According to the host’s profile on Airbnb, which has been “ID Checked,” he’s an “Interior designer for tech elite.”

And while past listings for his “SF Batch Pad by bars,” or “Stationary [SoMa] pad…on private property,” have noted that said pad is a (shared) bus, according to a recent review, the bus pictured is not the bus to which one is given the access code.

Apparently, the bus is actually a van, “many of [its] windows [are] broken out,” it’s “full of flies” and the “keypad” is a combination lock which secures a chain across the van’s doors. Or as succinctly reviewed by another Airbnb-er from Germany this month: “stinky place do not book.”

Oh, and according to an ongoing investigation by San Francisco’s Office of Short-Term Rentals into the pad, which has been listed multiple times with a fraudulent registration numbers on Airbnb, the bus/van appears to frequently squat on a Caltrans-owned parking lot as well.

Then again, it has been listed for under $50 a night. Welcome to San Francisco.

13 thoughts on “Beware the Stinky Airbnb Bus/Van in San Francisco”
  1. I’m going to list a park bench and a copy of yesterday’s Chronicle on AirBNB for $49 a night! I have 100 “rooms” available each netting $1500/mo – I’ll make millions!

  2. I am waiting for someone to AirBnB their unused side of the bed or their spouse/significant other, $25 a night or best offer. That would make a great April Fools prank.

    1. Search for “ShareBED” on Youtube. It almost seems plausible. What is more likely is a hotbnb service, where people can rent your bed while you are at work. This was common at the turn of the century (and a disease vector).

  3. Hmmm … maybe this is what is going on with the 20, 30 or so RVs parked (permanently) around Lake Merced. On Lake Merced Blvd and John Muir Blvd. Windows often covered by cardboard and light peaking out from the windows after dark.

    1. Those are by-and-large what used to be called “the vehicular homeless”, i.e., people living in cars or semi-permanently parked RVs because they can’t afford housing as SF rapidly becomes an adult theme park for the rich.

      If you look at past SF reports on the homeless, you’d find out that the majority of those people aren’t the stereotypical mentally ill and drug-addled derelicts; they go to work everyday at low-paying service jobs.

      1. The police don’t ticket these RV’s at the Lake. Some are parked for a week plus before being moved a bit. It is quite dangerous along Lake Merced Blvd opposite State University as the RV’s take up half the lane on a two lane (in each direction) street with cyclists squeezed in to boot. I am told that many are occupied by police and such who can’t afford to live in SF, have homes in the Sacto Valley and use them during their work week – only going back to Sacto for the weekends. May explain why they are not ticketed.

        1. I always see the same few campers parked on like St. Charles ave or one of the overpasses above 280 as well. Can’t get more visible than that. Yet the same ones are there day in and day out. Must know someone who knows someone.

      2. Low paying service jobs, not quite. There are quite a few articles on skilled workers such as Google engineers, Genentech techs, and other formerly middle class professionals living out of their vehicles. In a sane world, vehicular housing would be thought of as a great stopgap partial solution towards homelessness, except there’s no money to be skimmed by the Homeless Industrial Complex in providing some unused city land for this purpose.

    2. The Gilman Street “industrial” area is rife with this population.

      You can see an amazing example of this just north of Seaside in Monterrey County. All of the incorporated cities have banned camper residency, so the campers have moved into the unincorporated county and now line the road. I understand sanitation is an issue.

  4. Well this is nauseating. Flies? Stench? Maybe they should look for the aquarium corpse’s missing head in here.

  5. I’ve been renting out the Bachmobile for some time now. Mostly German drifters. It’s great. I drive it to different locations, keep changing the photos on the BnB. Registrations numbers are for people who don’t know how to disrupt the system. I totally hack the short term lodging market. It’s only enforced if they catch you. I mean some people complain about the fragrances, but some people pay extra for the aromas de Ehrlich. I mean if it’s Caltrans space, that says California in the name. And the Bachmobile is very California.

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