Los Angeles Vacation Rental Ordinance: The 60 Night Rule

Since April 2026 the Los Angeles story has been told in one sentence: Mayor Karen Bass wants to let second homes rent short term for the 2028 Olympics, the program would expire at the end of 2028, and hotels and housing groups object. On August 31, 2026 the Department of City Planning sent the City Council the first document that says what the program would actually be. Almost nobody has read it; the report on Council File 25-0029-S1 is a scanned PDF with no text layer.

Its terms are far narrower than the headline. A permit would allow 60 short term booking days per calendar year, would go only to individual owners and property-owning trusts, one per host, and would require ownership on or before December 31, 2025. A buyer closing today cannot qualify. An LLC cannot qualify. Nothing has been adopted, and as of October 14, 2026 the council file shows no vote and no instruction to proceed. On October 12, 2026 the Hotel Association of Los Angeles asked the city to avoid an "unchecked expansion of short-term rentals" before 2028, according to MyNewsLA.

Key facts

• City Planning's report dated August 31, 2026 describes a Vacation Rental Program with a sunset no later than December 31, 2028, a cap of 1% of housing units citywide and per Community Plan Area, and 60 short term booking days per unit per calendar year, per the report on CF 25-0029-S1.
• Permits would go only to individual owners and property-owning trusts, one per host, for homes owned on or before December 31, 2025, with photo ID, federal Schedule A and/or E, and a perjury affidavit required at application, per the same report.
• The report was referred to the Budget and Finance and PLUM committees on September 8, 2026, with no votes recorded, per the City Clerk record; City Planning estimates about six months to redraft, against the 18 to 24 months such steps typically take.
• The LA28 Olympic Games run July 14 to 30, 2028 and the Paralympic Games August 15 to 27, 2028, per LA28. The opening ceremony is 639 days from October 14, 2026.

How the program got to paper

The current rule is the Home-Sharing Ordinance, adopted in December 2018, which limits short term rentals to a host's primary residence, the unit where the host lives more than six months of the year, according to the August 31 report. Primary homes may be rented up to 120 days a year, and City Planning counted 4,399 active registrations in May 2026, according to NBC Los Angeles. A second home has no legal path to a nightly rental. The binding limit is that rule, not a fee: our compliance-cost audit found the primary-residence requirement and the 120-day cap constrain a Los Angeles host more tightly than the registration charge.

PLUM first approved a draft Vacation Rental Ordinance on November 12, 2020, the file expired in 2023, and the council revived it on June 6, 2025 through the budget, per the August 31 report. In April 2026 City Planning reversed itself inside two weeks: April 2 recommended against second home rentals, April 15 said a temporary, Olympics-linked version deserved consideration, according to LAist. Planning estimated the ordinance "would probably open up fewer than 5,500 new potential short-term rentals," as the Los Angeles Times reported on April 29, 2026.

On May 12, 2026, PLUM held the item and attached conditions, among them the December 31, 2028 sunset, the 1% cap, the 250 foot separation, the December 31, 2025 ownership rule, platform data sharing under California SB 346, and a full cost recovery fee study. The August 31 report is City Planning's answer.

The program terms, from the report

Every term below comes from City Planning's own text. The unit must not be subject to the Rent Stabilization Ordinance or any affordable housing covenant, and must not have been withdrawn from the rental market under the Ellis Act within seven years of the application. Permits go only to individual property owners and property-owning trusts, which excludes business entities. The host must occupy the unit on an occasional or intermittent basis and may not operate more than one Vacation Rental at a time in the city.

At application the host must document identity and ownership, supply the previous year's federal Schedule A and/or E to show the home is used intermittently rather than held as an investment, and sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that the unit is a second home. Photo identification is new on top of the 2020 criteria.

Each Vacation Rental would carry a 60 day short term booking limit per calendar year. Active permits could not exceed 1% of housing units citywide, with the same ceiling inside each Community Plan Area. Buildings of up to four units could hold one Vacation Rental with a 250 foot radius of separation; larger buildings could devote 5% of units or ten units, whichever is less.

The report does not state the housing count behind the 1% cap; baseline data would come from updated American Community Survey figures, so any permit number printed before then is a guess. The draft has also changed since City Planning's 2019 fact sheet, which described a 30 day limit and a 3,625 permit cap.

The arithmetic on 5,500 units and 60 nights

Planning's figure is fewer than 5,500 potential new rentals. The Deloitte report commissioned by Airbnb projected a peak day shortfall of up to 320,000 visitors across 13 of the 19 Olympic competition days, according to AirROI's analysis of May 5, 2026. Multiply the program out: 5,500 units times 60 booking days is 330,000 unit nights per calendar year. On any single Olympic night, though, the ceiling is 5,500 units, because a unit rents once per night no matter how many days remain on its allowance, which is a small fraction of the shortfall Deloitte described. City Planning's own report declines to estimate the housing impact, calling the assumptions "too speculative to quantify."

