Each parcel (not each owner) is permitted twelve guests per day. The sponsoring owner must be on the Ranch when a guest is present, and the guest must leave when the sponsoring owner leaves the Ranch. For special events, the HROA management may approve an extended guest list where the owner is subject to requirements and restrictions.

The HROA will offer occasional access to groups and individuals who are not owners or employees. For instance, over the past twenty years, Wendie Kruthers of Hollister Ranch Realty coordinated the Hollister Ranch Tidepool School. Local elementary school children are shown the wonders of intertidal area by docents from UCSB and the Santa Barbara Sea Center. Preserved in their pristine condition by lack of public intrusion, the Hollister Ranch tidepools show the kids what used to exist along the entire California coast. Some of Wendie’s students have gone on to a career in Marine Biology as a result of the experience.

Wendie, and others at Hollister Ranch, also hosts tours for the local chapter of the Audubon Society. Many avian species exist plentifully at Hollister Ranch while being rare elsewhere.

Environmental scientists from UCSB, Santa Barbara City College and elsewhere find Hollister Ranch, particularly along the Hollister Ranch Shoreline Preserve, to be perfect (if not the only) pristine location to study their fields in the wild; away from unknowing and uncaring members of the public.