# Short-term rental rules in San Francisco, CA - Status: **HEAVILY REGULATED** - Last verified: 2026-07-16 (every legal claim checked against the official sources listed below) - Canonical page: https://strwatch.ai/san-francisco-ca/ ## Summary Short-term rentals (stays under 30 days) are legal in San Francisco only in the host's own primary residence, under Administrative Code Chapter 41A. The host must be the 'permanent resident' of the unit (occupying it at least 275 nights per calendar year and having lived there 60 days before applying), must hold a Business Registration Certificate from the Treasurer & Tax Collector, and must obtain a Short-Term Residential Rental certificate from the Office of Short-Term Rentals ($925 non-refundable application fee, valid 2 years). Hosted stays (host present overnight) have no annual night limit; un-hosted stays are capped at 90 nights per calendar year. Hosts must carry at least $500,000 liability insurance (unless the platform provides coverage), file quarterly rental reports even for zero activity, and collect the 14% Transient Occupancy Tax. Whole units that are not the operator's primary residence cannot legally be rented short-term, and many unit types (BMR/public housing, SROs, ADUs, Ellis Act buildings, Treasure Island/Presidio/Fort Mason) are ineligible. Enforcement is active: penalties start at $484 per day per unit, platforms must verify registration before taking bookings, and violations can be referred to the City Attorney. ## At a glance - Unhosted whole-home rental: Conditional - Hosted rental (host present): Conditional - Primary residence required: Yes - Guest cap: none verified - Rules apply to stays under: 30 days Notes: Both hosted and un-hosted rentals are lawful ONLY in the host's registered primary residence (permanent resident = at least 275 nights/year in the unit; 60 days residence before applying). Un-hosted rentals capped at 90 nights per calendar year; hosted rentals (host present in the unit overnight with guests) have no night cap. Dedicated/non-primary-residence whole-home STRs are effectively prohibited. Ineligible units per OSTR FAQ: income-restricted (BMR)/public housing, student housing, SROs (except seasonal), Ellis Act-withdrawn buildings, ADUs, commercial spaces, group housing, units in Treasure Island, Fort Mason, or the Presidio, and outdoor sleeping quarters. Rent-controlled units: host may not charge guests more per month than the host pays in rent. Leases and HOA rules may separately prohibit STRs (not enforced by OSTR). No citywide max-guest count verified in official sources. OSTR's 'Maintain Your Certified Host Status' page also states hosts cannot offer 'more than five (5) individual short-term rental reservations' (apparently simultaneous reservations) — flagged in needs_review for exact scope. Verified against sf.gov Guide, sfplanning.org STR FAQ / Become a Certified Host / Maintain Your Certified Host Status, all fetched 2026-07-16. ## Requirements ### Short-Term Residential Rental Certificate (registration with Office of Short-Term Rentals) (registration) - Authority: Office of Short-Term Rentals, SF Planning Department - Cost: $925 non-refundable application fee per 2 years (fee as posted 2025-2026) - Renewal: Every 2 years (certificate valid 2 years from approval; OSTR emails renewal instructions ~1 month before expiration) - Official source: https://sfplanning.org/str/faqs-short-term-rentals - Notes: Requires proof of primary residency (2 documents), 60 days prior residence, intent to occupy 275+ nights/year, and a Business Registration Certificate first. Earlier published fee levels ($450-$725/2 yrs) are outdated; current official FAQ states $925. ### Business Registration Certificate (registration) - Authority: SF Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector - Cost: not verified - Renewal: Annually, due May 31 - Official source: https://www.sf.gov/guide-opening-short-term-residential-rental - Notes: Must register the business type as 'Accommodations' at the residential unit's address before applying to OSTR. Fee varies by gross receipts; amount not verified against an official source this session. ### Property liability insurance (insurance) - Authority: Office of Short-Term Rentals (Admin Code Ch. 41A) - Cost: not verified - Official source: https://sfplanning.org/str/become-certified-host - Notes: Liability insurance of not less than $500,000 covering short-term rental use. Waived if hosting exclusively through a platform that provides equivalent coverage (e.g., Airbnb, VRBO per sf.gov guide). Note: the commonly-cited $1M figure is NOT what official SF pages state — official pages say $500,000. ### Quarterly rental activity reports (other) - Authority: Office of Short-Term Rentals - Cost: not verified - Renewal: Quarterly — due within 30 days after each quarter ending Mar 31/Jun 30/Sep 30/Dec 31 - Official source: https://sfplanning.org/str/maintain-your-certified-host-status - Notes: All certified hosts must report the number