Short-term rentals and long-term problems

From the NY Post:

New York City may be losing as much as $155 million annually in tourist business because of new restrictions on short-term rentals.

That's according to the Committee for Short-Term Rental Reform, a group that wants to revise new rules intended to crack down on illegal, unlicensed hotels.

The group says the new law has been too broad, and had the effect of banning legitimate vacation rentals.

Pointing to similar money being made in London for the Olympics and in Saratoga Springs for the racing season, the group wants an amendment to regulate the short-term city rental market.

Soon after the law took effect last year, officials moved against 15 illegal hotels.
City inspectors found one three-family house in Brooklyn occupied by 44 guests with no sprinkler or fire alarm system.

In the meantime, the NY Times reports that Stuy Town residents are cracking down on short-term rentals themselves.

IN her apartment in Stuyvesant Town the other day, Janey Donnelly was on a hunt for a hotel room. At the Web site airbnb.com, she narrowed her search to the East Village, and scrolled down until a thumbnail photograph caught her eye.

“Warm and spacious E.Vil 1 BR,” the listing offered. “$200/nt.”

Bingo.

“If you’re me, you see the window, and there’s nothing else you need to see,” she said. “That window, that radiator — that’s Stuyvesant Town.”

Ms. Donnelly, who has lived in Stuyvesant Town for 30 years, was not looking for a place to stay. She was playing detective, trying to find out who among her neighbors was renting out his or her apartment as a hotel room, in violation of both the lease and, in many cases, the law.