San Diego, California Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in San Diego, California and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you're allowed to, and the city built a real licensing system for it instead of reaching for a ban. San Diego licenses short-term rentals in every zone, whatever the base zoning designation says, and it had 8,454 active licenses on the books as of July 17, 2026.

Everything here covers the City of San Diego itself, the nine council districts inside San Diego County, not the county's unincorporated areas or neighboring cities like Chula Vista. The catch is that "allowed" comes in four versions, and the two most investors want are the two the city rations. Whole-home hosting needs a Tier 3 or Tier 4 license, Tier 3 is capped at 1% of the city's housing stock, and Tier 4 covers Mission Beach alone, shut to new applicants since August 2025. Then there's the tax, which stopped being a flat 10.5% on May 1, 2025 and now runs 11.75%, 12.75% or 13.75% by location.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: which of the four tiers your plan fits, what a license costs in 2026, the paperwork the city wants before it will look at you, the three separate charges attached to a San Diego stay, how hard the city pushes on enforcement, and who to call when something goes sideways. Every figure below comes from the city's or the state's own pages, checked in July 2026. Before committing to any of it, run the property through BNBCalc first.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in San Diego, California

Running those numbers starts with the tier, because in San Diego the tier decides nearly everything else about the business. The whole framework sits in Municipal Code Chapter 5, Article 10, added in April 2021 by Ordinance O-21305 and enforceable since May 1, 2023. It defines short-term residential occupancy as the use of a dwelling unit, or part of one, for less than one month, and §510.0103 makes any unlicensed use of a dwelling unit that way unlawful.

Four tiers sort hosts by how much they host and whether they live there:

• Tier 1 covers 20 days a year or fewer, home share or whole home, and you don't have to live onsite. Only one Tier 1 license is issued per dwelling unit per calendar year.
• Tier 2 is home sharing in your primary residence for more than 20 days a year, and you have to occupy that residence at least 275 days of the calendar year. So you get up to 90 days away, and the city lets you rent the whole place during those days.
• Tier 3 is whole-home hosting outside the Mission Beach Community Planning Area where you don't live onsite.
• Tier 4 is the same thing inside Mission Beach.

Now, there's a gap in that structure that catches out anyone planning to host part of the year. Tier 3 and Tier 4 both require you to use the license a minimum of 90 days each year and file quarterly reports proving it, while Tier 1 stops at 20.

The city says the consequence out loud. Whole-home hosting of 21 to 89 days a year "is not allowed under the STRO Ordinance". Either you're a light user or you're a real operator, and there's nothing in between unless you live in the place.

The rule that ends most portfolio plans, though, is quieter. A host has to be a natural person, may hold only one license at a time, and may not operate more than one dwelling unit for short-term rental in the city. Companies can't hold licenses at all.

Own several units and the city's own guidance is to designate a lessee as the host of each one, with that lessee applying in their own name. You can be the local contact. You can't be the host of unit two.

Supply is the other constraint, and it varies wildly by tier. As of July 17, 2026 the city reported 4,840 Tier 3 licenses issued with 821 still available, against 1,098 Tier 4 licenses issued and zero left.

Mission Beach isn't taking applications; there's a waitlist instead, and the published list carried 120 applicants as of July 20, 2026. Under the Treasurer's lottery administration rule, that queue has to work its way down to 25 before the city reopens the tier at all.

Do treat Mission Beach as closed for planning purposes.

One more thing to rule out before you fall for a listing. An accessory dwelling unit isn't an option, because Municipal Code §141.0302(a)(8) says an ADU "shall not be used for a rental term of less than 31 consecutive days," and the city treats only companion units permitted before the October 15, 2017 prohibition as eligible. Recreational vehicles, campers, tents, sheds and tree houses are out too, and you can't host in the work half of a live/work unit.

Where the licenses actually sit tells you where the demand is. Going through the city's active license file, Mission Beach holds 1,323, Pacific Beach 1,216, La Jolla 804, Uptown 590 and Ocean Beach 572. Everything else is a long tail. For how the rest of the state handles this, our California statewide short-term rental guide maps the pattern city by city.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in San Diego, California

Assuming your property survives that list of exclusions and a tier genuinely fits, the license itself is still a three-part errand rather than one form. The city won't process a short-term rental application until two other accounts are already open and current in your name.

