Yesterday, San Francisco’s board of supervisors voted 7–4 to legalize and regulate the online rental marketplace Airbnb.
The legislation, which is expected be be implemented in February, was welcomed by Airbnb. Nick Papas, one of Airbnb’s communications staffers, wrote on the Airbnb public policy blog that the vote was “a great victory for San Franciscans who want to share their home and the city they love.”
Airbnb might be praising the legislation, but it contains a number of restrictions on Airbnb hosts. Under the new legislation non‐hosted entire‐home rentals are limited to 90 days a year, and it will be up to hosts, not Airbnb, to provide the documentation to prove that they are not in violation of this regulation. Airbnb hosts will have to pay a $50 fee to be part of a public registry, pay a hotel tax (which Airbnb will reportedly remit), register with the city planning department, and not charge more than they are paying their landlord. Hosts must also have liability insurance or offer their listing through a platform that provides coverage.
The legislation will also prohibit buildings that have had Ellis Act evictions from being used for short‐term Airbnb rentals, as TechCrunch’s Kim‐Mai Cutler explains:
What’s the Ellis Act? Well, San Francisco city and California state rental laws have some strange overlaps. The city has incredibly strong rent control laws, that cover 172,000 of the city’s 376,000 housing units. As long as the tenant handles their basic obligations like paying rent on time, they can’t really be evicted and there’s a culture of lifetime tenancy in the city that’s fairly unique. But the state of California passed a law in the mid‐1980s that allows landlords to “go out of business” and take their rental units off the market. The concern in red hot San Francisco housing market is that this law is abused and landlords will take their units off the market to convert them into tenancies‐in‐common or permanent Airbnb rentals. This change is supposed to clamp down on that.
The board of supervisors rejected an amendment put forward by member David Campos, which would have required Airbnb to pay an estimated $25 million in back taxes. Airbnb announced in September that it would begin collecting 14 percent occupancy tax in San Francisco from the beginning of this month.
Although the new legislation contains some restrictive provisions it is understandable that Airbnb is accepting these new regulations. Airbnb, which was valued at around $10 billion earlier this year, wants to grow, and accepting regulations like those passed by the San Francisco board of supervisors allows for Airbnb to operate legally in San Francisco while refuting accusations that it evades taxes and operates in a grey market.