San Francisco apartments & rentals: how to choose
A flat in a Mission or Hayes Valley Victorian puts you inside a neighborhood the hotel zone never shows you — but San Francisco has one of the strictest short-term-rental regimes of any US city, and it deliberately limits what can be listed. Understand the law below before you fall for a listing: it explains why whole-home inventory is thin, why many legal listings are rooms in a host’s own home, and which listings to walk away from.
⚠︎ Book a legal listing
San Francisco only allows short-term rentals (stays under 30 nights) by hosts who are permanent residents of the unit — living there at least 275 nights a year — and who have registered it with the city’s Office of Short-Term Rentals; the certificate number should appear on the listing. Rentals while the host is away (“unhosted”) are capped at 90 nights per calendar year; hosted stays, with the resident present, have no cap. Investment condos and second homes cannot legally be listed at all. Stays of 30 nights or more fall outside these short-term-rental rules, but a separate intermediate-length-occupancy (ILO) permit regime applies instead. Enforcement is active and rules evolve — verify current requirements at the official source below before booking.
Rules change — confirm the current requirements: SF.gov — short-term residential rental rules.
Who a rental suits
Rentals suit families and groups who need bedrooms and a kitchen, travelers who specifically want to live in the Mission, the Castro or Hayes Valley where hotels barely exist, and month-plus stays, which are exempt from the short-term cap and served by a real furnished- monthly market. For a 2–4 night sights trip, the thin legal supply means a hotel is usually simpler and often cheaper.
Verify before you book
- That the listing shows a San Francisco Office of Short-Term Rentals registration/certificate number — the single most important check in this city.
- Whether the stay is hosted (the resident is home) or unhosted — many perfectly legal listings are private rooms in an occupied flat, which suits some travelers and surprises others.
- Which microclimate you’re booking into: the Richmond and Sunset out west run markedly foggier and cooler than the Mission — same city, different weather.
- Heating and layout in older Victorians — steep interior stairs, no elevator, and no air conditioning are all normal; AC is rarely needed, working heat matters year-round.
- Parking reality if you’re bringing a car: permit-zone streets, garage costs, and the standing local rule — never leave anything visible in a parked vehicle.
- Recent reviews mentioning street noise (nightlife blocks in the Mission), hills on the walk home, and host responsiveness.
Where to look for rentals
The Mission, Hayes Valley, the Castro and Noe Valley hold the most characterful legal supply — flats in Victorians and Edwardians on residential blocks. The Marina and Cow Hollow add flat, walkable streets near the bridge. Downtown high-rise “condo hotel” listings deserve extra skepticism: a non-primary residence cannot be legally registered, so slick investor units are exactly the listings the law targets.
Check live rentals & availability
Browse current San Francisco rentals on Vrbo — confirm the listing shows an Office of Short-Term Rentals certificate number.
Check San Francisco rentals on Vrbo →Some booking links are affiliate links — if you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes which options we recommend.
Prefer a front desk and breakfast? Compare hotels →