Inglewood Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a home in Inglewood, California and you're wondering whether you can list it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that the city does allow short-term rentals. It isn't the way most people picture an "Airbnb investment property," though. Inglewood built its rules around one hard requirement: you have to already live in the home you want to rent. Buy a house here purely to run it as a nightly rental, and there's no permit that gets you there.

That's a meaningfully different starting point than most cities in Los Angeles County, and it's worth sitting with before you get further into the details. Under Ordinance No. 22-15, adopted by the City Council on July 19, 2022, only a natural person who has occupied the dwelling as their primary residence for the prior 365 consecutive days may hold a Short Term Rental Permit. Renters can't apply, and neither can LLCs, corporations or trusts other than a personal family trust. There's one narrow exception for a second property nearby, and it's genuinely narrow, so don't count on it as a workaround.

So this guide walks through who actually qualifies in 2026, what the permit costs, the 15.5% tax that comes with it, and how the city checks compliance once you're operating. Every figure below traces back to Inglewood's own ordinance, its Housing Protection Department pages, or California's own legislature, and I'll flag the couple of places where the city's older FAQ pages say something slightly different from its newer ones. If Inglewood's numbers don't pencil out for your situation, run the property through BNBCalc and compare it against a market with fewer strings attached.

What are short term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) regulations in Inglewood, California?

Inglewood regulates short-term rentals through a single ordinance rather than a patchwork of zoning overlays, which makes the rules unusually easy to trace to one source. Ordinance No. 22-15 added Article 11 to Chapter 8 of the Inglewood Municipal Code and defines a Short Term Rental as a dwelling unit, rented in whole or in part, where the host provides lodging for compensation for 30 consecutive days or less.

Short-term rental and vacation rental use is permitted in all residential zones and in mixed-use zones where residential use is allowed, so zoning itself isn't the obstacle here. Eligibility is.

The ordinance splits STRs into three types, and which one you can apply for depends entirely on your own housing situation:

• Hosted: you rent out a room (or rooms) while remaining in the dwelling for the whole stay. Hosted rentals are allowed for an unlimited number of nights per year, in blocks of 30 consecutive days or less.
• Unhosted: you rent the entire unit and don't stay there yourself. Capped at 90 nights a year, in blocks of 30 days or less, and limited to one booking at a time.
• Vacation Rental: a specific, narrower form of Unhosted rental at a second property near your primary home. Same 90-night cap.

Accessory dwelling units permitted on or after January 1, 2017 can never be used as an STR under this ordinance, a rule the city ties directly to preserving ADUs as housing stock rather than tourist lodging. That tracks California's own ADU law, which lets a city prohibit short-term rental of an ADU even while it protects the ADU's existence otherwise. Party houses are banned outright too: no renting the place, or even the yard, for the kind of event a hotel ballroom would normally host.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Inglewood

Since zoning isn't the gate here, eligibility is, and it's worth being honest about how few people clear it. Unfortunately for most people reading this hoping to buy an investment property, there isn't a path in. The core rule, straight from the ordinance's definition of a "Short Term Rental Host," is that the applicant must have occupied the dwelling as their primary residence for at least the prior 365 consecutive days before applying.

Add to that: the host has to be a natural person, not a company of any kind, and the city confirms this directly: "Properties must be owned by a natural person and not by a company (i.e., LLC, LLP, Inc., Assoc., Corp., Co., Ltd., etc.)". Renters can't operate an STR in their unit either, full stop.

If you already own and live in an eligible home, though, the door is genuinely open, and it's worth knowing the property-type rules before you assume you qualify. A single-family home or condo works, provided any Homeowners Association gives written approval on HOA letterhead. A duplex works if the owner lives in one unit and the other is vacant, or if the owner's occupancy predates the other unit's tenancy.

Properties with two to four units work the same way, as long as the owner's primary residence there is established and continuous. Owners of multi-unit parcels must also be registered with the Housing Protection Department, with all fees, fines and back taxes paid, before an STR application even gets considered.

