Unincorporated San Diego County does not require a host to be present, on-site, or even local during a short-term rental stay. With no County STR ordinance, there is no mandatory local-contact or 24-hour-responsible-person requirement; operators must, however, register for and remit Transient Occupancy Tax.
Jurisdictions with STR ordinances frequently require a host or a designated local contact who can respond to problems within a set time. Unincorporated San Diego County has no such requirement because it has not adopted a short-term rental ordinance. There is no home-sharing mandate, no requirement that the host be on the premises, and no County-mandated emergency local contact tied to an STR permit (since no permit program exists). The County's enforceable STR-related obligations are tax-based: under County Regulatory Code Sec. 22.205, the operator must collect TOT, and under Sec. 22.206 must register and post a transient occupancy certificate. The registration identifies the operator and an address for notice, but the County does not require a separate 24/7 responder. As a practical matter, operators remain responsible for their guests' conduct, and the general Noise Ordinance (Sec. 36.404) and code-compliance rules apply whether or not anyone is on-site. Because the County has not enacted host-presence or local-contact requirements, statements that unincorporated STRs need an on-site host or designated 24-hour contact would be unsupported by County code. Some homeowners-association communities may impose private rules separately.
No host-presence violation exists under County law, but an operator remains liable for TOT collection and for guest conduct that breaches the Noise Ordinance or other code-compliance standards.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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