After All Costs, San Diego's Airbnb Premium Shrinks to a Sliver

The gross short-term rental premium is 76% for a 3-bed house in San Diego (San Diego County), but after Airbnb fees, insurance, maintenance, utilities, property tax, and lodging tax, the picture tightens considerably. This article lays out the honest after-costs numbers for both a 3-bed house and a 2-bed apartment, because the cost structures diverge materially: apartments carry HOA fees that houses avoid, but their lower entry price (roughly $476,090 versus $949,340 for a house) changes the yield math. Both tables assume self-management, which is what the dashboard shows by default. Note: San Diego's 2022 ordinance restricts whole-home short-term rentals to primary residences in most zones, with a grandfathered tier in Mission Beach, these numbers reflect the economics where short-term rental is legally permitted, not a claim that short-term rental is available to investors across the county.

The 3-Bed House: Gross Premium Collapses to a Thin Net Margin

Here is the side-by-side for a self-managed 3-bed house in San Diego, with Airbnb as the booking channel.

Note on Airbnb fees: the 15.5% rate shown is Airbnb's host-only fee model. Other platforms price differently, with Vrbo typically charging around 5% and Booking.com around 15% of gross bookings, so your blended rate depends on channel mix.

What Eats the House Premium

Three line items do most of the damage to the short-term rental upside. Airbnb fees alone take $9,490 out of gross revenue, roughly three months' worth of the long-term rental rent by itself. Maintenance runs at $12,799 for short-term rental versus $9,256 for long-term rental, because the short-term rental figure bakes in furnishing replacement, consumables, and higher wear from constant guest turnover. And utilities at $4,776 sit entirely on the host for short-term rental, versus $0 for long-term rental, where tenants typically cover most usage but landlords often carry water, trash, or common-area costs.

Then there is the short-term rental lodging tax of $7,347 at a 12.0% rate on gross revenue, collected by Airbnb on the host's behalf. The result: gross revenue for short-term rental is $61,224 versus $33,396 for long-term rental, a 76% premium on paper, but net income compresses to $17,294 versus $16,122. The after-costs gap is a fraction of the headline premium.

The 2-Bed Apartment: Lower Entry, but HOA Erodes the Gap

Apartments in San Diego enter at roughly half the price of houses, which matters for capital efficiency, but they carry a fixed HOA fee every year regardless of whether you rent short-term or long-term.

The HOA row appears identically in both columns because it is a property-level fee, not a rental-strategy cost. Whether you put the unit on Airbnb, on a 12-month lease, or leave it vacant, you still owe it.

House vs Apartment: The Apartment Wins on Yield, the House Wins on Absolute Cash

The apartment enters at roughly $476,090 versus $949,340 for the house, which is about half the capital outlay. That lower denominator does most of the work on net yield: the apartment posts 0.7% short-term rental net yield versus 1.8% for the house, and 2.4% long-term rental net versus 1.7% for the house. If yield is the metric, the apartment comes out ahead on both rental strategies in San Diego.

The counterweight is absolute cash flow. In dollar terms, the house delivers $17,294 of short-term rental net income against the apartment's $3,539, and $16,122 long-term rental net versus $11,555. HOA of $4,677 per year is the single biggest drag on the apartment's net, a fixed cost that scales with nothing. The reader's choice reduces to: buy one house for the absolute cash and the land-value appreciation thesis, or buy one (or, with the same capital, two) apartments for the yield and lower exposure per unit.

Short-Term Rental Only Breaks Even at 29% Occupancy

On a 3-bed house, 29% is the gross break-even occupancy where short-term rental revenue equals the long-term rental annual rent before any cost differences. This is a floor, not a target. The San Diego market median is 50%, so a typical listing clears the break-even comfortably, but below-median operators (new listings, poor photos, bad reviews, off-strip locations) can slip toward the floor fast. These are city-median figures; the dashboard shows suburb-level data for every bedroom count and property type, which matters because break-even occupancy shifts substantially between coastal and inland ZIP codes.

View San Diego in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Hiring a Professional Manager Cuts Short-Term Rental Net Yield by Roughly Three-Quarters

The tables above assume you run the listing yourself: responding to inquiries, handling turnovers, pricing nights, managing reviews. Outsourcing that to a professional manager is a legitimate choice, especially for absentee owners, but it is not free. For a 3-bed house in San Diego, a full-service short-term rental manager adds around $14,082 per year, roughly 23% of gross revenue. That drops the short-term rental net yield from 1.8% to 0.3%.

For long-term rental, a property manager typically charges around 10% of rent collected, adding roughly $3,305 per year and pushing the long-term rental net yield from 1.7% to 1.4%. Management fee rates are market estimates, individual managers charge differently depending on service tier, listing count, and whether cleaning is billed separately or bundled.

Tax Implications: California Treats Rental Income Like Any Other Income

California is not a no-state-income-tax state, so rental net income is taxed at federal plus California marginal rates. The two deductions that most affect the after-tax picture are 27.5-year straight-line depreciation on the building (not the land) and the full set of Schedule E expenses: mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, maintenance, utilities, and management fees all reduce taxable rental income.

The short-term rental lodging tax of 12.0%, the Transient Occupancy Tax collected by Airbnb on the host's behalf, is a tax on the guest, not a deduction for the host, so it does not reduce your federal or state income tax. Closing costs and transfer taxes apply at purchase; check with your closing attorney or escrow officer for specifics on your transaction. The dashboard shows pre-tax and after-tax figures so you can model both.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 2026.

For a California-wide view, Los Angeles Yields 3.7% as Investors Bet on Appreciation covers the LA county market, and Oakland's 3.0% Yield Means Appreciation Must Do the Heavy Lifting breaks down the Bay Area's yield landscape. See also the data sources and market score methodology for how these figures are built.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.