The Vacation Rental carve-out is the closest thing to a second-property option, and it's deliberately hard to reach. Per the city's STR Division Regulations, qualifying takes four things at once: ten consecutive years as an Inglewood resident, five consecutive years owning your current primary residence, at least a year owning the vacation rental property itself, and that second property sitting within 1,000 feet of your primary residence's property line. Only one unit per owner can qualify.

This isn't a rule an out-of-state or even an out-of-city investor works around with paperwork. It's built for a long-tenured Inglewood homeowner who happens to also own the place next door or down the block, and that's a genuinely small slice of the market.

If your situation doesn't fit any of that, the realistic options are a traditional 30-plus-day rental under ordinary landlord and tenant law, or selling to someone who already meets the residency test. Compare the numbers either way, because a market like Solano County or Stanislaus County may fit an absentee-owner model that Inglewood simply won't allow.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Inglewood

Assuming your home clears all of that, getting the actual permit is more paperwork than obstacle. The application, proof of ownership, proof of residency and payment go in person to the Finance Department, located on the first floor of Inglewood City Hall at One West Manchester Boulevard.

The STR Permit application fees, as of July 2026, are $500 for Hosted, $600 for Unhosted, and $600 for Vacation Rental, and those figures have held steady since the program launched. The fee is non-refundable, which is exactly why it's worth confirming eligibility before you pay it rather than after.

Once submitted, the city still has up to 60 days to process the application, and that window does real work. Per the ordinance, the city mails notice to the property's owner of record, to any applicable HOA, and to owners and occupants of abutting properties, then holds the application open for that period to consider anything those parties submit about your eligibility or the unit itself. So a neighbor genuinely can weigh in before your permit is ever issued.

Permit duration is the one spot where Inglewood's own pages don't perfectly agree, so it's worth flagging rather than picking a number and hoping. The ordinance itself says a permit "may be valid for one (1) year," and the city's Housing Protection Department page still carries language from the program's 2022 launch stating permits run "365 days upon submission approval." But the FAQ page is more specific: a permit "expires at the end of each calendar year (December 31)."

That calendar-year pattern has held up for multiple years running. 2022 permits were prorated for a partial year, hosts had to renew by January 31, 2023, and the city's own 2024 banner announced it was "accepting applications for the 2024 calendar year" starting that January. So treat it as a calendar-year permit, renewed each January, rather than a rolling 365-day clock from your original approval date.

Permits are non-transferable, and if you disagree with a denial, suspension or revocation, you have 15 calendar days from the mailed notice to file an appeal, with a fee set by the city's Master Fee Schedule, to the Permits and Licenses Committee. That committee has to hear the appeal within 45 days and rule within 10 days of the hearing, and its decision is final. Keep that clock in mind, because missing it means living with whatever the city decided.

Required Documents for Inglewood Short Term Rentals

Since none of that application fee comes back, it's worth getting the documentation right on the first pass rather than the second. The application itself asks for the address and Assessor's Parcel Number, which type of STR you're applying for, a floor plan of every room in the dwelling showing which will be rented, and the location of every fire extinguisher, smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector.

You'll also need to name every host, agent, and Local Contact Person tied to the property, along with a signed affidavit committing to comply with the ordinance.

For proof of residency, the application page asks for a government-issued photo ID showing the STR address, plus one of a recent utility bill, DMV registration, insurance bill, or tax return.

The ordinance's own residency test is more specific still: it wants two different utility bills (water, gas or electric) covering the full prior 365 days, plus one of vehicle registration, a driver's license, or tax documents. Two bills from the same utility category won't satisfy that requirement, so don't assume one water bill and one water bill from a different month covers it.

A few other pieces round out the file:

• Proof of ownership: a deed or property tax bill.
• Liability insurance of at least $500,000, or an equivalent policy provided through your hosting platform.
• Written HOA approval on letterhead, if the property is subject to one.
• Listing URLs for every hosting platform used, due to the city within five days of an advertisement going live.

Clear any open property violations before you apply, too, since the ordinance lists an existing health or safety violation as grounds to deny the permit outright. And keep in mind the affidavit isn't a formality: the city can revoke a permit later for a material misrepresentation on the original application.