of hosted and un-hosted nights each quarter, including a zero report if there were no stays. ### Transient Occupancy Tax collection/remittance (Certificate of Authority unless platform files) (other) - Authority: SF Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector - Cost: not verified - Official source: https://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/transient-occupancy-tax-tot - Notes: Hosts must collect 14% TOT on stays under 30 days. If the host operates exclusively through a Qualified Website Company (Airbnb, Interval International, misterb&b), the QWC collects, remits, and files all TOT on the host's behalf. ### Business Personal Property Statement (Form 571-STR) (other) - Authority: SF Office of the Assessor-Recorder (per sf.gov STR guide) - Cost: not verified - Renewal: Annual filing - Official source: https://www.sf.gov/guide-opening-short-term-residential-rental - Notes: STR hosts must file Business Personal Property Tax Form 571-STR; details/thresholds not further verified this session. ## Taxes - **Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT / hotel tax)**: 14% — applies to Rent for accommodations of less than 30 days; guest pays, host/operator collects and remits; platform collects: yes. Source: https://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/transient-occupancy-tax-tot - **Tourism Improvement District (TID) assessment**: 2.25% (Zone 1) / 2.00% (Zone 2) — applies to Gross revenue from tourist accommodations within TID zones; may be passed to guests as a separate line item (Moscone Expansion District assessment also applies within its district); platform collects: not verified. Source: https://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/transient-occupancy-tax-tot ## Enforcement - Penalties: Administrative penalties per OSTR (sfplanning.org FAQ and Complaints & Enforcement pages, fetched 2026-07-16): at least $484 per day per dwelling unit from Notice of Violation until abated; $968 per day per unit for a 2nd violation; repeat violations referred to the City Attorney for civil and/or criminal penalties. Structure per Ordinance 104-16 amending Admin Code Sec. 41A.6(d) (official ordinance PDF, sfbos.archive.sf.gov, fetched 2026-07-16): up to 4x the standard hourly administrative rate ($121) per unit per day for an initial violation, 8x for a second, 12x for third and subsequent. Civil penalties: owners, business entities, or hosting platforms in violation liable for up to $1,000 per day (Sec. 41A.5(d)(3)); only the City may obtain civil penalties. Criminal: renting or listing in violation without correcting is a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,000 fine and/or up to 6 months county jail, each unit a separate offense (Sec. 41A.5(e)). Units with multiple violations are removed from the Registry for 1 year and barred from all platforms, with up to $1,000/day for continued listing (Sec. 41A.6(d)(2)). Private right of action: after a complaint and a Director determination via administrative hearing, the City or any Interested Party (permanent resident of the building, the HOA, the owner, etc.) may bring civil proceedings for injunctive and monetary relief against an owner/business entity, with attorney's fees to the prevailing party (Ord. 218-14, Sec. 41A.5(d)); interested parties cannot recover the $1,000/day civil penalties. - Platform liability: Verified against Ordinance 104-16 (official PDF) and OSTR's Hosting Platform Administrative Guidelines (sfplanning.org PDF implementing Admin Code Sec. 41A.5(g)(4)(C), fetched 2026-07-16): hosting platforms must exercise reasonable care to verify a unit is lawfully registered on the City Registry BEFORE providing and collecting fees for booking services (via OSTR API, mandatory registration-number field plus monthly listing spreadsheet to OSTR, or certificate-upload verification). Platforms become liable if they provide booking services more than 2 business days after OSTR notifies them a listing is ineligible. Platforms must keep host/transaction records for 3 years and respond to OSTR information requests within 1 business day per listing, subject to administrative penalties and civil penalties up to $1,000/day (Ord. 104-16). Platforms are also subject to the tiered administrative penalties (4x/8x/12x $121/day per failure) and misdemeanor liability for unlawful listings. - Notes: Complaints may be filed with OSTR (including anonymously, 628.652.7599). Example enforcement cited on the official page: City Attorney pursued a $5.5M penalty against owners of illegal Airbnb rentals. The platform verification duty is the regime associated with the Airbnb v. City of San Francisco litigation settled in 2017; the settlement itself was not verified against an official source this session (see needs_review). ## Pending changes - California SB 346 (2025) — 'Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025' (Gov. Code Secs. 50993-50996): authorizes cities/counties that adopt an implementing ordinance to require