Tier	Who it's for	Application plus license fee	Supply as of July 17, 2026
Tier 1, Part-Time	Up to 20 days a year, home share or whole home, no onsite residency needed	$33 plus $193, so $226	136 issued, no cap
Tier 2, Home Share	More than 20 days a year in a primary residence you occupy 275 days	$33 plus $284, so $317	2,380 issued, no cap
Tier 3, Whole Home	Whole-home hosting outside Mission Beach, host not resident	$41 plus $1,129, so $1,170	4,840 issued, 821 available
Tier 4, Mission Beach	Whole-home hosting inside the Mission Beach planning area	$41 plus $1,129, so $1,170	1,098 issued, none available

Those fees took effect March 1, 2025 and every one of them is non-refundable, whether or not you get approved. Renewal costs exactly the same. On top of the fee there's a third-party processing charge, $1.50 flat for an ACH payment or 2.95% on a card, which is small on Tier 1 and less small on $1,170.

The two prerequisites are where the sequencing matters. First, an active Transient Occupancy Tax certificate for the dwelling unit, which costs nothing and can be applied for online or by emailing the form to [email protected]. You have to be current on that tax as well, so unpaid back TOT will stop the application dead.

Second, an active and paid Rental Unit Business Tax account for the parcel. And where you're not the owner, add a Business Tax Certificate in your own name plus a right-to-occupy document, meaning either a lease clause allowing sub-monthly subleasing or a signed statement from the owner.

Approval is fast when the file is clean. The city says applications are reviewed daily and processed within three business days, unusually quick for coastal California. Two things stop the clock cold, mind you. An application won't be processed for a dwelling unit with a pending enforcement action for any Municipal Code violation, and it won't be processed at all for a host whose license the city revoked within the previous 12 months.

Licenses run two years from the date of issuance. You'll get a renewal notice by email 60 days before expiry, and if you miss the date the license expires automatically the day after, at which point you're reapplying rather than renewing, and only if licenses remain available in your tier. For Tier 3 that's a live risk while 821 remain and a serious one once they're gone. Licenses are also not transferable between hosts or properties, so selling the house does not pass the license to the buyer.

Holding the license comes with a standing list of duties under §510.0107, and the ones that generate violations are mostly the small ones:

• A local contact who answers within one hour. The host or the designated local contact has to respond to a complainant in person or by phone within one hour and take action to resolve it. A property manager can hold this role.
• Exterior signage, to the letter. The notice carries your TOT certificate number, license number, host or local contact phone, and the city's Code Enforcement contact. It must be visible from the sidewalk or right-of-way, 8.5 by 11 inches, in all capitals, black bold, at least 20-point type.
• Both numbers in every advertisement. The TOT certificate number and the license number go in each listing.
• A Good Neighbor Policy given to every guest, covering guest rooms and maximum occupants, parking, trash and recycling, the city noise limits, and a warning that administrative citations of up to $1,000 can go to each guest and to the host.
• Human trafficking obligations. Complete an awareness course before your first listing, keep the proof, and post reporting guidance inside the unit.
• Four years of records per transaction: address with unit number, exact guest dates, nights by reporting period, the Good Neighbor Policy you handed over, and gross receipts including tax.
• Fire Code compliance, which the City Manager can confirm by inspection or by host affidavit.
• Quarterly utilization reports if you hold Tier 3 or Tier 4. Tier 1 and Tier 2 hosts don't file these.

Tier 3 and Tier 4 also carry a two consecutive night minimum per guest, so the one-night weekend booking is off the table for whole-home hosts. And keep in mind that the 90-day utilization floor has no escape hatch, because the city states flatly that the ordinance includes no exception for falling short on cancellations.

Cancellations are your problem, not the city's.

Required Documents for San Diego, California Short-Term Rentals

Because none of those fees come back, it's worth getting the file right the first time. The application requirements in §510.0105 are short, though the evidence behind them takes longer to assemble than the form does to fill in.

