San francisco new rules ... how to work around it?

Hi San Francisco AirBnB hosts

It looks like the new rule just passed. AirBnB will have to release all our info to the SF Gov. My days have just gotten a lil better and now this. My main question is how do we work around this? After they got all our info, they can do a lot of damages to us.

So how do we work around this ? The City mainly targeting AirBnB for now. It looks like they will work with SF Gov. My question is these: Can we post our rooms on other websites similar to AirBnB. My theory is this: One goes down, another one will come up. There are always others will come up. SF Gov spend so much money and time to take AirBnB down, will they do the same to the others later? Is it worth it for them? Will other websites work with SF Gov like providing our info? Has any1 have info on using the following websites?

I found the followings:
Great Airbnb Competitors and Alternatives:
Tripping.com – The best single site for Airbnb Competitors in one place. Search millions of listings and/or list your own space for rent everywhere except on Airbnb!
HomeAway.com – A newer Airbnb alternative platform in which travelers can browse and book vacation homes, and rental owners can manage bookings. Learn More –HomeAway vs Airbnb
VRBO.com – A classic Airbnb competitor, VRBO provides an online space for homeowners to advertise their vacation properties for travelers worldwide. Learn More – VRBO vs Airbnb
Wimdu.com – A very similar service to Airbnb, primarily based in Europe but spreading quickly. Learn More – Wimdu vs Airbnb
PerfectPlaces.com – Another great worldwide resource for finding vacation rental properties. This is a very direct Airbnb competitor, but their front end site is not as beautiful.
9flats.com – A private community of people renting short term accommodation to each other.
OneFineStay.com – Offers upscale city accommodation for visitors while the homeowner is out of town, allowing homeowners to earn an extra income.
VacationRentals.com – Part of the Home Away family of websites, this is another platform for homeowners to rent out their space when the’re not home.
FlipKey.com – A vacation rental marketplace that enables users to find and book a place to stay through its web platform.
CouchSurfing.com – Stay with hosts for free, usually in exchange for also hosting others on your “couch” for free. Not a direct competitor of Airbnb, but worth consideration for the extremely budget conscious traveler. Learn More – CouchSurfing vs Airbnb

Great Hotel Booking Sites:
Expedia.com – An indirect airbnb competitor, Expedia helps travelers book hotel rooms at a great rate anywhere in the world.
HotelsCombined.com – One of the very best hotel aggregation sites allowing users to search many hotel options around the world from one simple interface. This site counts as one of the airbnb competitors even though they primarily focus on traditional hotel bookings.
Kayak.com – You’ve seen their commercials, Kayak.com is a great hotel aggregation site but they do not including any form of home rentals like other Airbnb competitors.
Orbits.com – A popular but also occasionally glitchy hotel aggregation site with their own rewards system.

I don’t quite understand the issue. Are you saying you can’t let through BNB legally at all in San Fransico?

Or are you saying that you are letting your place contrary to your local government regulations and they are shutting down this loop hole?

@Vincent_Lee Why don’t you just register with the City? It’s not hard and is like $50. The only reason I can see why you would want to ‘work’ around this, is you want to rent your place more than the regulated 90 day max. Now the ABB has to actually report to the city, the 90 day rule will actually be enforced, unlike previous years when this info was self reported. My guess is you are not registered and now will be faced with the new 60 day cap (those who registered are grand fathered in for the 90 day cap).

Im only renting out 2 private rooms and I live int the same house and same address. Once you registered, you become a business. Filing tax will be different. I can used to file on schedule E but this will change it I assume.

And I just don’t like the gov keep track of all our things u know. its my fucking house, i already pay property tax and every thing …wtf they care.

More over, once this pass, there will be more rules coming i guess. the fucking sf supervisors force us to only 60 days later even if if we live in the same house. thats fucking suckss…

god damn it…my days have just gotten a lil better…fucck sf gov…

If you are already registered you will be ‘grand fathered’ in, thus keeping your ability to rent 365. Are you saying you never registered?

so as i said, sf gov only targeting abb, so may be we can list on other websites and avoid registration.

azzeala … really ? is that u? i may kno u in person…

no i never registered

I’m sure you can make your point a little more articulately…do you really need to resort to swearing so much :frowning:

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Or you can just register…

I suspect that these rules are for all short term rentals. Not just ABB.

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Yes, but as of ‘now’ only ABB has agreed to comply with sharing hosts data with the city of SF…One point that is worth mentioning, is that SF has come down HARD on ABB/VRBO but not really the other services.

What’s your view @azreala - how difficult is it to register? 50 dollars doesn’t seem the end of the world. After all we are running a business - easily recouped.

I see @azreala. Selective enforcement? That is grounds for a legal fight, if anyone could organize such a thing. However, I do think that short-term rentals will come under scrutiny in more and more of the real estate squeezed cities. I am surprised that hosting while you are home, vs hosting stand alone spaces have been coupled together. They are really separate types of rentals.

Well, we did not register immediately once the law was passed, bc like a lot of people we didn’t think it was a big deal. Now that the city of SF has come out and said register or get fined, has an enforcement squad, and is really pushing the big players to report hosts info, this is no longer ‘optional’. The fact SF has approx 8000 ABB units and only has given out 1700 permits, I think there is a problem. The registration process is EASY, and the only issue I can see for not doing it, is bc you think you are somehow avoiding taxes (new flash, you aren’t).

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The only reason ABB is giving over host info, is bc a CA Supreme Court Judge said they would most likely no rule in ABB favor. ABB filed a lawsuit against SF.

The ONLY reason they have been newly coupled together (this is now only for new permits) in SF, is bc of the lack of registration, and the perceived complete disregard of the laws by ABB hosts. The permit process was instituted in 1/2015 then in 9/2015 we passed another law to uphold the first law (yes, I know, but this is Democracy!) After 9/2015 SF got serious about enforcement and making the registration process easy for hosts. We are now over a year in and only 1700 hosts are registered in a city of over 8000 ABB listings.

I think the city is just pissed that most ABB hosts are giving them their middle finger.

Thank you for the explanation. Really appreciate it. We are not having this fight in my state just yet, but it is coming. However, there are lots of politically connected folks who rent their Cape Cod homes on a seasonal basis, and they have done a great job of keeping such a bill off the table.

Has any1 have experience with using the other 9 websites I listed ? Im thinking of switching now. Or does any1 know if we can still file this portion of income on schedule E ? I don’t want to operate and tax like a business thats all. And of course nobody care about that $50.

Anyways, once this pass, there will be more to come. Its just a bunch of nonsense regulations to be put on us. thats why

The first version of this law on 1/2015 was beyond reasonable: you must live in your unit 183 days a year, it must be your primary residence, you are only allowed to register one unit, 90 day max for whole home rentals, and no cap on room rentals. Obviously, more rules, but these were the major points. The reason for the primary residence provision is do to the housing shortage in SF, and to prevent landlords from turning all their units into STR unites, which was actually happening prior to the law. I agree that this is unfair to many foreigners that have 2nd homes in SF that would never be LTR units, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to just say it’s your primary residence. The new, amended version of the law changes the cap to 60 days, which I think is a big extreme, but like I said its kinda a punishment for the hosts that have not registered. Hosts that are registered will be grand fathered into the old yearly day cap.

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You aren’t paying anymore taxes than you are already paying…maybe $100 for the business license. There are provisions that separate ABB hosts from ‘actual’ businesses. Really do your homework. http://sf-planning.org/office-short-term-rental-registry-faqs

I think the point is that he wants to be completely under the radar and not pay tax at all. Which isn’t going to work.

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