Other California Cities‘ STR Governance

Our city’s ordinance is dated and woefully inadequate, reflective of a lack of understanding of how the short-term rental market was changing and expanding. At present, the City of Pacifica has approximately 140 STRs registered. However, a search on online STR platforms show that the true number of unhosted STRs in Pacifica is somewhere closer to 200 —and may be even larger than that. 84% of Pacifica STRs are unhosted.

One main reason for the large number of unhosted STRs in Pacifica is because, while cities around us in San Mateo County and up and down the California coast have put in place restrictions on unhosted STRs, Pacifica’s STR ordinance remains highly permissive. The only hard requirements our City’s current ordinance call for are the securing of a business license, payment an annual permit fee, and remittance of the 12% transit occupancy tax (TOT). By comparison, other cities around us have in place primary residency requirements, limits on the number of short-term rental properties an STR owner/operator may have within the city limits, and a cap on the number of nights an unhosted STR may operate, among others.

+ Data as of 12 June 2024
* Banned outside coastal zone

1. San Mateo County ↩︎
2. San Francisco Bay Area ↩︎
3. CA Coastal City ↩︎
4. CA non-coastal city ↩︎