Airbnb Sheds Thousands of Hosts in San Francisco

"Thousands of San Francisco hosts on Airbnb and rival home-stay sites have stopped renting their homes and rooms to tourists," reports Carolyn Said. The big drop off in short-term rental hosts is due to a recent deadline for people to register or be kicked off of sites like Airbnb and HomeAway.

After a recent court battle between the city and short-term rental companies, a May settlement "required the sites to register all hosts in phases starting in September," and the sites were required to kick off unregistered hosts by January 16, 2018. The companies will "face fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing and criminal penalties if they help arrange bookings of unregistered listings," according to Said.

"The city said 2,168 hosts had met its requirements to offer temporary rentals as of Thursday — representing a fraction of the 8,453 Airbnb listings the city observed in early August," reports Said. The article includes more details about how the drop-off in hosts is affecting business in the local market, and explains the reasons for the drop-off (i.e., why some hosts can't register under the new rules).