Long Beach, California Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Long Beach, California and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is, you're allowed to. The city, sitting at the southern edge of Los Angeles County, runs a formal registration program under Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 5.77, and it's genuinely open to hosts who live on site. Unhosted rentals are legal too, though that lane has a ceiling on it.

Here's the catch, and it's the one thing that trips up most people researching this market: unhosted, non-primary-residence registrations are capped citywide at 800 units, with only 350 of those usable inside the Coastal Zone that runs along the beach, the Peninsula and Alamitos Bay. The city has run that cap as a lottery and waitlist since the program launched in 2021, so a spot isn't guaranteed just because you own the property. Primary-residence hosting, by contrast, has no citywide cap at all, only a limit on how many nights you can be away while still renting.

So this guide walks through what actually applies in 2026: which registration track fits your situation, what the $500 application gets you into, the taxes that stack on top of every booking, and how seriously Long Beach enforces its own rules. Every figure below comes from the city's own program page, its municipal code, or a state source, checked in the last week of July 2026. Assuming the math still works after you've read all that, run the property through BNBCalc first to see what it would actually earn.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Long Beach, California?

That $500 figure only makes sense once you understand the structure it sits inside. Long Beach regulates short-term rentals through one ordinance, LBMC Chapter 5.77, which the City Council rewrote in full on February 11, 2025 under Ordinance ORD-25-0001 and tightened again in 2026 with ORD-26-0004. The chapter's own purpose clause is worth reading, since it states the goal plainly: preserve the long-term rental housing stock, make sure Transient Occupancy Tax actually gets collected, and stop short-term rental activity from becoming a nuisance to the neighbors.

Two registration types do all the work. A Primary Residence STR sits on the same parcel as your permanent home, defined as somewhere you occupy at least 275 days a year. Host the place while you're there and there's no limit on nights; rent it out while you're away and you're capped at 90 un-hosted days per registration term. A Non-Primary Residence STR covers everything else, hosted or not, with no day limit, but it's the track subject to the 800-unit citywide cap and the 350-unit Coastal Zone sub-cap. You can hold one of each type, and no more.

A handful of property types can't register at all, regardless of which track you're on: accessory dwelling units, junior ADUs, deed-restricted affordable housing, single-room-occupancy units, and anything on the city's self-certified Prohibited Buildings List, which any owner or HOA can add a property to. Vehicles, RVs, pool houses, storage sheds, garages, boats and tents don't qualify either, no matter how nicely you've furnished them. Occupancy tops out at two guests per bedroom plus two more, with an absolute ceiling of eight people, and studios are capped at two.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Long Beach, California

Since the eligibility rules narrow the field before you've even applied, it's worth sizing up which track you actually qualify for before you sink money into furnishing anything. If you already live in the property, the primary-residence path is open and uncapped, which makes it the more reliable business to plan around. Buying a separate investment property purely for nightly rentals means competing for one of 800 citywide slots, or one of 350 if you're anywhere near the water, and that waitlist has existed since the very first lottery in January 2021.

Multi-unit buildings get their own math. A duplex through a ten-unit building can register exactly one short-term rental. Past that, the allowance scales as a percentage of the building:

Units in Building	Non-Primary STRs Allowed
2 to 10 units	1 unit
11 to 50 units	10% of units
51 to 100 units	12% of units
101 or more units	15% of units

A separate City of Long Beach business license is also part of running this legally, alongside the STR registration itself, and it's the kind of thing that's easy to overlook if you've only budgeted for the $500 registration fee. Do check with Business Licenses before you assume the STR registration covers everything.

