Staying In Hotel More Than 30 Days In California – Possible?

If you need to stay in a hotel in California, you are highly likely to stay there for a couple of days – usually up to one week. People staying in hotels are usually in California for business or for tourism, so they don’t stay here for a long time. But sometimes your plans may change. What does that mean? You will have to stay in a hotel for more than a month. Is it at all possible?

Today we’ll look at the rules of California hotels and will tell you whether you can stay there for more than 30 days. Surprisingly, many people ask about this. They want to know if they can live in a hotel for two or three months. And we have the answer. Just keep reading.

So, today, we’ll be discussing such things:

  1. Is it at all possible to stay in a hotel for a month and more?
  2. Do hotels have some discounts for long stays?
  3. What are cheaper ways to stay in California for a long time?
  4. Can a hotel ask you to check out if you are staying for a long time?

And some of the answers will not be so obvious!

Do hotels allow guests to stay for more than a month?

You may think – why not? Hotels will earn more money and have a client to rent their room every single day of a month. But laws in California play a trick with hotels. If you live in a certain place for more than a month, you start being treated as a tenant. That means that you have certain rights in that place like registering your temporary stay or something.

So, most hotels in California practice the so-called 28 days shuffle. If they see that a person stays in one room for more than 28 days, they will ask this person to check out and find another hotel. Otherwise, they will have to provide you with more rights and they don’t want to.

So, here are some important outlines:

  • hotels usually don’t want to see you as a tenant – they don’t want to grant you with some additional rights in their property;
  • also, they have a legal right to ask you to check out once you have lived in one hotel for more than 30 days;
  • they can’t legally ask you to check out and leave the hotel up until you have stayed there for 30 days;
  • they are likely to offer you relocation earlier just in order they don’t get into any legal problems with your stay.

Hotels in California don’t like long stays. But please pay attention to the legal requirements. They can ask you to check out once you have stayed in the hotel for more than 30 days. But they don’t have to do it. So some small hotels will only be glad to offer you to stay there for a long time providing you pay them money for that.

The question is not that simple, so we decided to dig up more and we’ve found some important things you should know.

What to do if a hotel in California asks you to check out?

First, you need to understand if it is a legal requirement. If you have already stayed for 30 days, they can ask you to check out and find another hotel. If you haven’t yet stayed for 30 days, they can’t ask you to check out because it’s illegal for them. You can call your lawyer and get legal support. You can even sue them in the end if you feel like that.

But mainly hotels start asking a client to check out when 28 days of his or her stay have gone. It means they worry about that and don’t want you to become their tenant as you will get more rights. For example, they can’t ask you to check out easily. You will be protected by the law as their tenant, not as a hotel guest. Basically, this doesn’t change much in your case, but hotels are afraid because of some cases that have happened in California before.

How can you ensure a long stay in California?

Well, the tenant things are quite interesting. But let’s be honest, not all hotel guests really think about it. They just want to stay as long as they need. And sometimes it’s annoying because you will have to move to different hotels every 30 days of your stay. If you already know that you are going to spend more than 30 days in a hotel in California, you should be prepared for this and speak about this with your hotel.

Here are some things you should pay attention to:

  • ask your hotel if they allow guests to stay for more than 30 days before booking a room;
  • read rules at the hotel’s website – they usually give information on long stays;
  • if you need to prolong your stay, talk to a receptionist before and ask if it is OK with their rules;
  • if they offend the rules and ask you to leave the hotel before you have stayed 30 days, call the police.

Legally, you have the right to stay in a hotel for up to 30 days. But it doesn’t mean that your hotel will ask you to leave before this period expires. Some hotels are marketed as long-stay hotels and they are OK with clients who stay for months and even start living in those hotels. In California, you will not find many of these hotels, but some of them provide guests with such services.

How to book a hotel for 30 days and more in California?

Booking a hotel for your long stay is not a simple thing to do. Most booking services offer just 30 days of stay and don’t allow you to book more. So you never know if they are going to kick you out on the 30th day of your stay or not. You never know if they are going to prolong your stay at the end of this period.

So you better book your stay via phone. Call the hotel manager or reception staff and ask them to book a room for the number of days you want. This will let you check if your chosen hotel supports long stays. In California, most hotels will warn you that they allow 30-days stays only and they don’t want you to become their tenants. This way, you will find some hotels or guesthouses that are OK with guests who stay long.

What are cheaper ways of long stays?

You probably know that living for a couple of months in another city is a challenge. You have to organize your life somehow in a totally unknown place. But the first problem is to find a place for staying. Even bad hotels in California will cost around $150 a night, on average. This is not cheap, especially if you count for the whole month. This will make up around $4500 for the month of staying in a small shabby hotel. Unbelievable!

So you may want to search for some alternatives. For example, you may try such options:

  1. Rent a flat or a house. Thanks to numerous services like Airbnb, for example, you may find a house or a flat for monthly rent with much more loyal prices. Some options will cost as little as $1500 a month, while some others will still cost a lot.
  2. Find a person who offers a room for rent. Sometimes you don’t need a hotel service. So you don’t have to pay for it. You may just find a person living in a big house who gives a room for rent, this will be the cheapest way to live for a month or more in California.
  3. Find a hostel. Many hostels work for students, so they allow people to live for long. Some hostels are not worse than a proper hotel – they will offer good rooms and wonderful service at a much better price than the majority of hotels.
  4. Find a relative or a friend who lives in California. Sometimes they may offer you a free room or they may find someone who gives a house for rent. For example, their neighbor can be away for business and you will pay just two or three hundred bucks to live in their house.

As you see, you may find some options that will allow you to live in California for as much time as you want and not to pay thousands of dollars for this opportunity.

Final words

You have to consider more ideas for staying in California if you want to live there for more than a month. In this case, hotels will see you as a tenant, and they don’t want to get those additional obligations and give you additional rights. So finding a decent hotel in California that is ready to offer you a more-than-30-days-stay is hard.

But you can find better ways to live in California as long as you want. For example, try to rent a house or a flat or just find a friend living in that area. Your friend may help you find wonderful opportunities for staying in California and not paying thousands of dollars for it.