• Your Transient Occupancy Tax certificate number, or proof you applied for one at the same time. Existing numbers can be looked up in the city's open data.
• Proof the Rental Unit Business Tax is paid for the parcel. Call 619-615-1545 if the account doesn't appear in the city's list.
• Proof of primary residence, for Tier 2 only. The city accepts a magazine mailing label, DMV registration, or the return coupon from an SDG&E, phone, cable, water or sewer bill, provided it shows your name with the unit address as your mailing address.
• A Business Tax Certificate plus a right-to-occupy document, if you're not the owner. The certificate runs $34 a year for a business with 12 employees or fewer.
• Ownership documents if you've recently bought. A deed, a change of ownership, or a change of ownership statement.
• Records of past TOT remittance where you're claiming priority points in a lottery, since only the operator of record holds those.
• A clean enforcement record on the unit. Clear anything open with Building and Land Use Enforcement first, because a pending action blocks both a new application and a renewal.

You'll also certify the whole application under penalty of perjury, which matters more here than usual, given the city has prosecuted operators over the accuracy of their filings.

One thing you won't be asked for is insurance. Reading through Division 1 and the city's own application pages, there's no proof-of-coverage requirement anywhere in the short-term rental license process, and older third-party checklists that list one appear to be wrong. Be aware that your lender, your insurer and your HOA are separate problems entirely.

A homeowner's policy that excludes paid guests won't care that the city didn't ask.

San Diego, California Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get the license and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to handle, and this is the part of San Diego that changed most recently. Three separate charges can attach to a stay, two desks administer them, and one almost certainly doesn't apply to you at all.

Charge	Rate in 2026	Who pays and who collects it
Transient occupancy tax, Zone 1	11.75% of rent	Guest pays; you or your platform remit monthly to the City Treasurer
Transient occupancy tax, Zone 2	12.75% of rent	Guest pays; remitted the same way
Transient occupancy tax, Zone 3	13.75% of rent	Guest pays; remitted the same way
Tourism Marketing District assessment	2.00% of rent	Lodging businesses with 70 or more rooms only, so not a short-term rental host
Rental Unit Business Tax	$50 per parcel plus $5 per unit, yearly	Property owner pays the City Treasurer, due around March 1
Business Tax Certificate	$34 a year at 12 employees or fewer	Non-owner hosts only, paid to the City Treasurer

The zoned hotel tax is the headline. Voters approved Measure C back in 2020, litigation held it up for years, and after the city prevailed in trial court the increase finally took effect on May 1, 2025, applying to hotel guests, RV parks and short-term rentals alike.

The zones follow distance from the Convention Center. Per the City Attorney's official analysis of the measure, 13.75% is generally downtown, while 11.75% covers parts of the city north of State Route 56 or south of State Route 54. Everything else, including the beach communities, sits at 12.75%. Do check your own address against the city's tax zone lookup map rather than assuming.

Mechanically, the tax belongs to the guest and passes through you. You collect it at the same time as the rent, hold it in trust, and remit monthly, due by the last day of the following month. Miss that and the penalty is 1% of the amount owed for the first delinquent day plus a third of 1% for every day after, capped at 25%.

Exemptions are few and narrow: a stay of one month or more, a total rental charge of $25.00 a day or less, or rent paid directly by the federal or state government. No small-host allowance exists, and the city's wording on needing a certificate at all is that "there are no exceptions."

Most hosts won't touch the remittance themselves, though. Where a platform collects the rent, the ordinance makes it collect the tax alongside and remit monthly. Airbnb confirms that it "collects and remits transient occupancy tax for the City of San Diego listings." That takes the admin work off your desk without taking the liability with it, so make sure you can see the tax on guest receipts, at the right zone rate.

The Tourism Marketing District line is the one you can probably ignore. That 2% assessment is levied on lodging businesses with 70 or more rooms and has been since September 2016, so a single house or condo falls outside it. Measure C didn't change it either. Guides that stack it onto a short-term rental's tax bill are quoting a rule that expired nine years ago.

The Rental Unit Business Tax is smaller and easier to forget. It's an annual tax on anyone owning, operating or managing residential rental real estate, due around March 1, and the city's schedule puts a single family home or condo at $50 per parcel plus $5 per unit, with a $4.00 state accessibility fee added. Renting out any part of a property for more than six days in a calendar year triggers it. Late payment costs $25 or 10% of the tax, whichever is greater, plus 1% a month.

Then there's income tax, federal and state, which nobody collects for you. One federal rule is worth knowing before you settle on how much to host. Under IRS Topic 415, rent a home you also use as a residence for fewer than 15 days in the year and you report none of the rental income, and deduct none of the rental expenses. That sits oddly beside Tier 1, which allows 20 days. Rent all 20 and you're back to reporting everything. For a look at markets where the whole-home path isn't rationed, BNBCalc Markets shows the revenue gap at neighborhood level.

California Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Every one of those taxes is local, which is the pattern for California generally. The state has no short-term rental license, no statewide registry and no state lodging tax. What it does instead is hand cities the power to tax and regulate, then draw a few outer lines around how they use it. That's why the rules can flip completely between San Diego and the city next door.

The taxing power comes from Revenue and Taxation Code §7280, which lets a city or county tax lodging "unless the occupancy is for a period of more than 30 days," a phrase you can hear echoing in San Diego's own one-month definition. Almost every short-term rental rule in the state traces back to it.

On penalties, the state sets a ceiling rather than a floor. Government Code §36900(d) caps fines for a short-term rental ordinance infraction at $1,500 for a first violation, $3,000 for a second inside a year and $5,000 for each one after that, and those higher numbers only apply to infractions that threaten public health or safety. A first-time failure to register or pay a business license fee is expressly excluded, and cities have to offer a hardship waiver.

Two newer statutes matter for how hosting works in practice. SB 346, chaptered in October 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, lets a city that adopts an ordinance require platforms to report each rental's physical address, parcel number and listing URL. Listings then have to display the local license number and tax certification. San Diego already pulled monthly platform reports under its own ordinance, so the new law changes little here and a great deal in cities that had no such power.

Separately, AB 537 has required since July 1, 2024 that short-term lodging, explicitly including homes rented for 30 days or less through a platform, advertise a rate with all mandatory fees included. Cleaning fees go in the nightly number now, not at checkout.

The accessory dwelling unit rule is state law too, which is why San Diego can't be talked out of it. Government Code §66323(e) requires a local agency to make rentals of an ADU created under that section run "for a term longer than 30 days," and §66333 does the same for junior ADUs. San Diego's 31-day rule is that statute in local clothing.

One further wrinkle here comes straight from the Coastal Act, and it's unusual. The tier definitions and the tier rules themselves are part of the city's certified Local Coastal Program, so a future amendment won't apply inside the Coastal Overlay Zone until the California Coastal Commission certifies it.

Then §510.0112 adds a sunset. Those provisions hold in the Coastal Overlay Zone only until January 1, 2030. Miss that date without amending them and, in the ordinance's own words, "the licensing requirement for short-term residential occupancy will no longer be in effect in the Coastal Overlay Zone." The Commission's Executive Director can extend the deadline for good cause. Nobody should bank on a beach licensing regime evaporating, though the coastal rules do get reopened before the decade is out.

How different the rest of California looks depends entirely on the jurisdiction. The San Francisco County guide covers a market built around a strict primary-residence rule, the San Mateo County guide covers the patchwork down the peninsula, and the Sonoma County guide covers wine-country rules that lean on caps and separation distances.

Does San Diego, California Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Yes, and the enforcement runs in two layers that work nothing alike. The first is the platform layer, where the ordinance does its quiet, structural work. Under §510.0201, a hosting platform "shall not process or complete any booking service transaction" for a unit without a valid license number on the city's registry when the platform takes its fee.

Platforms also report monthly with license numbers, the responsible person, street addresses and days booked, and they keep four years of transaction records. So an unlicensed listing doesn't get a warning letter first.

It struggles to take a booking at all.

The second layer is the one that hurts. Building and Land Use Enforcement, the Development Services division that handles short-term rental cases, can assess civil penalties up to a daily maximum of $10,000 and a total maximum of $400,000. When the City Attorney takes a case to court instead, the ask is civil penalties of up to $2,500 per day per violation plus enforcement costs.

That's not theoretical either. In June 2026 the City Attorney announced a stipulated final judgment against operators running six unlicensed properties, including a garage converted into rental lodging with no permits. The terms are worth reading closely. They owe $100,000 in civil penalties plus $6,079.88 in investigative costs upfront, another $1,150,000 sits suspended so long as they comply, every listing came down along with the bookings, and they can't operate or even apply for a license until 2028.

Up to $1.25 million, and the suspended part only stays suspended while the behavior does.

Accessory dwelling units drew a sweep of their own. After reporting by inewsource and KPBS in September 2025 found roughly 170 properties holding both a license and an ADU, the city removed more than 200 listings advertising ADUs and code enforcement issued 64 civil penalties at $1,000 a day. Watch out for any listing whose "guest suite" is a converted garage.