Long Beach's coastal neighborhoods, Belmont Shore, Naples and the Peninsula among them, sit inside a California Coastal Commission-certified Local Coastal Program, which is exactly why the Coastal Zone gets its own 350-unit carve-out rather than sharing the full 800 with the rest of the city. Our California statewide guide covers how the Coastal Commission's authority works across the whole state, and if you're comparing Long Beach against another coastal California market, the San Mateo County guide shows how a different coastal jurisdiction handles the same tension between beach access and short-term rental caps.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Long Beach, California

Once you know which track you're on, there's still the registration itself to get through, and it runs through the Community Development Department's Code Enforcement Division. The application review fee is $500, due before the city even starts reading your file, and it's non-refundable once that review has started. One thing worth flagging honestly: the city's own program page also references a $400 review fee in a separate spot, so don't take either number as final. Call 562.570.6141 or email [email protected] to confirm the live figure before you pay.

Getting approved takes more than paying the fee. You'll need proof of liability insurance covering the short-term rental use, in the aggregate of not less than $1,000,000, either your own policy or coverage the hosting platform extends. The unit can't carry any active or pending code enforcement violations, you can't owe outstanding citation fees anywhere on the property, and if that specific unit had a registration revoked or disallowed in the last 12 months, you're not eligible to reapply yet. The city also inspects any area guests will use or access, checking for hazardous conditions, before it signs off.

Approval isn't instant. The city doesn't commit to a fixed number of days for a first decision, saying only that timing depends on staff workload and how clean your submission is, though if something needs fixing you get a 45-day window to correct it. Registrations run for one year from approval and don't transfer if you sell the property or move out. Remember that renewal isn't automatic either: rack up three or more citations within any rolling 18-month window and the city can decline to renew, suspend the registration, or attach new conditions. Get revoked outright and no unit on that parcel can register again for a minimum of 12 months. If the Director denies or revokes your registration and you think that's wrong, you can appeal to the Board of Examiners, Appeals and Condemnation.

Required Documents for Long Beach, California Short-Term Rentals

Since a wrong document is exactly the kind of thing that stalls an application inside that 45-day correction window, it's worth assembling the right paperwork the first time. What you need depends on which registration type you're applying for and whether you own or rent the unit.

• Primary residence, owner: two proofs of primary residence from two different sources (driver's license, voter registration, vehicle registration, tax documents, or a utility bill), a notarized Primary Residence Certification and Indemnification Form, and the property's Assessor Identification Number.
• Primary residence, renter or lessee: everything above, plus a notarized STR Property Owner Authorization form from your landlord.
• Non-primary residence, individual owner: a driver's license matching the name on the application.
• Non-primary residence, renter or business entity: a driver's license, a notarized STR Legal Entity/Business Structure Applicant Authority and Agreement form where a company is involved, California Secretary of State registration confirming that entity, and a notarized STR Property Owner Authorization form.
• Every application, regardless of type: proof of liability insurance meeting the $1 million minimum, and a passed inspection of any guest-accessible area of the unit.

Keep in mind the Primary Residence Certification form explicitly does not accept digital signatures, which catches people who assume the whole process is online. Make sure whoever signs it does so in ink.

Long Beach, California Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming your documents clear and you're actually able to start hosting, there's still tax to work out on top of everything else. Three separate obligations can attach to a Long Beach short-term stay, and only one of them is something most hosts ever have to file by hand.

Tax or Fee	Rate	Who Collects It
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)	13% of the rent	City of Long Beach; Airbnb collects and remits it automatically
California Tourism Assessment	0.195% of accommodations revenue, stays of 30 nights or fewer	Self-filed with the California Office of Tourism
Federal and state income tax	Ordinary income tax rates	IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board

The city's own Transient Occupancy Tax page puts the rate at 13% of rent, split 7% to the General Fund and 6% to the Special Advertising and Promotion Fund, up from 12% since July 2020. Airbnb confirms it collects and remits that 13% automatically on every reservation of 30 nights or fewer, which is one less thing to manage yourself. I couldn't confirm whether Vrbo does the same for Long Beach specifically, so don't assume it does until you've checked your own account settings.

If you're booking through a platform that doesn't collect for you, TOT reporting is monthly, due on the 10th of the month following the stay. Miss it and the penalties stack fast: a first penalty of 25% of that month's tax hits on the first of the second month after, and if it's still unpaid, a second penalty of 50% lands on the first of the third month. That's not a one-time fine. It compounds, and it's exactly where a host who's been sloppy about bookkeeping gets hurt.

