Tighter rules for Airbnb

Airbnb’s free-form world of casual rentals and home sharing is finally taking on rules and a dose of self-policing. San Francisco’s patience with the popular service is wearing thin, bringing on tougher limits.

There’s no surer sign than the home-sharing platform’s pledge this week to go after hosts offering more than one address. The aim is to cut down on emptying out scarce apartment rentals and limit landlords to their own residences.

It’s a welcome step and should have happened months ago. Also, the policing of this promise remains to be seen. The “one host, one home” idea could stop the process of spinning badly needed rentals into mini-hotels. It also preserves the positive benefits of home sharing, such as smaller bills for visitors and extra cash for homeowners.

But it’s still short of a comprehensive set of rules. Airbnb and similar services say that a city registry is clunky and paper driven, a reason why only 1,650 hosts out of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 have signed up as required.

Websites that broker short-stay rentals are less than a decade old and need tailored rules for a burgeoning and popular business, the companies say.

Airbnb has dug in further by taking its complaints about the city registry to federal court. That challenge may be decided by a judge soon.

That lawsuit, plus local politics, is bringing on the latest changes and doubts about Airbnb’s sincerity. An anti-Airbnb majority of the Board of Supervisors may be heading toward a flat 60-days-per-year ceiling on short-term stays, a sharp drop in existing limits only lightly observed. That figure is stricter than one contained in a ballot measure last year that the public voted down.

The push to rein in Airbnb with serious rules is clearly strengthening. In response, the firm is adopting a new approach that goes beyond slugging it out via lawsuits and heavy-spending ballot fights.

But the company needs to demonstrate genuine commitment. The promised changes to curb abusive behavior and take city laws seriously are important. Even more so is Airbnb’s follow-through.