San Rafael, California

San Rafael only permits short-term rentals at the operator’s primary residence. Every STR must register annually with the city’s Short-Term Rental Program, and the operator must be a ‘Permanent Resident’ occupying the unit at least 60 consecutive days a year, verified with three of five residency documents (driver’s license, vehicle registration, voter registration, tax documents, utility bill). Pure investment STRs, where the owner does not live on-site, are not allowed, though renting all or part of a primary home, including a qualifying accessory structure, is permitted. Enforcement uses a three-strikes policy: three upheld citation violations within two years results in immediate loss of registration.

StaySTRA’s Airbnb/Vrbo performance data for this area is tracked at a shared regional level with six other San Francisco Bay Area cities and towns, including San Francisco itself, San Mateo, Redwood City, Half Moon Bay, San Anselmo and Stinson Beach, rather than uniquely for San Rafael. Because San Francisco proper is part of this pool, treat the following as the San Francisco Bay Area STR market, not a San Rafael-specific figure; it likely runs well above what a Marin County suburb alone would show.

In June 2026, the Bay Area regional STR market averaged 83.1% occupancy and a $260 ADR, producing $5,556 in average monthly revenue per listing, up 11.6% year over year on a 4.0-point occupancy gain and a 4.8% ADR increase.

StaySTRA does not have listing-type, bedroom-mix, or top property-manager data broken out at the city level for this market; that data is tracked at a shared regional level rather than uniquely for San Rafael, so this profile omits it.

San Rafael itself, population 59,961, is the largest city and county seat of Marin County, just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate, known for the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin County Civic Center and a walkable downtown arts and dining scene.