Airbnb announces crackdown on listings in San Francisco

Airbnb will more aggressively police its listings in San Francisco, the company said Saturday, amid persistent criticism that the site has contributed to a particularly tight housing market in the city.

“This will be a learning experience,” the company said in a blog post. “We aren’t perfect, but we are committed to learning and being a good partner with cities around the world to ensure short-term rentals do not impact the cost and availability of long-term housing.”

{mosads}Individuals who are listing more than one home on the site will be the target of the company’s efforts, as will “unwelcome commercial operators” the company has already focused on. Ultimately, the company says it hopes its efforts require people “to share only one entire home listing on a short-term basis.”

The company said that it plans to “personally contact hosts with more than one entire space listing that will be impacted by this new approach and investigate whether their hosting activity removes housing from the long-term rental market.”

Airbnb said 288 people in the city are responsible for more than 650 listings of entire homes, and will be the first to face a crackdown.

“These are hosts who may be using the platform to list more than one entire home short term rental listing,” the company said. “We want to take action if these are listings that could be impacting the availability of long term rental housing in the city. “

Short-term rentals of entire homes managed by individuals with more than one listing of that kind — that is, the type of rentals the company wants to curb — made up 17 percent of the company’s revenue in San Francisco in roughly the last year. The company says that figure has fallen over the course of the year on a month-to-month basis.

Advocates contend that short-term rentals offered by the company can detract from the housing available to long-term residents. The company has looked to combat that criticism — and similar arguments — in recent months by releasing a “Community Compact” that says that cities “have unique home sharing policy needs — a dense, urban city may have different concerns than a historic vacation town or a non-traditional travel destination. Airbnb will partner with cities to address their individual policy needs.”

But it cautioned Saturday that what it does in San Francisco may not be applied around the country.

“Land use, housing and real estate policies and challenges in San Francisco are unique,” the company said. “This new approach is specifically designed for San Francisco and we will continually look at this program to make sure it’s working the way we intend.”