Is short-term rental legal in San Diego, CA?
San Diego's STRO ordinance licenses whole-home rentals by tier — and caps whole-home licenses at 1% of the city's housing stock (about 5,400 licenses, allocated by lottery when oversubscribed). Hosted (home-share) rentals are licensed separately and more freely.
Rules checked October 2026
Run the San Diego verdict on your facts
| What counts as a short-term rental | San Diego's STRO ordinance licenses whole-home rentals by tier — and caps whole-home licenses at 1% of the city's housing stock (about 5,400 licenses, allocated by lottery when oversubscribed). Hosted (home-share) rentals are licensed separately and more freely. |
|---|---|
| Permit / license | STRO License (Tier 1–4 by use) — issued by City of San Diego (City Treasurer / Development Services) |
| Fee | License fees run roughly $190–$1,040 by tier |
| Renewal | Licenses run 2 years |
| Primary-residence rule | Whole-home Tier 3 licenses require the unit to be the host's primary residence; Tier 4 covers the Mission Bay exception area. Hosted tiers require the host on site. |
| Whole-home rental | Whole-home licensing exists but is numerically capped citywide (1% of housing units) — when the cap binds, the answer is a lottery/waitlist, not an application. |
| Night cap | — |
| Guests / occupancy | Per tier and building codes |
| Minimum stay | None general; tier rules govern |
| Zoning | The tier system IS the zoning: hosted (Tiers 1–2), whole-home primary-residence (Tier 3, capped), Mission Bay (Tier 4). |
| Density / scarcity | Whole-home licenses capped at 1% of city housing units (≈5,400), allocated by lottery when oversubscribed |
| Fines | Operating without the required STRO license draws code-enforcement penalties and per-day fines under the municipal schedule, plus TOT back-taxes |
| Taxes | TOT certificate required; the 10.5%+ transient occupancy tax must be collected or platform-confirmed. |
| Platform duties | Platforms must display license numbers and remove unlicensed listings on city notice. |
| State layer | No state preemption — California is the most locally regulated STR state in the country. Coastal-zone rules can add a Coastal Commission layer in some cities. |
What trips hosts in San Diego
- San Diego's cap is a license-count cap, not a nights cap: the verdict is 'a license exists for you or it doesn't', decided by lottery math.
- Good-neighbor rules (local contact, occupancy, noise) are license conditions — violations cost the license, not just a fine.
The private layer still applies
These are the city's rules. Your HOA, condo board, lease or mortgage can say no on top of them — that layer is printed as a warning in the checker, never merged into the city's verdict.
Sources: SDMC § 5.10 et seq. (STRO, Ord. O-2021-106) · City of San Diego STRO program. Rules checked October 2026.