Inglewood Short Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you clear the eligibility screen and are able to get the permit issued, there's still tax to work through, and Inglewood layers two separate charges on top of the permit fee itself. The big one is the city's Transient Occupancy Tax, and the STR-specific TOT Assessment Form spells out the math directly: multiply your total taxable receipts by .155, or 15.5%.

That rate isn't the original one, mind you. Inglewood's own pre-2021 TOT guide shows a 14% rate, and voters raised it to 15.5% through Measure H on November 2, 2021, with 62% in favor. So if you see an older source quoting 14%, it's simply out of date.

TOT is reported and remitted monthly, due by the last day of the month following the activity, whether or not you had any bookings that month. Miss a month and you still owe a form.

Reporting period	Due date
January	February 1
February	March 1
March	April 1
April	May 1
May	June 1
June	July 1
July	August 1
August	September 1
September	October 1
October	November 1
November	December 1
December	February 1

Each month, the host submits a TOT Assessment Form (one per hosting platform used) along with a Statement of Earnings from that platform. If the platform doesn't collect payment on your behalf, you're solely responsible for collecting and remitting TOT yourself. If it does collect payment, the platform and you share legal responsibility for getting it to the city.

Either way, the city has required TOT on all STR activity retroactive to January 1, 2022, so a host who's been renting informally since before getting a permit owes years of back taxes on top of whatever comes next, and installment plans are available if that number is bigger than you'd like.

On top of TOT, hosts also need a Residential Rental Business Tax Certificate, a separate requirement the city's FAQ confirms directly. The city's own Business Tax Fee Summary sets the Residential Rentals rate at $20 per unit, excluding any owner-occupied unit, with a $20 minimum. For a typical single-unit, owner-occupied Hosted rental, that generally lands right at the minimum, though don't take my word for it: call the Finance Department at 310-412-5500 to confirm what you'd owe before you budget around it.

California Wide Short Term Rental Rules

None of Inglewood's restrictions come from state law forcing the city's hand. Quite the opposite: California doesn't run a statewide STR license or permit program at all, and its cities have broad authority to regulate short-term rentals however they see fit, up to and including bans in some places.

Inglewood's own ordinance cites Article XI, Section 7 of the California Constitution, the state's home-rule provision, as its legal basis for regulating STRs as a land-use matter. That's the same authority that lets one California city ban entire-home rentals outright while its neighbor allows them freely.

One place state law does show up in Inglewood's rules is the HOA-approval requirement, and it's not arbitrary. California's Civil Code Section 4741, added by AB 3182 and effective January 1, 2021, stops HOAs from banning long-term rentals or capping them below 25% of units. It explicitly carves out short-term rentals of 30 days or less, though: HOAs can still prohibit those outright if they choose to. That's exactly why Inglewood requires written HOA approval before it will issue a permit on an HOA-governed property. The city can't force an HOA to allow something state law lets that HOA ban.

The other statewide development worth tracking is SB 346, the Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025, which was chaptered October 13, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026. It lets a city or county that adopts its own ordinance require platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo to report listing addresses, parcel numbers and listing URLs on at least a quarterly basis, with fines for platforms that don't comply.

It isn't self-executing, though, so it only bites where a local government invokes it. I found no evidence Inglewood has adopted such an ordinance as of this writing, but it's worth keeping an eye on, since it would hand the city another enforcement lever if it does.

One claim worth debunking outright, since it keeps circulating: several lower-quality guides floating around online assert that a statewide 15% surcharge on short-term rentals took effect in 2025 under a bill called SB 584. I checked the California Legislature's own bill-status page directly, and SB 584 died in committee on November 30, 2024. It was never signed into law, and no such tax exists. If you read that claim somewhere, it's wrong, and it's the kind of error that compounds if you plan a budget around it.

Does Inglewood Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given how narrow eligibility already is, you'd expect enforcement to lean hard on that gate, and it does. Inglewood runs a 24-hour STR Compliance Hot Line at 310-861-2068 specifically for nuisance and unpermitted-rental complaints, and reports can be made anonymously. That's a lower bar than most cities' complaint-driven model, where a neighbor has to be motivated enough to call during business hours. Here, anyone can flag a listing at 2 a.m. and stay anonymous doing it.

