Starting in May 2023, a license is required to operate a Short-Term Residential Occupancy (STRO) in the City of San Diego. There are four license types that have different requirements on the number of days and type of dwelling available.  Since the total number of Tier 4 applications received was greater than the number of licenses available, the City Council wanted City staff to both prioritize "good actors" and ensure equity in the process. Tier 4 applicants who qualified as good actors had:

• Paid Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)
• Recent booking activity
• Fewer than three (3) verifiable complaints

These good actors received weighted prioritization in the lottery for a license (which was done by computer-generated randomization). Our PandA team helped develop this fair and equitable lottery process for STRO permits. We also added STRO compliance to Get It Done. For transparency, a code repository containing the data and scripts used for the Tier 4 license lottery has been made public. Anyone who would like to inspect the methodology or replicate the actual lottery can do it!