Just received a letter from the City of San Francisco rejecting my application for short term rental

[Sako0]

While I plan to appeal the decision, I have to cancel about 7 future reservations, some as soon as tomorrow! 

This will destroy my credibility on the site... what are ppl doing and how to approach this? 

[Matthew285]

@Sako0 what reason did they give for rejecting your application?

Is it because you (the host) are not the member of your family living in the property?

(If so, could you switch the host account to someone on the property?)

[Sako0]

@Matthew285Thank you for your response. No, we submitted for a business license to host the proprerty, but I put my personal address on the form so that I can manage the property for my elderly (hope they dont see this) parents who live there. They also claim I did not submit a utility bill which I did + looks like they looked at the discription for the listing and surmised that my parents don't liv there. They do live there so I will appeal, my question is do I just cancel all the reservations I have and how will that affect my rating as a host? 

Obviously it will not help but wondering if Airbnb takes this situation into concideration? I'm forced to cancel a legit listing, don't want to. 

[Matthew285]

@Sako0 (by the way, I have no special knowledge or expertise on the topic of working with OSTR in San Francisco. I am just an SF host like you are.)

I would imagine the utility bill was mentioned, but not the most important thing. Just guessing, I would think the most important thing is the occupancy. The person getting the STR license is supposed to be the person who lives in the listing, so technically it is your parents who are supposed to get the license. Do they live there full time? (Or at least 275 days a year?)

Maybe they should apply. (Meaning you fill out the forms on their behalf; they should certainly read and sign them.)

As to your rating and such: if it comes down to having to cancel, do NOT do it yourself. Explain to Airbnb about the STR license and they should be able to take care of the cancellations for you, so that they are penalty-free. Airbnb is not interested in punishing you because the OSTR is being difficult. Airbnb is usually *very* interested in taking the OSTR situation into account. (Airbnb had to wrestle with the city for years about this, after all.)

If nothing else, this is certainly an extenuating circumstance for the host.

[Sako0]

*liv

[Jennifer835]

I had the same situation as you. Not only they denied my license application they also sent bylaw officers to inspect the rental suite and ordered me to take off the secondary kitchen. The reason they denied me was my house zoning is not allow to open bed and breakfast business. To cancel your reservation by yourself is not a good idea. However you can change the cancel policy and message the guests to let them know your situation and I am sure most of them will understand and cancel it by themselves. For the next day guest depends on how long they will stay, it might be too late for them to find another place. If they understand your situation and still wish to stay a day or two and switch to another place you can let them change the booking. In my letter from city they gave me a month to stop so I had time to sort out the bookings. I wouldn’t suggest you do the cancelling from your end I heard Airbnb will give you penalty. Hope you can reopen your Airbnb soon.

[Inna22]

@Sako0 I could be completely wrong here, but it is my understanding that if you got the booking while legally operating in your pending status, you can still host the guest