What is the deadline to claim guest room damage in California?

Which deadline applies depends on how you characterise the claim, and the two differ by a year. Framed as injury to property, the period is three years running from the date of the damage. Framed as breach of a signed agreement containing a damage clause, it is four years running from the breach. Where the guest signed terms, you generally have both routes available and can pursue the more favourable one, which is a small argument for making sure your registration terms actually contain a damage provision.

Neither number describes your real deadline, because evidence in this segment decays on a schedule measured in days. The room must be returned to sale, which destroys the physical evidence. Photographs are only useful if they exist and are dated. The staff member who saw the room first is the most persuasive witness you have and may not be employed with you next season. The out-of-service log gets overwritten or aged out. In practice the window in which a room damage claim is winnable closes within about a week of checkout, and everything after that is administration. Treat the statutory period as the outer limit on filing, not as time in which to decide.