For the owner, 60 is the number that matters. The Olympic competition window is 17 days and the Paralympic window is 13, a combined 30, which leaves 30 more nights for the rest of the year. Under the 120 day primary residence cap a host can run a side business; under 60 days a second home owner can cover the Games and a few weekends. That is an event permit, not a rental business, and a buyer who closes after December 31, 2025 on the expectation of an Olympic windfall cannot hold even that.

The calendar problem, in the city's words

Should the council instruct City Planning to proceed, the department would update baseline data, redraft the ordinance, update the CEQA analysis, hold a public hearing, and take the ordinance through the City Planning Commission, a council committee, and two council readings. City Planning estimates about six months for the redraft and says these steps "typically" take 18 to 24 months, with the shorter path feasible only if public outreach is condensed, per the August 31 report. Implementation "would need to be operational shortly following program adoption."

Count from today. Eighteen months from October 14, 2026 is April 14, 2028; twenty four months is October 14, 2028, after the closing ceremony. Only the compressed path leaves room to adopt an ordinance, build a portal, verify tax filings, and issue permits before July 14, 2028, and that clock has not started: the council file shows the report referred to committee on September 8, 2026 and nothing since.

What the hotel lobby released on October 12

The Hotel Association of Los Angeles surveyed 210 hoteliers between July 23 and August 7, 2026; about 58 answered at least one question and 47 completed the survey, a response rate of roughly 22%, according to MyNewsLA. Of those answering, 72% said the World Cup hurt their 2026 outlook, and the report put short term rental demand up 23% and revenue up 21% over the same period.

Apply the denominators. Seventy two percent of a pool between 47 and 58 hotels is roughly 34 to 42 hotels out of 210 surveyed, and the article gives no source for the short term rental figures. President and CEO Jackie Fillia said Los Angeles "can learn from these results" and urged the city to avoid an unchecked expansion of short term rentals ahead of 2028. The tournament also showed the other side of the ledger: the markets that captured the demand spike had legal rental supply available, as we tracked in what the World Cup revealed about short term rental supply constraints.

What a Los Angeles second home owner should do now

Start with the disqualifiers. A unit under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, under an affordable housing covenant, or withdrawn under the Ellis Act in the last seven years is out of the draft program entirely. Confirm the title date, since ownership on or before December 31, 2025 is a hard line. A property held in an LLC would need to sit in an individual's or a trust's name to qualify, a transfer with tax and liability consequences that deserves professional advice before anyone acts on a draft. A second home that already appears on Schedule E as a rental with no personal use days is the wrong profile for a perjury affidavit of intermittent personal use.

Do not sell what does not exist. There is no application and no permit number to put on a listing. The Home-Sharing Ordinance still bars a non-primary residence from nightly rental, and city officials said as early as December 2024 that they wanted illegal listings shut down before the Games, as ProPublica and Capital & Main reported. A 2028 booking taken today against a hoped-for permit is a cancellation waiting to happen, and how cities find unlicensed short term rentals explains how the listing becomes the evidence.

If the program is adopted, a permit holder with 60 nights to sell during the most demand-concentrated fortnight in the city's history does not need a platform to find guests, only a page that can take a reservation, collect payment, and keep the guest's details for the next event. Haven builds branded direct booking sites on the host's own domain with no booking commission, free to build and private until published, so the site can be ready before the permit exists.

What to watch

The first signal is a PLUM or Budget and Finance agenda listing CF 25-0029-S1 for action rather than receipt. The second is the SB 346 data sharing report under Council File 25-1473, which would reach every host in the city. Loosening a rule for an event would make Los Angeles unusual; most 2026 movement has gone the other way, as our 2026 state by state rule map shows.

FAQ

Is it legal to rent a second home short term in Los Angeles right now? No. The Home-Sharing Ordinance limits short term rental to a host's primary residence, with a 120 day annual cap for standard registrations. The program that would allow second homes exists only as a City Planning report dated August 31, 2026; no ordinance has been adopted.

When would the Los Angeles Vacation Rental Program start? No date exists. As of October 14, 2026 the council has not instructed City Planning to redraft the ordinance. Once instructed, City Planning estimates about six months to update the draft, followed by CEQA review, a public hearing, and Planning Commission and council approvals, a process it says typically takes 18 to 24 months.

How many nights could a second home be rented under the proposal? Sixty short term booking days per calendar year per unit, per the August 31, 2026 report. The Olympic and Paralympic windows together total 30 days: July 14 to 30 and August 15 to 27, 2028.

Can an LLC get a Los Angeles vacation rental permit under the proposal? Not as drafted. Permits are limited to individual property owners and property-owning trusts, business entities are expressly excluded, and each host may hold one permit for a property owned on or before December 31, 2025.