Maintain Your Certified Host Status

Once you are certified to host it’s important to follow the guidelines to remain compliant.

• Remain the Permanent Resident at the Residential Unit where you host short-term rentals. If you sell your Residential Unit, the certificate cannot be transferred to the new owner or a different dwelling unit. Only one Permanent Resident may be associated with a Residential Unit on the Registry, and it is unlawful for any other person, even if that person meets the qualifications of a "Permanent Resident," to offer a Residential Unit for Short-Term Residential Rental.
• Stay under the limits: "Un-hosted" stays (when you are not home overnight) are limited to 90 nights per calendar year. "Hosted" stays (when you are home overnight) are not limited. You may not offer more than five (5) individual short-term rental reservations within your dwelling unit.
• Ensure your property (including other dwellings if your Residential Unit is within a tenancy in common [TIC] building) remains free of violations of the Building, Housing, Planning, and all other City codes. Please note, a certificate can be revoked due to ongoing noise/event/party complaints. No exterior signage is allowed as short-term rentals are intended to remain incident to the residential nature of the Residential Unit.

If you have an approved application and certificate number (e.g. STR-0001234): you will need to report all short-term stays which have occurred during each three-month reporting period (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec). This report is accessed online and must be submitted online to the Office of Short-Term Rentals no later than one month after the end of each reporting period.

Please refer to the Step-By-Step Guide for Quarterly Reporting for tips on how to file your Quarterly Reports and confirm they were successfully uploaded.

If you only have a pending application or an application under review: you do not need to submit Quarterly Reports

Renew your business registration certificate every year with the Treasurer & Tax Collector. Renewals are due every May 31st and can be submitted online.

Anyone in San Francisco who receives rent for a stay of fewer than 30 days must collect a 14% tax on the amount that they earn from their guests. This is called the "Transient Occupancy Tax" (TOT).

Note: Currently, the only hosting platform that is a Qualified Website Company is Airbnb. If you ONLY list your residence on Airbnb you do not need to collect TOT or obtain a Certificate of Authority. If you list your residence on Airbnb and other hosting platforms, you must still follow the guidelines above to fulfill your tax obligations on earnings from non-Airbnb hosting platforms.

If you have any questions specifically about taxes, please refer to the Treasurer & Tax Collector’s website, or call 311.

Hosts are required to report their Business Personal Property to the Assessor-Recorder’s Office as requested and pay property taxes on that property annually. Taxable business personal property includes property used by your guests in your rental, such as furniture, kitchen appliances, supplies, and equipment. For more information about these personal property taxes, review the Assessor-Recorder’s Short Term Rental FAQ.

To report this business personal property, hosts file a Form 571-STR with the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder’s Office. Look for your annual notice from the Assessor’s Office (sent each year in February) that lists your filing requirements; if you are required to file, visit the Assessor-Recorder’s SMART Community Portal to submit your 571-STR Form by May 7th annually. To get help filing your Form 571-STR, you can reference the Assessor-Recorder’s Taxpayer Help Pages or contact their office at askbpp@sfgov.org

If you have previously filed a Form 571-STR for your hosting services, you may not need to file again. Review your annual notice from the Assessor-Recorder’s Office to determine whether you must file. You can visit the Assessors website for more information.

Once certified, you must continue to comply with the law. Visit the Office of Short-Term Rentals website to read the ongoing requirements for all short-term rental hosts. Within one month of the expiration of your certificate, OSTR will notify you via email about the renewal / reapplication process. This email will be sent to the address you provided during the application process. If you are afforded the opportunity to renew, you may review the How-To Guide as an aid in that process:

Violations of the City’s short-term rental laws are subject to penalties of at least $484 per day for each dwelling unit in violation. These daily penalties begin on the day that a Notice of Violation is issued by the Office of Short-Term Rentals, and continue to accrue until the violation is fully abated. Repeat violations may be subject to escalated penalties and referral to the City’s Attorney’s Office for additional civil and/or criminal penalties.

To maintain good standing as a certified short-term rental host, you must submit a quarterly report to the Office of Short-Term Rentals. The quarters begin on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each year. At the end of each quarter, you have 30 days to report the number of nights you have rented your unit (hosted and unhosted) as a short-term rental. This requirement applies no matter which hosting platform/website you use. Registered hosts must still report no stays if no short-term rentals occurred within the quarterly reporting period.

Please note: if you only have a pending application, you do not and cannot file quarterly reports.

1. Remove all (online) listings that advertise your short-term rental, and cancel pending short-term rental reservations for stays of less than 30 days.
2. Hosts may also choose to close their (separate) business registration certificate, by filling out this online form with the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector to declare that you are no longer hosting.
3. Notify the Assessor-Recorder’s Office online account of your business closure or print, complete, and mail a paper Request for Business Closure form and mail it to the Office of the Assessor-Recorder. Depending on the date of your business closure, you may still need to declare business personal property taxes for the current year. Business personal property taxes are separate from hotel taxes (transient occupancy taxes). 
4. Email the Office of Short-Term Rentals with the following information:
   • Your STR certificate number
   • Your street address
   • Your full name
   • A statement that you no longer intend to host short-term rentals