What Does It Take to Run a Legal Airbnb in Inglewood in 2026?

Published July 15, 2026

Inglewood requires an STR permit, $500 to $600 in fees, residency proof, and back taxes to 2022.

Inglewood requires a permit for any stay under 30 days, and the type you need depends on how you use the property. A hosted permit costs $500 a year and requires you to live in the home at least 9 months of the year. An unhosted permit costs $600 and caps rentals at 90 days annually. A vacation rental permit also costs $600 but requires 10 years of Inglewood residency and 5 years of ownership. All three fall under Inglewood Municipal Code Article 11, adopted by Ordinance 22-15.

Three Permit Types, Three Different Bars to Clear

Inglewood's short-term rental program, created by Ordinance 22-15 in July 2022, splits hosts into three categories, and the difference between them is not just cosmetic. It determines whether you can even qualify. One threshold rule applies across the board: the property must be owned by a natural person, not an LLC or other entity, it must be a 1 to 4 unit property, and for hosted and unhosted permits it must be the owner's primary residence.

Hosted rentals

A hosted rental means you rent out a room or part of your home while you remain on site. The permit fee is $500 a year, and the city requires the host to reside in the dwelling for 9 of the 12 months in a calendar year. This tier is aimed at owner-occupants renting a spare room, not investment property owners.

Unhosted rentals

An unhosted rental means the entire dwelling is rented out and the host is not present during the stay. This permit runs $600 a year and does not carry the 9-month occupancy requirement, but the dwelling still has to be the host's primary residence, and the city caps unhosted rentals at 90 days per year. That 90-day ceiling is a meaningful limit for anyone thinking a South Bay rental near SoFi Stadium can run as a full-time short-term rental business.

Vacation rentals

The vacation rental tier also costs $600 but has the steepest qualifying bar: the host must have been an Inglewood resident for a minimum of 10 consecutive years, must have owned their primary Inglewood residence for at least 5 consecutive years, and must have owned the vacation rental itself for at least 1 year. The vacation rental also has to sit within 1,000 feet of the host's primary residence, and it carries its own 90 day annual cap, rentable only in blocks of 30 consecutive days or less. This tier is not accessible to an out-of-town investor buying a second property, by design.

Proof of residency and application basics

For any tier requiring residency, the city wants a government-issued photo ID showing the STR address plus one more document, such as a utility bill, DMV registration, insurance bill, or tax return. Permits run on a calendar year and expire December 31, regardless of when in the year you applied.

The tax bill that comes with the permit

Operating a short-term rental in Inglewood also means collecting and remitting Transient Occupancy Tax on every stay of 30 days or less, reported and paid monthly. The City Council requires TOT to be remitted for all short-term rental activity that has taken place since January 1, 2022, meaning hosts who were operating before the ordinance passed and did not remit TOT face liability going back to that date, though the city allows payment installment arrangements. This is the part that catches unpermitted hosts off guard: the permit process is not just a forward-looking registration, it can trigger a look-back on unpaid transient occupancy tax.

What happens if you skip the permit

Operating a short-term rental in Inglewood without the correct permit is a code violation, and the city has an active enforcement program targeting listings advertised on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo that do not have a registered permit number. The city warns that failure to follow the STR regulations can bring fines and penalties of up to $5,000 per incident, on top of the retroactive TOT exposure.

What This Means for You

If you are considering a short-term rental in Inglewood, or you inherited a property that is already listed, do not treat the permit as a formality. Confirm which of the three tiers actually fits your situation, because the residency and ownership requirements will disqualify a lot of investor-owned property outright, and budget for TOT compliance from day one, not as an afterthought.

If managing a short-term rental compliance calendar on top of everything else sounds like a headache, that is the kind of thing we take off an owner's plate.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional before you act.

Sources

1. City of Inglewood, STR Application Process
2. City of Inglewood, What is a Short Term Rental?
3. City of Inglewood Municipal Code, Article 11: Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental Regulations
4. City of Inglewood, Short Term Rentals
5. City of Inglewood, STR Transient Occupancy Tax
6. City of Inglewood, STR Division Regulations
7. Wave Newspaper Group, Inglewood adopts short-term rental regulations

Last verified: July 2026.

Topics: compliance, inglewood, short term rental, airbnb, transient occupancy tax

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