Airbnb Settles Lawsuit In San Francisco
Airbnb and HomeAway settled their lawsuit against San Francisco’s short-term rental law. The settlement dismisses the challenge to the short-term rules, makes it easier for people to register and protects the housing supply, according to the city attorney’s office.
“This agreement helps protect the city’s precious housing supply by obligating these companies to ensure that all their listings are legal and properly registered,” San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said.
Residents participating in Airbnb or HomeAway will have to provide an Office of Short-Term Rental registration number from the city to post a listing. Airbnb and HomeAway will provide this number as part of their monthly San Francisco listings so the city can verify the registered listings, and both companies have agreed to cancel future stays and deactivate listings if the city deems a listing invalid.
Following Airbnb and HomeAway’s lawsuit being rejected by a federal judge in November, the companies appeared to be willing to work with the City of San Francisco to register hosts. With this new settlement, Airbnb and HomeAway will require new hosts to be registered with the city at the end of 120 days. Everyone will need to comply with the registration policy by 2018.
San Francisco has registered 2,100 short-term hosts, but Airbnb has more than 8,000 San Francisco listings.