One thing that trips people up: Long Beach also runs a 3% Tourism Business Improvement Area assessment, but that only applies to hotel businesses with more than 30 rooms, so an ordinary single-unit short-term rental doesn't owe it. Your rental income is still ordinary taxable income at both the federal and state level, on top of whatever TOT and the state tourism assessment take.

California Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That tourism assessment is one of the few pieces California layers on top of every city's own rules, so it's worth seeing the whole state framework before you assume Long Beach's ordinance is the final word. California has no statewide short-term rental permit and no statewide registry. Revenue and Taxation Code § 7280 simply authorizes any city or county to tax stays of 30 days or less, with no cap on the rate, which is how Long Beach ended up at 13% while a neighboring county can sit at 5%.

Where the state does step in is at the edges. The California Coastal Commission treats short-term rental regulation as coastal development, which is exactly why Long Beach had to run its own ordinance through a Local Coastal Program amendment before the Coastal Zone rules could take effect, and why that process is what produced the 350-unit sub-cap in the first place. Fines for STR-ordinance violations are capped statewide too, at $1,500 for a first offense and up to $5,000 for repeat violations within a year, unless the violation threatens public health or safety, per Government Code § 36900(d). Long Beach's flat $1,000-per-violation fine sits comfortably under that ceiling either way.

A few other state rules matter even if they never come up in Long Beach's own code. HOAs can ban short-term rentals under 30 days outright under Civil Code § 4741(c), even though Long Beach's own ADU exclusion already keeps accessory units out of the program. Government Code § 66323(e) requires any ADU rental to run 30 days or longer, which is the same reason ADUs can't register as STRs under Long Beach's own chapter. And under SB 346, effective January 2026, cities that opt in can require platforms to report a rental's physical address and licensing status; I couldn't confirm from any Long Beach source whether the city has actually adopted that opt-in ordinance yet. Our California statewide guide goes deeper into all of this if you're weighing Long Beach against a different city in the state.

Does Long Beach Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given how much structure sits on top of a Long Beach registration, it would be reasonable to assume enforcement is mostly paperwork. It isn't. Operating without a valid registration, or breaking any condition of one you hold, carries a fine of $1,000 per violation under Section 5.77.090, and a single incident can generate multiple citations if it touches more than one rule or drags on across several days. The city runs a 24/7 complaint hotline at 562.568.8665 specifically for STR issues, which means a noisy weekend rental gets reported the same night it happens, not weeks later.

The three-strikes rule is where enforcement actually bites. Three citations against one property within any rolling 18-month period, and the city can decline to renew that registration, suspend it, or pile on new conditions. A revoked registration locks the whole parcel out of the program for at least 12 months, so operators who treat the occasional fine as a cost of doing business eventually lose the right to operate at all.

Staffing has been the honest weak point. A local outlet, Long Beach Watchdog, reported in April 2024 that the city had one code enforcement inspector covering more than 600 non-primary registrations, after a January 2024 shooting at a rental property pushed the council to review enforcement. That's dated context rather than a current figure, but it's the backdrop the 2025 rewrite responded to: pre-approval and renewal safety inspections, and the citation thresholds described above, all arrived with ORD-25-0001. Watch out for the gap between "the rules are strict on paper" and "the city catches every violation." Both things are true here at once.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Long Beach, California

Given everything above, the order you tackle these steps in matters, since the early ones determine whether the later ones are even worth doing.

