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HEAVILY REGULATEDevery claim verified 2026-07-16 against the sources below

Is a short-term rental legal in San Francisco, CA?

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 rentalConditional
Hosted rental (host present)Conditional
Primary residence requiredYes
Guest capNone verified
Rules apply to stays under30 days

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units per OSTR FAQ: income-restricted (BMR)/public housing, student housing, SROs (except seasonal), Ellis Act-withdrawn buildings, ADUs, commercial spaces, group housing, units in Treasure Island, Fort Mason, or the Presidio, and outdoor sleeping quarters.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.

What you need to operate

RequirementAuthorityCostOfficial source
Short-Term Residential Rental Certificate (registration with Office of Short-Term Rentals) Office of Short-Term Rentals, SF Planning Department
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.
 $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)
 source
Business Registration Certificate SF Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector
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.
 Not verified
renewal: Annually, due May 31
 source
Property liability insurance Office of Short-Term Rentals (Admin Code Ch. 41A)
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.
 Not verified source
Quarterly rental activity reports Office of Short-Term Rentals
All certified hosts must report the number of hosted and un-hosted nights each quarter, including a zero report if there were no stays.
 Not verified
renewal: Quarterly — due within 30 days after each quarter ending Mar 31/Jun 30/Sep 30/Dec 31
 source
Transient Occupancy Tax collection/remittance (Certificate of Authority unless platform files) SF Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector
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.
 Not verified source
Business Personal Property Statement (Form 571-STR) SF Office of the Assessor-Recorder (per sf.gov STR guide)
STR hosts must file Business Personal Property Tax Form 571-STR; details/thresholds not further verified this session.
 Not verified
renewal: Annual filing
 source

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT / hotel tax) 14% Rent for accommodations of less than 30 days; guest pays, host/operator collects and remits Yes source
Tourism Improvement District (TID) assessment 2.25% (Zone 1) / 2.00% (Zone 2) 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) Not verified source

Enforcement

PenaltiesAdministrative 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 liabilityVerified 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.
NotesComplaints 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

What we could not verify (9)

  • 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

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /san-francisco-ca.md for AI tools and researchers.

STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, verified against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between our verification passes. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.