Beyond complaints, the city inspects proactively. An Initial Inspection at application covers the interior and exterior of the property, occupancy and parking capacity, and general code compliance, and Renewal Inspections happen on the same cycle, with the city's FAQ describing STR inspections as occurring biannually.

Add the administrative subpoena power the ordinance gives the city over hosting platforms, which can compel listing data (address, length of stay, price paid) with only a 30-day response window, and it's clear the city built a system that doesn't rely on catching violations by accident.

The penalties back that up. Operating without a valid permit carries fines of up to $5,000 per incident, and each day a violation continues counts as a separate offense, so a month of unpermitted operation isn't one fine, it's potentially thirty. A conviction also means reimbursing the city's full investigative costs, paying all back TOT, and disgorging illegally obtained rental revenue back to the city.

Grounds for denying, suspending or revoking a permit outright include a false statement on the application, any ordinance violation on the premises, an unresolved health or safety notice, a permit revoked at that address in the prior 12 months, or delinquent city fees on any property the applicant owns anywhere in Inglewood. That last one is broader than it sounds: it isn't just about the STR property itself.

Platforms carry obligations too, and this is where the enforcement mechanism gets modern. Hosting platforms must remove improper listings within five calendar days of city notice and are barred from collecting fees for services tied to an unregistered listing. That mirrors what larger cities like New York have done at the booking layer, without the outright ban on unhosted rentals that New York imposes citywide.

Worth noting: forum threads about buying near Inglewood's stadiums sometimes suggest adding an ADU and short-term-renting it as an easy income boost. Don't take that advice at face value here. Under Section 8-139(5) of the ordinance, any ADU permitted on or after January 1, 2017 can't legally be used as an STR at all, so that "obvious" move is one of the more common ways to end up on the wrong side of a $5,000 fine.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Inglewood

Given how much of this depends on eligibility rather than paperwork, the order below matters. Skipping straight to the application wastes the $500 to $600 fee if step one would have disqualified you anyway.

1. Confirm your residency first. You need 365 consecutive days as the property's primary resident before you can even apply, documented by utility bills covering that whole period plus one more form of ID.
2. Check your ownership structure. The property has to be owned by a natural person, not an LLC, corporation, or any entity other than a personal family trust. If a business owns the title, resolve that before applying.
3. Get HOA approval in writing, if it applies. California law lets HOAs ban short-term rentals outright, and Inglewood won't issue a permit without that sign-off where an HOA exists.
4. Pick Hosted, Unhosted, or Vacation Rental. Decide honestly whether you'll remain in the unit during stays, and if not, confirm you qualify for the narrow Vacation Rental exception before assuming Unhosted is available to you.
5. Assemble the file. Government ID, two utility bills spanning the residency period, deed or tax bill, $500,000 liability insurance (or equivalent platform coverage), floor plan with safety-equipment locations marked, and listing URLs once you have them.
6. Submit and pay at the Finance Department. One West Manchester Boulevard, first floor, in person, with the non-refundable fee due at submission.
7. Wait out the 60-day review, during which neighbors and any HOA can weigh in before approval.
8. Set up your TOT reporting from day one. File the Assessment Form and Statement of Earnings monthly, even in months with zero bookings, and remember TOT applies retroactively to January 1, 2022 if you were already operating informally.
9. Diarize your renewal. Permits run on the calendar year and need renewing each January, so don't let it lapse by assuming last year's approval carries forward automatically.

Who to Contact About Short Term Rental Regulations

Whichever step you're stuck on, a handful of city offices split the work between them, and knowing which one owns your question saves a lot of time on hold.

Housing Protection Department, Short-Term Rental Division, for applications, eligibility questions and TOT:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (310) 412-4299

Housing Protection Department (general), for registration and broader landlord-tenant matters:

• Email: [email protected]
• Address: 1 Manchester Blvd, 6th Floor, Inglewood, CA 90301
• Phone: (310) 412-4330, Fax: (310) 412-4276
• Registration payment mailing address: P.O. Box 6007, Inglewood, CA 90312-6017

Finance Department, for applications, payment and the Residential Rental Business Tax Certificate:

• Address: One West Manchester Blvd, 1st Floor, Inglewood, CA 90301
• Phone: (310) 412-5500

24-Hour STR Compliance Hot Line, for nuisance and unpermitted-rental complaints (anonymous reporting accepted):

• Phone: 310-861-2068

Parking Enforcement, if your STR sits in a Permit Parking District and you need a guest permit:

• Phone: (310) 412-5398

City Hall, general line: (310) 412-5111. Hours are Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with City Hall closed on alternating Fridays, per the city's own posted schedule.

