If you search for a private home to rent for a week in La Mesa, more than 1,000 properties turn up on AirBnb. More than 300 turn up on VRBO. On Booking, 41.
Short-term rentals comprise an established industry that are not currently regulated in La Mesa, meaning they do not require permits, follow operational standards, or pay transient occupancy tax (TOT). Mayor Mark Arapostathis and Vice Mayor Lauren Cazares would like the city to consider the matter during a July 14 City Council meeting.
A companion item brought to the council by the pair would review neighborhood compatibility rules — including quiet hours, parking and occupancy limits, and a requirement that a local contact respond to complaints within 30 minutes — for both short-term rentals and multi-unit residential complexes.
The case for regulation
Supporters of short-term rental rules generally make three arguments: neighborhoods, housing and taxes.
The neighborhood argument is the one local governments hear most often from the public: the revolving door of strangers, the party house, the cars. It’s also the one La Mesa’s own agenda items lean on, with their references to quiet hours, occupancy limits and a 30-minute response requirement for a local contact.
The housing argument holds that every home converted to a full-time vacation rental is a home removed from the long-term market. There is academic support for this: a nationwide study found that a one percent increase in short-term rental listings within a ZIP code led to a 0.018 percent increase in rents and a decrease in long-term rental supply, and research on Los Angeles found short-term rentals can reallocate housing stock away from the long-term rental market, pushing rents and housing costs up.
The effect, researchers note, is uneven: It is concentrated in desirable neighborhoods where converting a long-term rental to a vacation rental is most profitable.
Similarly, researchers found that regulations on short-term rentals in Los Angeles dropped housing prices by two percent, which housing affordability champions call a win, saying short-term rentals price locals out of the housing market. It is important to note, of course, that correlation does not equal causation, and it is impossible to pinpoint why these trends occurred. The Los Angeles County data only examines 18 cities.
The tax argument is the simplest: hotels collect transient occupancy tax and vacation rentals in La Mesa currently do not, which both costs the city revenue and gives unregulated operators a pricing advantage over hotels and other lodging businesses that follow the rules.
The case for caution
Opponents and skeptics counter on several fronts. Property owners argue that renting a home they own — often to cover a mortgage or supplement retirement income — is a basic property right, and that responsible hosts shouldn’t be punished for the behavior of a few bad operators. There’s also an economic case: vacation rental guests spend money at local restaurants and shops, often in neighborhoods hotels don’t serve.
The research cuts both ways, too. A case study of New York City’s 2023 crackdown — among the strictest in the country — found that despite a massive drop in listings, long-term housing supply did not correspondingly increase, and rents grew faster than in comparable U.S. cities. And free-market critics argue that short-term rentals put some upward pressure on home prices, but the effect is downstream of the more fundamental problem: land use policy that restricts housing supply.
There’s also the practical question of enforcement. Permit systems, complaint hotlines and platform monitoring all cost money — and research on cities including Chicago and Barcelona suggests licensing alone, without sustained enforcement, does little to control the market (ScienceDirect). ScienceDirect
How San Diego County handles short-term rentals
If La Mesa adopts short-term rental rules, it will join roughly half of San Diego County’s 18 cities that do so — though what “regulation” means varies dramatically from one city line to the next.
According to a 2025 National City staff report surveying the county, eight cities have adopted short-term rental ordinances requiring operators to pay transient occupancy tax and meet operational standards. Six jurisdictions — including La Mesa, El Cajon and the county’s unincorporated areas — have no rental-specific regulations, allowing the properties to operate under ordinary rental rules. Four more, including Lemon Grove and Santee, have no framework at all. That count is already shifting: Escondido’s ordinance took effect in July 2025, requiring operators to hold a tax registration permit, rental permit and business license.
The regulated cities span a wide spectrum. At one end, San Diego’s ordinance, in effect since May 2023, created a four-tier licensing system that caps whole-home vacation rentals at 1 percent of the city’s housing stock, with fines up to $1,000 per day for unlicensed operators. At the other end sits Coronado, where a decades-old ordinance prohibits rentals of fewer than 26 consecutive days in residential zones — a de facto ban on vacation rentals as most travelers understand them. In between, North County coastal cities take a lighter approach: Carlsbad requires a business license and restricts rentals to its Coastal Zone, while Encinitas requires an annual permit for each rental unit.
The pattern so far has followed the tourists. Beach cities regulated first, where rental density hit hardest, while inland communities held back. That is beginning to change — Escondido moved last year, and La Mesa’s study would make it the first East County city to take up the question. Its neighbors in El Cajon, Santee and Lemon Grove have yet to act, which means whatever La Mesa adopts could become the template for the region’s inland suburbs.
The City Council will discuss this during its July 14 meeting at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at 8130 Allison Ave. in La Mesa. Public comment will be heard.