In a move that could add over $11 million a year to city coffers, Airbnb will collect San Francisco’s 14 percent hotel tax from visitors who book apartments or rooms in the city starting Oct. 1, the company said on Wednesday. But the $10 billion company, which has enjoyed explosive growth, did not address whether it will pay back taxes for the six years it has been in business.

“Our community members in San Francisco have told us they want to pay their fair share and the overwhelming majority have asked us to help,” David Owen, Airbnb head of public policy, wrote in a blog post. “In the past, it’s been difficult for individual hosts to pay taxes that were designed for traditional hotels that operate year round.”

Airbnb will add the “transient occupancy tax” as a new line item for visitors, just as hotels do. For example, a Twin Peaks apartment that previously cost $200 a night would now cost $228 with the tax.

The move comes as San Francisco wrestles with proposed legislation by Supervisor David Chiu to legalize and regulate Airbnb. Short-term rentals are technically illegal in San Francisco, but have flourished in recent years, in large part driven by Airbnb’s success.

A Chronicle study earlier this year showed Airbnb had almost 4,800 San Francisco listings with an average price of $183 a night; about two-thirds of those listings are entire homes. Chiu’s legislation would cap vacation rentals of entire homes at 90 days a year. It’s still unclear whether there will be a limit for how often hosts can rent rooms to travelers.

If one-quarter of those Airbnb units were rented every night, they would generate $30,744 in hotel taxes a night, or $11.22 million a year (14% of 1,200 listings times $183/night times 365 days).

The city’s 34,000 hotels rooms, with average rates of $229 a year, brought in $310 million in hotel taxes in the 2012-14 tax year, which ended June 30. That money goes straight to San Francisco’s $3 billion general fund, although supervisors sometimes allocate a share to such areas as arts programs.

However, Airbnb was mum about back tax obligations. In April 2012, San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros clarified that websites like Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway had the same obligations as hotels to collect and remit the tax. Airbnb initially resisted, saying it was a new type of business model distinct from hotels. But faced with mounting criticism as a tax dodger, this spring Airbnb said it would start paying the tax by this summer.

Cisneros declined to say directly if his office will pursue Airbnb for back taxes.

“We take enforcement actions to get people to say what they owe,” he said in an interview last week. “We cannot talk about any particular enforcement action or any particular taxpayer because of taxpayer confidentiality laws.”

The San Francisco treasurer’s office last week added new information for vacation-rental hosts and companies at www.sftreasurer.org, including streamlined forms for tax compliance. “We’re trying to make it easy for folks,” Cisneros said. For San Francisco residents who host exclusively through websites like Airbnb, they can allow the marketplace to handle all tax collection, reporting and remittance. However, they still must register as a San Francisco business.

“Some people feel, ‘I’m not a hotel, I’m simply a homeowner,’ ” Cisneros said. “If you have a transient occupy your space for a rental amount, it doesn’t matter whether you or your guests consider yourself a hotel, you (must remit) the transient occupancy tax.”