Running vacation rentals in La Paz, Mexico, in the year the environmental sanitation fee arrived
If you manage vacation rentals in La Paz, the state congress approved an environmental sanitation fee for the municipality in December 2025, paid by the guest, and a booking that comes through a platform has a rate of its own. Airbtics counts 1,956 active listings from September 2025 to August 2026, almost 35% more than a year earlier, at 55% occupancy. Upbridge's AI operations assistant, Cleo, works over WhatsApp with vacation rental operators and cleaning companies and organizes the cleanings and the inventory for each place.
The rules here
We reread every report on October 22, 2026. The first two rows are municipal, and the third points you to the state page.
| Topic | What it says | Status | Since | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Environmental sanitation fee | Whoever books the lodging pays it, whether that's a hotel, a house, an apartment or a room. A direct booking pays 70% of the daily UMA value (Mexico's official reference unit) per occupied room per night. A booking through a digital platform pays twice the daily UMA value per occupied house or apartment. Restaurants are left out. We found no sign the decree has been published in the state's official gazette, and neither report says who collects it on each booking, or from which day. | Bill, not law | Approved December 2025 | Zeta and Posta |
| Swimming with whale sharks | Only operators on each season's list from Conanp, the federal protected-areas agency, can take tourists out in the bay, and the boat has to fly the NOM-171 season flag. The town council also asks them for a municipal badge, and in October 2025 it pulled the ones who didn't have it. All 62 permit holders sell from a single sales point. | In force | 2025-2026 season | Posta |
| State rules | The 4% lodging tax, and the fact that there's no state vacation rental law yet, are on the Baja California Sur page. | In force | In force in 2026 | Baja California Sur |
In January the mayor, Milena Quiroga Romero, put the year's take from the fee at about 100 million pesos, with the first works in the old center, starting with El Esterito (Zeta). What the platforms withhold for the SAT, Mexico's tax authority, is in the national section.
This is not legal or tax advice, and Upbridge does not file anything for you: no registrations and no tax returns.
How it works on the ground
Water comes on a rotating schedule, the tandeo. The water utility, OOMSAPAS, posts a color map on its website showing which day and roughly what time each neighborhood gets water, and the Sapa Móvil app shows the same thing. The utility says it moves the schedule when there are leaks, repairs or low pressure (Posta, May 2026). So before you send someone to wash bedding or mop, check whether that neighborhood has water that day and how full the house's rooftop tank is.
Airbtics puts the demand peaks in March and July and the low point in January, and only 28.1% of guests come from abroad. The airport handled 986,743 passengers from January to September 2025, with 85 departures a week to eleven Mexican cities and a single foreign one, the Alaska Airlines route, according to Luz María Zepeda Esquerra, who runs the La Paz tourism trust, Fitupaz (Zeta, November 2025). Both numbers say the same thing, that seven in ten of your guests are Mexican, so the house guide needs to be in Spanish first and English second.
Whale shark season runs from October to April, with the most sightings in December, January and February. When the 2025-2026 season opened, the town council counted ten sharks inside the swimming zone and 34 nearby (Posta, November 2025). In those months a guest will ask you who to go with, and it helps to have the answer already written down, badge and Conanp list included.
Where Upbridge fits
For the water schedule, you can make a photo of the tank level a required item on the room-by-room checklist. The cleaner uploads it from their phone, and you get the report with the time on it.
In the guest guide we put how to get to the house and how to get in, plus how to spot a licensed whale shark operator. We write it, Spanish first and English too if you want it, and your guest pulls it up on their phone. If they want an early check-in, they ask for it right there and pay on the Upbridge page, and the task gets assigned.
If you manage vacation rentals or run a cleaning company in La Paz, Upbridge can help you know how each house's tank looked on the day its neighborhood had no water, and make sure the guest can get in without calling you.
If you run a cleaning company in La Paz
Your houses sit in neighborhoods with different water days, on a schedule that shifts whenever there's a leak, so the order of your route can change from one week to the next. With the account for cleaning companies, every owner's bookings show up in one calendar, each from their own iCal or PMS, and you plan the route knowing which checkouts are coming. Your clients keep paying you, and Upbridge takes no share of any cleaning.
Near La Paz
Questions about vacation rentals in La Paz
How much is the environmental sanitation fee in La Paz?
According to the municipal treasury, as Posta reported in January 2026, it's 70% of the daily UMA value per occupied room per night for a direct booking, and twice the daily UMA value per occupied house or apartment when the stay is booked through a digital platform.
How do I know when a La Paz neighborhood has water?
OOMSAPAS La Paz posts the tandeo on a color map on its website and in the Sapa Móvil app. The times change when there are leaks, maintenance or low pressure, Posta reported in May 2026.
When is whale shark season in La Paz?
From October to April, with the most sightings from December to February. Only operators on Conanp's list can take guests out, and the town council also asks them for a municipal badge.
Sources
Checked on October 22, 2026
- Zeta Tijuana, Gilberto Santiesteban, “Esperan recaudación de 100 mdp en La Paz con Derecho de Saneamiento Ambiental”, January 20, 2026 (in Spanish).
- Posta BCS, Modesto Peralta Delgado, “Derecho de Saneamiento Ambiental no aplica a restaurantes en La Paz: ¿dónde sí?”, January 14, 2026 (in Spanish).
- Airbtics, La Paz Airbnb data for September 2025 to August 2026, updated October 16, 2026.
- Zeta Tijuana, Gilberto Santiesteban, “Al alza llegada de turistas aéreos a La Paz”, November 18, 2025 (in Spanish).
- Posta BCS, Gabriela Colín, “Tandeo de agua en La Paz: así puedes revisar cuándo habrá agua en tu colonia”, May 27, 2026 (in Spanish).
- Posta BCS, Gabriela Colín, “¿Listos para nadar con el pez más grande? Inician los primeros avistamientos del tiburón ballena en La Paz”, November 20, 2025 (in Spanish).
- Posta BCS, Gabriela Colín, “¿Cómo saber si un operador está autorizado para tours de tiburón ballena en La Paz?”, November 23, 2025 (in Spanish).