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Why San Diego Vacation Rental Hosts Could Lose Their Licenses

Some San Diego vacation rental hosts operating in Mission Beach could lose their licenses because of untruthful information on their applications.

In 2022, the City of San Diego passed a new set of rules restricting how many short-term rentals can operate within the city limits. The San Diego Short Term Vacation Rental Ordinance imposed a cap on Airbnb and other rentals, with a separate cap for Mission Beach.

San Diego provided 1,100 licenses to rental hosts via lottery in late 2022. Although the selection was random, the City doled out some bonus points for booking volume and the length of time they paid transient occupancy taxes.

Some of those vacation rental hosts may have lied on their applications in an effort to get a greater chance at a license, the San Diego Union-Tribune has reported.

Enforcement of the ordinance governing San Diego Vacation Rentals kicked off on May 1. As such, the City is now opening an investigation into 52 Mission Bech hosts who may have provided misstated information. More specifically, the hosts did not provide documentation to prove that they paid taxes or had bookings for the appropriate length of time.

The City Treasurer’s office has sent a letter of regulatory action to those hosts. Although the hosts are now under review, it isn’t clear when — or even if — the City will revoke their licenses.

If San Diego decides to revoke those 52 licenses, they will be provided to the 186 applicants that are currently on the Mission Beach vacation rental ordinance waiting list.

San Diego city officials received 1,290 applications for the 1,082 two-year licenses for Mission Beach. The rest of San Diego had a cap of 5,416, but a lottery wasn’t needed because fewer people applied for those licenses than initially anticipated.