1. Confirm your registration track. Work out whether you qualify as a primary residence (living there 275+ days a year) or whether you're applying for one of the capped non-primary slots, and check that your unit isn't an ADU, JADU, or on the Prohibited Buildings List.
2. Get a business license through the City of Long Beach, separate from the STR registration itself.
3. Line up $1 million in liability insurance, whether through your own policy or a hosting platform's coverage, before you apply.
4. Gather your documents based on your applicant type: residency proofs, notarized forms, entity registration if you're using a business, and the Assessor Identification Number.
5. Submit your application and pay the $500 fee, confirming the current amount with the Community Development Department first.
6. Pass the city's pre-approval inspection of any area guests will use or access.
7. Post the required guest notice inside the unit: maximum occupancy, parking information, trash pickup, a 24-hour local contact, emergency numbers, and an evacuation plan with exit routes.
8. Register for TOT collection, or confirm your booking platform is handling it automatically, and diarize the 10th-of-the-month filing deadline if it isn't.
9. Mark your renewal date. Registrations run one year, and three citations within 18 months can end the whole thing.

Before you commit real capital to any of this, it's worth pulling the actual numbers for the neighborhood you're eyeing. Long Beach sits inside the South Bay LA market, and running the property through BNBCalc first will tell you whether the revenue a listing can realistically earn justifies competing for one of those 800 citywide slots at all.

Who to Contact in Long Beach, California about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning

Whichever step is holding you up, one of a handful of offices almost certainly owns the answer.

Registration, eligibility and the application itself

The Community Development Department, Code Enforcement Division runs the STR program and is the first call for anything about eligibility, applications or renewals.

• Address: 411 W. Ocean Blvd., 4th Floor, Long Beach, CA 90802
• Phone: 562.570.CODE (2633), or 562.570.6141 for STR-specific questions (Victoria Bueno, Assistant Administrative Analyst)
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Complaints about an active rental

The 24/7 STR Complaint Hotline takes reports on noise, occupancy, safety or any other STR-related nuisance in real time.

• Phone: 562.568.8665
• Emergencies: call 911; non-emergency police line is 562.435.6711

Transient Occupancy Tax and business licensing

The Finance Department handles TOT registration, filing and business licenses.

• Phone: (562) 570-6211
• Email: [email protected], or [email protected] for TOT-specific questions
• Address: 411 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802
• Counter hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (closed 12 to 1 p.m.)

Occasional Event Permits

For a permit covering an event that exceeds normal occupancy limits, contact Long Beach Special Events at 562.570.5333.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Long Beach, California in 2026?

Yes, with conditions. Hosting while you live in the unit as your primary residence is legal and uncapped, subject to a 90-day limit on the nights you're away while it's rented. Renting a unit you don't live in is also legal, but it's capped citywide at 800 registrations, with only 350 of those available inside the Coastal Zone, and that cap has run as a lottery and waitlist since 2021. Both tracks require a $500 registration and $1 million in liability insurance.

How much does short-term rental registration cost in Long Beach?

The application review fee is $500, due before the city reviews your file and non-refundable once review begins. Registrations run one year and don't transfer if you sell or move. The city's own page also lists a $400 figure in one other spot, so confirm the current amount with the Community Development Department at 562.570.6141 before you pay, since fee schedules do change.

What happens if you operate an unregistered short-term rental in Long Beach?

Operating without a valid registration carries a fine of $1,000 per violation, and one incident can generate several citations if it breaks multiple rules or continues over several days. The city takes complaints 24/7 at 562.568.8665. Three citations against a property within any rolling 18-month period can end in the registration being suspended, denied renewal, or revoked outright, which locks that parcel out of the program for at least 12 months.

Do you have to collect transient occupancy tax on a Long Beach short-term rental?

Usually yes, at 13% of the rent, though Airbnb collects and remits that amount automatically on every reservation of 30 nights or fewer. If you book through a platform that doesn't collect for you, you're responsible for filing monthly, due the 10th of the following month. Miss it and a 25% penalty applies after one month, rising to 50% if it's still unpaid after two.

Is my Long Beach property inside the Coastal Zone, and does that change the rules?

It might, and it matters mainly if you're applying for a non-primary (unhosted) registration. Neighborhoods like Belmont Shore, Naples and the Peninsula sit inside a California Coastal Commission-certified area where non-primary STRs are capped at 350 units, separate from the 800 allowed citywide. Primary-residence hosting isn't affected by this cap. Check your address against the city's Coastal Zone boundary before assuming either cap applies to you.

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