Registration in San Francisco

[Molly57]

Air BNB asks me to submit a registration certificate number .  "Registration numbers issued by the City of San Francisco should start with STR, followed by a hyphen, a zero, and six digits. Here’s an example of a registration number in the correct format: STR-0001234. "  I have registered with SF and have a business registration certificate but no numbers looks like this format.  I called the city and they have no knowledge of these formatted numbers.  Anyone else know what AirBNB is looking for?

[Matthew285]

@Molly57, you need to both get your business registration certificate AND register with the Office of Short Term Rentals (They are the "STR" in the number). You apparently just have the business registration.

The Office of Short Term Rentals is here: https://shorttermrentals.sfgov.org

AirBnB has an very informative help page for San Francisco hosts. I am surprised you were not directed there sooner.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/871/san-francisco--ca

[Molly57]

Thnak you Matthew! So helpful.  Boy the city really likes to take it's cut.  Permits, fees, registration, tax and now this.  One does wonder if it's worth it to be a host.

[Cormac0]

you going to get alot more from the city with the fee's they charge then you going to get from Airbnb with the fees Airbnb charge.

[Michael2656]

Be very careful dealing with these folks - they are definitely your enemy and want to shut you down as fast as possible. Also they're rules and regulations are arbitrary.

[AnnaAndAlex0]

How long does it usually take to hear back from the office of short term rentals in SF?

[Matthew285]

@AnnaAndAlex0 I see from your listing that your OSTR application is pending.

I don't remember how long our application took, but it was not long. (However, we applied back when pretty much everyone was ignoring the requirement to register, so I don't think the OSTR was very busy back then.)

Have you been waiting a long time for a reply?

[AnnaAndAlex0]

@Matthew307, I applied on May 4, so it's been a few weeks. 

[Matthew285]

@AnnaAndAlex0 I wish I knew how long OSTR has been taking lately. I know they had a big backlog of applications to work through, given that so many hosts waited until the last minute to file. But that was back in January, so I hoped they would have worked their way out of the backlog by now.

Apparently not.

However, having a pending application is much better than having a denied application. So as long as your paperwork continues to move forward, you should keep getting closer to your goal.

Please let us know when the approval comes through!

[Aaron276]

It took a whopping **4 MONTHS** for San Francisco Office of Short Term Rentals to approve our registration application. 

We applied last December & kept getting the "we are backlogged, your application is pending, please wait" run-around from the city -- until April, when an envelope showed up with our STR # and accepted status.

Only positive is that our STR expiration date is 2 years out from April -- at least they didn't cheat on that.

[AnnaAndAlex0]

Yes, I'm still waiting and it has been nearly 4 months now! (Applied May 4)

[Scott510]

It took us about 3 months to get the STR certificate, but that just brought on a new problem. We received in late June but to date our listing still shows registration pending. Airbnb says it is a city problem and the city says the opposite. Anyone had success getting this updated? 

[Sharon570]

The instructions from OSTR (Required Posting of Your Registration Number) that came along with my certificate say we should add the certificate number along with the required text into our Air BnB  listing details section. Thar should fulfill the requirement.

[Ashley844]

How long does it takes to get the certificate?

[Hareg0]

My San Francisco property says unlisted and cancelled all my guest bookings. When I try to re-list it an error message pops up that says "You cannot list your place without a valid registration." Our business license certificate is not expired. And I have been hosting for a while now and never had any issues. Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know how to fix this?