short-term rentals - SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports

Fairfield Vacation Rental Targeted With Threatening Graffiti From Angry Neighbors

A home being rented on VRBO in an unincorporated area of Solano County, near Rockville and Fairfield, was the target of some threatening graffiti earlier this month.

Business & Tech

Mid-Market's NEMA Seeks City Approval For Corporate Rentals

In what appears to be the first instance of a building owner seeking approval from the city under a new ordinance limiting the number of units that can be corporate rentals, the developer behind the NEMA building downtown is looking to convert 200 units.

Party House Rental In Sonoma Became Scene of 4 a.m. Shooting That Damaged Homes

A vacation rental just outside the city limits of Sonoma played host to a Friday night party with dozens of guests from outside the county, and the party ended with at least 30 shots fired.

Business & Tech

Controversial Short-Term Rental Company Sonder Sues To Get Out Of Lease At Church and Market

Sonder, the company that offers corporate-style rentals of furnished units for several months at a time and which controversially took control of a building at the intersection of Church and Market Streets last summer, is now suing to get out of its lease at the property, citing the pandemic.

Orinda Shooting Prompts Town To Change Rental Rules, Airbnb To Vet Guests

The Halloween shooting that cost five people their lives at an unsanctioned party in an Orinda Airbnb has led the city council to enact a 45-day emergency ban on all un-hosted short-term rentals.

Church and Market 'Corporate Rental' Sparks Anger From Planning Commission

Given that it's technically legal, there may not be any recourse for the city at this point, but both District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and at least one Planning Commissioner are mad about this project.

Airbnb And HomeAway Settle With SF, Will Require Hosts To Register With City Before Posting

Airbnb and HomeAway announced Monday that they are dropping a lawsuit that was challenging San Francisco's ordinance that penalizes them for the scofflaw behavior of their users. As part of the settlement agreement,

Mayor Never Convened Promised Working Group On Airbnb Regulations

A working group to propose improved Airbnb regulations that Mayor Lee promised to set up by the end of February 2017 when he vetoed the 60-day rental cap is nowhere to be found,

Squatter Horror Story Involving Berkeley Professor Has <i>Mother Jones</i> Wishing Evictions Were Easier

Many #CALaws but 1 hasn't changed.A homeowner's worst nightmare: tenant not paying rent,refusing to leave. C u @8:30 pic.twitter.com/wsvAT3RlxK— Ella Sogomonian (@EllaSogomonian) January 2, 2017 A short-term

SF Supes Approve 60-Day Cap On Rentals From Currently Unregistered Airbnb Hosts

A week after a judge's ruling suggested that Airbnb's lawsuit against SF was doomed, and just days after the company announced that they might follow San Francisco's rules after all, things have gotten

Airbnb Dealt Blow By Federal Judge In Their Challenge To SF Crackdown On Illegal Rentals

In the midst of Tuesday's chaos, a news item slipped through pertaining to Airbnb and San Francisco's latest attempt to crack down on scofflaw hosts. A federal judge ruled against a preliminary injunction

Airbnb Will Ban Multiple Listings By SF Hosts

As Airbnb and the city of San Francisco spar in court — the company sued the city over a law requiring it to verify the hosts on its platform are legal or else face

Judge Grills Airbnb At Hearing Over SF Host Registration Law

Airbnb has taken the city of San Francisco to court over a law requiring that the home-rental service verify its hosts are registered with the city or else face steep fines, but if

Did A Noe Valley Vigilante File Complaints About 30 Airbnbs In One Week?

Could a rash of recent complaints against supposedly illegal Airbnb listings made mostly in the Noe Valley area be the work of one vigilante? Socketsite is wondering just that, observing that since the

Airbnb Again At The Center Of Political Play This Election Year As Supervisors Fast-Track Amendments

David Campos has built much of his political career on loud calls to preserve housing stock and combat gentrification, and as he approaches the end of his final term as District 9 Supervisor,

City Revises 'Airbnb Law' Additions To Avoid Airbnb Suing Them

The Board of Supervisors Tuesday moved to revise the language of some new additions to the so-called 'Airbnb Law' that would fine the company $1,000 per day per illegal unit listed on

Like Airbnb Before It, City Is Coming After Short-Term Rental Site HomeAway

The city of San Francisco will be going to court to make sure that homeowners renting units on HomeAway, a short-term rental listing company that also owns Airbnb competitor VRBO, are paying their

Airbnb Dealt Massive Blow In SF, As Supes Vote To Fine Company For Turning Blind Eye To Scofflaw Hosts

In a move that surprised many, on Tuesday San Francisco's Board of Supervisors approved legislation that hit amateur hotelier platforms in their soft and tender parts — and even SF's Airbnb-friendly Mayor is powerless

Airbnb Reveals 20% Of SF Listings Are By Hosts Listing Multiple Homes, Vows Crackdown

Airbnb has issued a mea culpa of sorts today, and a reversal of some of its previous rhetoric surrounding the issue of hosts who illegally use the platform to turn themselves into small-scale

City Now Wants To Tax Airbnb Hosts For Their Furniture, Sheets, Utensils, Etc.

Airbnb and the City of San Francisco continue their passive-aggressive feud today, as the Chronicle reports: In a bid to completely discourage hosts from actually registering their short-term rentals with the city, as

Airbnb Will Allow Neighbor Feedback On Hosts, Guests, Properties

Perhaps you remember the tale, told in our Apartment Sadness column, of an Airbnb situation gone totally haywire on Telegraph Hill. The gist: Some tenancy-in-common (TIC) neighbors have a long-running feud that partially

Study: Airbnb Makes Over A Fifth Of Its SF Revenue From Illegal Units

A new study released this month claims that over a fifth of the revenue generated in San Francisco by Airbnb is the result of hosts operating in direct violation of San Francisco law.

City Cracks Down On Airbnb/VRBO Law Violators, Issues $400,000 In Penalties

Though many critics have called the "Airbnb law" that the SF Board of Supervisors passed last year unenforceable, enforcement appears to be ramping up, especially after this past election in which short-term rentals

[Update] How An Anonymous Airbnb Host Once Sought Six Figures By Illegally Re-Renting Six Apartments

"With trading, you look for arbitrage opportunities, where you have an opportunity to buy things for cheaper and sell them for more," a San Francisco Airbnb host anonymously confided in his guest, an