What do Airbnb hosts in Inglewood on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

I couldn't reach Reddit directly for this section. It blocks automated access, and its own terms restrict the kind of commercial scraping a guide like this would need, so I'm not going to pretend to have read threads I haven't. What follows leans on BiggerPockets, which is reachable, plus the pattern the ordinance itself creates.

On BiggerPockets, one thread that stood out involved an owner of a single-family home about a block from SoFi Stadium, weighing a $700,000 offer with the new Intuit Dome effectively in the backyard.

A commenter's advice: add an ADU, then live in one unit while short-term renting the other. It's a reasonable-sounding suggestion for almost any California market, and it's exactly the kind of move that would violate Inglewood's ordinance, since ADUs permitted after January 1, 2017 can't be used as an STR here at all. That gap between generic investor advice and Inglewood's specific rules is worth taking seriously, because the advice reads perfectly plausible right up until it isn't.

More broadly, the sentiment around Inglewood reflects the demand driver everyone already knows about: SoFi Stadium, the Kia Forum, the new Intuit Dome, and the run-up to the 2028 Olympics all sit in or right next to the city, and Inglewood's own ordinance names its "status as a sports entertainment destination center" as a reason for allowing STRs at all rather than banning them.

That demand is real. What doesn't show up in most casual investor chatter is how tightly the supply side is gated behind residency requirements. Anyone treating this like a typical nightly-rental market, buy a house, furnish it, list it, is going to hit the eligibility wall long before they hit a booking calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Inglewood in 2026?

Yes, but only if you already own the home and have lived there as your primary residence for the prior 365 consecutive days. The host must be a natural person, not a company, and renters can't operate an STR in their own rental unit. A Short Term Rental Permit costs $500 for a Hosted rental (you stay in the unit) or $600 for an Unhosted or Vacation Rental. Buying a property purely as an investment, with no intention of living there, doesn't qualify under Ordinance No. 22-15.

How much does an Inglewood short-term rental permit cost?

The application fee is $500 for a Hosted rental, and $600 for an Unhosted or Vacation Rental permit, paid in person at the Finance Department and non-refundable regardless of approval. Permits run on the calendar year and are renewed each January. On top of the permit, hosts also need a Residential Rental Business Tax Certificate, generally around the city's $20 minimum for a single owner-occupied unit.

What is the transient occupancy tax rate in Inglewood?

Inglewood's Transient Occupancy Tax is 15.5% of the rent charged, raised from 14% by Measure H, which Inglewood voters approved in November 2021. The tax is reported and paid monthly, due by the last day of the following month, and applies retroactively to all short-term rental activity dating back to January 1, 2022. Hosts must file a TOT form and a platform earnings statement every month, even with no bookings.

Can an investor who doesn't live in Inglewood buy a house there to run as an Airbnb?

No, not under the current ordinance. Every Short Term Rental Host must be a natural person who has occupied the property as their primary residence for the prior 365 consecutive days, and companies of any kind are barred from holding a permit. The only path to an entire-home rental without living in it is the Vacation Rental exception, which requires ten years of Inglewood residency, five years owning your primary home, and a second property within 1,000 feet of it.

What happens if you operate a short-term rental in Inglewood without a permit?

Fines run up to $5,000 per incident, and every day the violation continues counts as a separate offense, so ongoing unpermitted operation can add up fast. A conviction also means paying the city's full investigative costs, all back Transient Occupancy Tax, and giving up any illegally earned rental revenue. The city runs a 24-hour compliance hotline, 310-861-2068, that accepts anonymous complaints, plus biannual inspections, so unpermitted listings tend to surface faster than owners expect.

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