After a lot of work building up reviews and fixing up the house I was denied hosting by an aggressive property manager in SF. The owners of the house I rent live next door and across the street. They are very mellow careless people and I thought for sure a notice would go to them, but instead it went to the primitive, clueless, aggressive, old(in ideology --not being ageist, though hes about 65) property manager who went a-wall and sent his attorney after me. So long story short the city is not giving me my certificate. Not sure how I am going to cover my insanely high rent since I am over paying and noone wants the small room where its priced. This is another story.
So just want to warn others. The notice they send does not go to the owners on the deed like stated. The city is doing deeper research and finding property managers to ensure the axing of legitimate hosts for whatever reason. The city can see my profile and that I am living in the place --by all the reviews about me and my current house mate.
After doing airbnb for near 10 years, with nothing but good experiences, these are my thoughts:
- Airbnb is actually less wear on the house since guests NEVER use the kitchen and they are RARELY even in the house. My other roommate gets home from work lays on the couch, spills his beer on the floor, has occassional parties, etc. This never happens with guests. The city and property managers are basing their idealogy on a primitive time and rare cases. If only they could see it like us hosts do.
- Its a lot of work. No easy money to be had. Its like running a hotel but harder because reviews mean more and you have to be present as a host. Always smile, constant email exchanges, ensure they have directions and can get in, etc.
- It allows people like servers, musicians, and artists to remain in the city.
- It forces one to take extremely good care of the place. eg cleaning daily, picking up trash on the sidewalk, landscaping, lubricating hinges, esuring no mould occurs in the kitchen or bathroom, etc, etc etc Last landlord constantly commenting on how great the place looked.
- It relieves landlords of having to pay an extra tenant during an OMI. My last place had a legitimate OMI and they only had to pay me. The home owners/ friends were happy about this.
- It prevents parties from happening in the house and anything that would cause real wear and tear like storing bikes in the living room, snowboards, skiis, etc. The house needs to be essentially like a model home to maintain good airbnb status. Again, wear and tear argument is hogwash.
I actually think landlords who adamantly oppose airbnb without deciding on a case by case basis are straight up stupid. They are not helping home owners. Mainly they are costing them more if an OMI were to happen. All the arguments a landlord may have such as wear and tear, they want the easy money, insurance, getting fine $500 a day are complete hogwash arguments. None of it is true. If you follow the citys protocol and realize there is a 1m insurance policy with airbnb, it actually works more in the owners favor.
Maybe one day these people will wake up. I was lucky enough to have a smart home owner/ landlard over the last 9 years that allowed me to airbnb and actually was happy for me --since he saw it as a way for me to better myself as a musician and save some money while staying in the city.
Not sure what I am going to do. I have 6 months left of a $4500 a month lease, $3k of which is my sole responsibility. If anyone gets a mellow guest looking for a month+ furnished place in the heart of the Mission and they can pay $1500 a month plus bills, please contact me. I can use the help.
Thanks for listening to my rant and hope I help others who may be expecting a notice to go to the owner.