Having more than doubled from around 250 in 2015 to over 600 in 2016, the number of formal complaints related to illegal short-term rentals in San Francisco is on pace to double again in 2017, with roughly 200 complaints filed in the first quarter of the year, which is twice the number of complaints filed with the City in the first quarter of 2016.
And once again, while San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors had approved strict new limits on airbnb-ing in San Francisco last year, the law was vetoed by Mayor Ed Lee, who publicly argued that the legislation would have made registration and enforcement of San Francisco’s existing short-term rental regulations “more difficult and less effective, and [risked] driving even more people to illegally rent units,” despite the fact that the majority of units offered for rent on Airbnb remain unregistered and illegal themselves.