance and Taxation) to implement Senate Bill 346, authorizing the City of Alameda to require short-term rental platforms to provide additional information necessary to improve enforcement and equitable administration of the Transient Occupancy Tax.
Respectfully submitted,
Ross McCarthy, Finance Director
By,
Carlos Figueroa, Senior Financial Analyst