Until this past June, when the city passed the revised law that Airbnb is now challenging in court, it wasn't illegal for Airbnb to charge booking fees on unregistered rental units. Airbnb's gains were not illegal. Now they are and the company is subject to fines.
Check the SF Property Information Map (http://propertymap.sfplanning.org/). Type in an address. Look under Planning Apps: Short Term Rentals and you'll see if the place is registered (and when the registration expires).
Uber has 40k+ drivers in San Francisco, and verifies the validity of each one's driver's license and vehicle registration before they allowed to pick up a passenger. It isn't any more difficult for Airbnb and the other platforms to check whether their listings are properly registered with the city for use as short-term rentals.
The fact that Airbnb is unwilling to do so is simply a reflection of the fact that 80% of its SF listings are illegal. The units are not primary residences, as the law Airbnb wrote requires, or they belong to tenants who are renting to tourists without the property owners' permission.
While there are few objections to people renting spare rooms, it's the wholesale conversion of dwelling units to full-time tourist accommodations that's problematic. And it's those units Airbnb clings to so strenuously because they're the most lucrative. Take them away in the major markets and Airbnb's $30 billion valuation evaporates.
As Judge Donato noted, neither the First Amendment nor the CDA provide a safe harbor for facilitating illegal transactions, which is the foundation of Airbnb's business model. It's ludicrous to argue otherwise.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by dcarlson.
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The fact that Airbnb is unwilling to do so is simply a reflection of the fact that 80% of its SF listings are illegal. The units are not primary residences, as the law Airbnb wrote requires, or they belong to tenants who are renting to tourists without the property owners' permission.
While there are few objections to people renting spare rooms, it's the wholesale conversion of dwelling units to full-time tourist accommodations that's problematic. And it's those units Airbnb clings to so strenuously because they're the most lucrative. Take them away in the major markets and Airbnb's $30 billion valuation evaporates.
As Judge Donato noted, neither the First Amendment nor the CDA provide a safe harbor for facilitating illegal transactions, which is the foundation of Airbnb's business model. It's ludicrous to argue otherwise.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by dcarlson.
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