The laws within the region dictate that private home owners are only allowed to rent out one house listing on a short-term basis.
This comes after criticisms received by the company in areas wherein residential spaces are in limited stock. Rental sites such as Airbnb urge hosts to offer their homes to tourists that generate more revenue, rather than the city's local residents. Areas affected also include New York, New Orleans, Paris and Berlin, where there are high demands for residential blocks. Airbnb offers listings in these places as well.
The company's 8-year success, worth now up to $25.5 billion across 2 million listings worldwide, has brought the issue under government scrutiny. Local administrations had to implement laws that would ensure that housing needs of the citizens are met but Airbnb has been resisting any efforts to work with the government until recently. Its previous attempt had it battling a ballot that pursued to reinforce San Francisco's vacation-rental rules which cost Airbnb approximately $8 million to shoot down by 56 to 44 percent.
One of the major reasons behind the company's resistance is to protect its host's privacy. The company had been dead set on protecting information that may infringe on host's rights and the recent announcement on its webpage, detailing available listings in San Francisco, comes as a surprise.
The report concludes that 1,149 house listings are under the bracket wherein multiple listings are offered by an individual account. 478 units are operated by hospitality companies, e.g. "boutique hotels and timeshares," while the remaining 671 listings are operated by 288 hosts that violate the city's regulation laws.
Airbnb has taken initial steps to remove illegal listings, now amounting to approximately 218 house listings; 92 on June 2015, 26 on September 2015, and 100 just last January. The company believes that these "listings [are] offered by hosts who shared multiple listings or represented other unwelcomed commercial activity."
Airbnb is still in the process of removing other listings offered by hosts that own two or more of these rentable spaces or are offered by unregistered commercial operators. The company promised that they will continue to work with the San Francisco government and adds that they are "committed to learning and being a good partner with cities around the world to ensure short-term rentals do not impact the cost and availability of long-term housing."