Complaints arrive through Get It Done, and the reportable categories tell you what the city is looking at. Signage that isn't visible or legible, trash on private property, business operations on site like massage or surf lessons, and a local contact who either didn't answer inside the hour or answered without doing anything about the nuisance.

Neighbors are told to call your local contact first and escalate only if nothing happens within the hour, which makes that one rule the most important operational habit in the whole ordinance. Three violations of §510.0107 alleged within 12 months, and a hearing officer can revoke the license outright.

Revocation isn't the end of the process, at least. You can request an appeal hearing in writing within 10 calendar days, the hearing gets set within 90 calendar days, and the hearing officer's written decision follows within 30 days of it concluding. The city isn't obliged to escalate through warnings first, either. §510.0109 lets the City Manager pick a verbal warning, a written warning, a notice of violation or straight revocation, "without any requirement that the actions escalate in severity."

The politics around all this are live, though quieter than they were in January. Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera spent last autumn pushing an "Empty Second Homes and Vacation Rental Tax," revised by January 2026 into a flat $8,000 per property after starting life as $5,000 per bedroom. It died in committee.

What reached the June ballot was a different animal. Measure A would have taxed non-primary residences left vacant more than 182 days a year at $8,000, rising to $10,000 later, exempting owner-occupied homes and long-term leases, and a property being actively rented was never in scope. Voters turned it down on June 2, 2026, with 57.9% voting no on the counts reported the next day.

Still, that margin is the useful signal, because it says San Diego's appetite for taxing second homes has a ceiling.

One gap is still open. inewsource reported in February 2026 that an owner obtained a short-term rental license within 90 days of a no-fault eviction, despite owing a 12-month owner-occupancy commitment, and four months later the loophole hadn't been closed. Councilmember Jennifer Campbell's office has said amendments are coming to committee. I'd expect something to tighten there, since the eviction angle is the version of this fight that moves votes at City Hall.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in San Diego, California

Given how much of that enforcement lands on paperwork rather than behavior, the order of these steps matters more than it looks. The early ones tell you whether the later ones are worth paying for.

1. Check the tier and the address before anything else. Find the property's Community Planning Area on the city's map. Inside Mission Beach, whole-home hosting means Tier 4, which is closed with 120 people waiting. Outside it, you're looking at the 821 Tier 3 licenses still available, and that number only moves down.
2. Rule out the disqualifiers. An ADU, a junior ADU used against the rules, a converted garage without permits, an RV, or the work half of a live/work unit will all fail. So will any unit carrying a pending code enforcement action.
3. Decide whether you can live there. Tier 2 asks for 275 days of occupancy a year, then gives you 90 days of whole-home hosting, no supply cap, for $317. That's often the better business than waiting on a Tier 3 slot.
4. Open the Transient Occupancy Tax certificate. It's free, it's a prerequisite, and any unpaid back tax on the property will block you.
5. Get the Rental Unit Business Tax account active and paid, and where you hold a lease instead of the deed, add a Business Tax Certificate and a right-to-occupy document signed by the owner.
6. Complete the human trafficking awareness course before your first listing goes up, and keep the certificate. The city only asks for it during a compliance review, but it must exist by then.
7. Apply through the city's portal and pay. Expect a determination within about three business days, and remember that none of the fee comes back if you're denied.
8. Set up the operating furniture on day one: the exterior notice at 8.5 by 11 inches in 20-point bold caps, both numbers in every listing, the Good Neighbor Policy for guests, the trafficking signage inside, and a local contact who will pick up the phone within an hour, every time.
9. Diarize the two-year expiry and the quarterly reports. Renewal notices land 60 days out, an expired license is a fresh application, and Tier 3 or Tier 4 hosts who miss the 90-day utilization floor risk revocation with no exception written into the ordinance.

Who to Contact in San Diego, California about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps you get stuck on, two departments handle nearly all of it. The Office of the City Treasurer owns licensing and tax, while Development Services owns the building itself and enforcement. Knowing which one owns your question saves a genuinely irritating amount of time on hold.

Licensing, tiers and the application itself

STRO Administration, inside the Office of the City Treasurer, runs the licensing program and is the first call for applications, tier changes, cancellations and local contact updates.

