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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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At its roots, Airbnb is a brilliant idea. Residents who aren't using their appartments or houses while they're out of town for some time, are renting out single rooms or their entire place for a limited time. They're making some money this way while relying on a proven process controlled by a trusted web site. They conveniently don't need to worry about managing the process, and on the other side of the deal, the traveling tourists appreciate that they get more personal accomodations than just another bleak hotel room. But critics now object that many landlords find that they can make more money by repeatedly renting their properties short-term through Airbnb, instead of letting regular long-term renters move in, which takes more and more properties off our rental property market, which currently has very limited supply, but boasts record highs in demand.
The San Francicsco housing market is infamously overpriced and tight, which is why this issue is all over the news now. Proposition F would limit short term rentals to 75 days per year by law. Currently, residential home owners are allowed to rent our their homes up to 90 days per year while they're out of town. If the home owner is actually present in the rental object, there's no restrictions on how often it can be rented out to strangers.
If the proposition became law, it would require residents who sublet their space to file detailed reports to the city on how long each short term rental lasted, to allow them to verify if they exceeded the 75 days limit. On top of that, the proposed law would makes it easy for neighbors to report noncompliant short term landlords and file lawsuits against them. It's hardly surprising that Airbnb has spent 8 million Dollars in their campaign so far to thwart Proposition F. Their main slogan tells that Airbnb enables residents of San Francisco to earn money via short term rentals, to support them financially and enable them to stay in their beloved but horrendously expensive city. Update: Proposition F was turned down by the voters 55% to 45%.
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