short-term rental facilitators (platforms) to report each rental's physical address, license number, APN, and TOT certification, to include local license numbers in listings, and permits administrative fines and TOT audits of facilitators. Opt-in, not self-executing, and expressly does not preempt stricter local regimes like SF Chapter 41A. Chaptered 2025-10-13. (effective-date-pending, 2025-10-13) — https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB346 ## Not yet verified (we say so instead of guessing) - Renewal fee for the OSTR certificate: official pages confirm the $925 non-refundable application fee and 2-year validity, but do not state whether the renewal/reapplication fee equals $925; verify against the current Planning fee schedule. - Business Registration Certificate cost: varies by business size/receipts; no dollar amount verified against an official source (set to null). - The 'no more than five (5) individual short-term rental reservations' statement on the Maintain Your Certified Host Status page: exact meaning (simultaneous reservations per unit?) and the underlying code section were not verified; the codified Chapter 41A text could not be fetched (codelibrary.amlegal.com returned 403 to all methods tried). - Current codified Chapter 41A text (post-2016 amendments) unverified directly due to amlegal 403; penalty structure verified from the 2014/2016 ordinance PDFs plus current OSTR pages ($484/$968 daily figures match the 4x/8x formula at the $121 hourly rate). The 'standard hourly administrative rate' may have been adjusted since; OSTR pages still publish $484/$968 as of fetch date. - Airbnb, Inc. v. City & County of San Francisco (N.D. Cal. 2016) and the 2017 settlement establishing platform pass-through registration: the verification regime it produced IS verified via the official OSTR Platform Guidelines and Ord. 104-16, but the lawsuit/settlement itself was not verified against an official source this session. - SB 346 (2025) effective date: chaptered 2025-10-13; the fetched summary said 'effective upon approval,' which is atypical for a non-urgency statute (normally January 1, 2026) — confirm the operative date and whether San Francisco has adopted (or needs) an implementing ordinance under it. - Tourism Improvement District (2.25%/2.00%) and Moscone Expansion District assessments: rates verified on the Treasurer's TOT page, but whether small residential STR hosts (vs. tourist hotels) owe TID/MED assessments was not conclusively verified. - An April 2025 news item (citizenportal.ai) describing Board of Supervisors STR amendments could not be corroborated on any official SF source and contains claims inconsistent with the long-standing 2014 program; treated as unreliable and excluded. - max_guests set to null: no citywide per-unit guest cap found on official OSTR pages; building/housing code occupancy limits may still apply. ## Sources - Guide to opening a short-term residential rental — SF.gov (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://www.sf.gov/guide-opening-short-term-residential-rental - FAQs on Short-Term Rentals — SF Planning, Office of Short-Term Rentals (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfplanning.org/str/faqs-short-term-rentals - Become a Certified Host — SF Planning, Office of Short-Term Rentals (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfplanning.org/str/become-certified-host - Maintain Your Certified Host Status — SF Planning, Office of Short-Term Rentals (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfplanning.org/str/maintain-your-certified-host-status - Complaints and Enforcement — SF Planning, Office of Short-Term Rentals (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfplanning.org/str/complaints-and-enforcement - Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) — SF Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/transient-occupancy-tax-tot - OSTR Short-Term Rental Guidelines for Hosting Platforms (implementing Admin Code Sec. 41A.5(g)(4)(C)) — official PDF (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/documents/ostr/OSTR_Platforms_Admin_Guidelines.pdf - Ordinance No. 104-16 (File 160423) — Admin Code Ch. 41A hosting platform verification and penalties — SF Board of Supervisors archive (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfbos.archive.sf.gov/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/ordinances16/o0104-16.pdf - Ordinance No. 218-14 — original short-term residential rental legalization amending Ch. 41A — SF Board of Supervisors archive (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://sfbos.archive.sf.gov/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/ordinances14/o0218-14.pdf - SB 346 (2025-2026) Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025 — California Legislative Information (official, accessed 2026-07-16): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB346 --- Educational information, not legal advice. Published by STRWatch (Laniakea Technologies LLC).