• Phone: 619-615-6120
• Email: [email protected]
• Office: Office of the City Treasurer, 1200 Third Ave., Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92101
• Main Treasurer line: 619-236-6112
• Lobby hours: walk-in payments Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. since July 1, 2025, with Monday, Wednesday and Friday reserved for appointments. There's a drop box on the wall outside the main lobby.

The taxes

Three separate desks, all reachable from the same Treasurer's pages:

• Transient Occupancy Tax and Tourism Marketing District: 619-615-1530, [email protected]. Mail goes to Office of the City Treasurer, Attn: TOT/TMD Desk, P.O. Box 122289, San Diego, CA 92112-2289.
• Rental Unit Business Tax: 619-615-1545, [email protected]. Call them if your bill hasn't arrived by February 1, because the obligation doesn't wait for the paperwork.
• Business Tax Compliance: 619-615-1539, [email protected]. General business tax is 619-615-1500.

Enforcement, complaints and zoning

The Building and Land Use Enforcement team sits in the Development Services Department and handles every enforcement question, including whether an open case is blocking your application.

• Phone: 619-533-6489
• Email: [email protected]
• Other investigations: 619-236-5500
• Address: 7650 Mission Valley Road, MS# DSD-1A, San Diego, CA 92108
• Hours: the building runs Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the front counter is Monday to Thursday 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 3 p.m., Friday 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 3 p.m., closed over the midday hour
• Department line: 619-446-5000, and the downtown office at 550 West C St., 12th Floor takes pre-scheduled appointments only

Zoning and permit questions about the structure itself, like whether a converted space counts as legal habitable area, belong to Development Services and not to the Treasurer. Given how many of the city's enforcement cases start with an unpermitted conversion, that's the call to make before you buy.

The numbers your neighbors will use

Worth knowing in both directions. Nuisance complaints route through the city's Get It Done app, and noise calls go to the San Diego Police non-emergency line at 619-531-2000 or 858-484-3154 once an hour has passed without your local contact resolving things. Before any of that, the city points neighbors to the National Conflict Resolution Center at 619-238-2400, which is a far better outcome for you than a case file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you run an Airbnb in San Diego, California in 2026?

Yes, with a Short-Term Residential Occupancy license from the City of San Diego. Licenses come in four tiers: up to 20 days a year, home sharing in a primary residence, whole-home hosting outside Mission Beach, and whole-home hosting inside Mission Beach. The first two have no cap. Whole-home hosting outside Mission Beach is capped at 1% of the city's housing units, with 821 of those licenses still available as of July 2026. Mission Beach is closed to new applications and running a waitlist.

How much does a San Diego short-term rental license cost?

Fees depend on the tier and have applied since March 1, 2025. Tier 1 costs $33 to apply plus a $193 license fee. Tier 2 costs $33 plus $284. Tier 3 and Tier 4 both cost $41 plus $1,129. Every fee is non-refundable whether or not the application is approved, renewal costs the same, and a card payment adds 2.95%. Licenses last two years from the date of issuance.

What is the transient occupancy tax rate for a San Diego short-term rental?

Between 11.75% and 13.75% of rent, depending on the property's tax zone. The rates took effect May 1, 2025 under Measure C, replacing a flat 10.5%. The 13.75% zone is generally downtown near the Convention Center, 11.75% applies north of State Route 56 or south of State Route 54, and 12.75% covers the rest of the city including the beach communities. Airbnb collects and remits this tax for City of San Diego listings.

Can you rent out an ADU or granny flat as a short-term rental in San Diego?

No. San Diego Municipal Code §141.0302(a)(8) states that an accessory dwelling unit cannot be used for a rental term of less than 31 consecutive days, and California Government Code §66323(e) requires local agencies to impose that floor. Only companion units permitted before the October 15, 2017 prohibition qualify as short-term rentals. The city removed more than 200 listings advertising ADUs and issued 64 civil penalties at $1,000 per day after a 2025 investigation.

What happens if you operate a short-term rental in San Diego without a license?

Booking platforms are barred from processing transactions for unlicensed units, so the listing struggles to earn anything. Beyond that, Building and Land Use Enforcement can assess civil penalties up to $10,000 per day and $400,000 in total, and the City Attorney pursues court penalties of up to $2,500 per day per violation. A June 2026 judgment against operators of six unlicensed properties reached up to $1.25 million and barred them from applying for a license until 2028.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.