Marriott is active in home sharing, meaning the hotel conglomerate makes dozens of homes and apartments around Santa Barbara available to its customers.

The conglomerate lists homes in 49 California cities as well as across the country and around the world. According to the Homes and Villas website, he works with property managers rather than owning the homes.

In Santa Barbara, some homes listed are owned by LLCs. Others are in trusts.

However, Santa Barbara City Attorney Denny Wei said it doesn’t matter who owns the building. It is important whether the property is rented short or long term.

Short-term rentals are only allowed in certain areas of the city and operators must pay a temporary occupancy tax of around 12 percent.

Homes and Villas offers long-term stays in areas such as the Riviera and Goleta where short-term rentals are not permitted and require a minimum of 30 nights. Since this is not a short-term rental, no transient tax is collected.

Prices for Marriott’s extended stays range from about $107 per night for a one-bedroom apartment in Goleta to more than $1,600 per night for a 4-bedroom waterfront property on the Mesa, which would cost over $50,000 for a month’s stay.

Wei said that although the city’s zoning ordinances do not allow short-term rentals in certain coastal areas, a court ruling, Krake against the city of Santa Barbara“, basically prohibited the city from enforcing the law in the coastal area,” Wei said, “unless there is a nuisance complaint,” such as guest trespassing on neighboring properties .

When the city cracked down on illegal short-term rentals in 2023, it saw a net gain of about half a million dollars in unpaid taxes and fines.

Marriott did not respond to a request for comment.