Late last year, Airbnb narrowly avoided a new set of regulations in its hometown of San Francisco that would have sharply curtailed how the platform could be used, particularly by real estate businesses and landlords. Those rules would have seen limits placed on how many weeks per year properties could be out for short-term rental, as critics of Airbnb and similar services have complained that the ability for landlords to make big money on short-term rentals has driven up housing costs and created big housing shortages in high-demand cities.
Airbnb managed to dodge those regulations in part with promises that it would better police its platform — and it seems they are now attempting to live up to those promises.
With letters and emails.
According to recent reports in Bloomberg, Airbnb will soon start actively reminding hosts in San Fran to register with the city and report their rental activity quarterly.
Those emails and letters will go out twice a month to hosts, according to Patrick Hannan, Airbnb’s new public policy manager. Hannan’s last gig was to stop the new city ordinances in San Francisco.
Apart from letters, Airbnb will also run ads encouraging registration with the city and co-sponsor a program with Home Sharers of San Francisco to run information sessions monthly on how to register.
Airbnb’s steps to nudge hosts to register with the city likely will not be enough to silence critics who complain that the platform is not doing enough to enforce rules against illegal rental schemes made possible via its platforms and is relying too much on voluntary compliance.
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