Short-term rentals in San Diego: what owners need to know

San Diego is the rare coastal city where demand barely has an off-season. Mild weather keeps Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and La Jolla busy most of the year, and the calendar is padded by conventions, Comic-Con, military families, university visits, the zoo and sporting events. Summer is the peak, but winter weekends still fill. Owners here typically rent beach cottages and condos near the boardwalks and craftsman houses in North Park and Mission Hills.

A four-tier license, and a ceiling on whole homes

The city's Short-Term Residential Occupancy (STRO) ordinance sorts every host into one of four tiers:

• Tier 1: rentals totaling 20 days a year or less; no residency required.
• Tier 2: home sharing, where the host lives on site and may be away for up to 90 days a year.
• Tier 3: whole-home rentals outside Mission Beach, limited to 1% of the city's housing units and subject to a minimum of 90 days of actual use per year.
• Tier 4: whole-home rentals in Mission Beach, capped at 30% of that community's units.

On September 25, 2026 the city's counter showed some Tier 3 licenses still available and none in Tier 4, where the application window was closed. Every license lasts two years, cannot be transferred to another host or address, and a host may hold only one license and operate only one unit at a time. Buying a house that "already has a license" therefore gives you nothing: the new owner must apply in their own name.

Taxes and paperwork

Each host needs a Transient Occupancy Tax certificate and must keep the Rental Unit Business Tax current; a host who is not the owner also needs a business tax certificate and the owner's written authorization. The property sits in the coastal zone if it is near the shore, which is one reason the caps took years to reach their final form.

Neighboring cities, separate rules

Beach towns in San Diego County write their own ordinances. Del Mar and Encinitas both received Coastal Commission approval in early 2026 for new caps and minimum stays; Del Mar limits rentals to primary residences. An address a few miles north of the city can therefore sit under a completely different regime.

Our advice

Decide your tier before you buy. If you plan to live in the home, Tier 2 is flexible and uncapped. If it is an investment, check Tier 3 availability on the day you apply, remember the one-license rule, and build your plan so that stays of a month or more remain an option if the license does not come. We study every request and tell you honestly whether and how we can help.