Friday, May 18, 2018

City Council about to lower the boom on AirBnB

From The Real Deal:

The New York City Council is at work on a new bill that would be the biggest crackdown yet on Airbnb.

Councilmembers are writing a bill that would require Airbnb to provide addresses of their listings to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, according to Politico. The push comes amid a strong anti-Airbnb lobbying campaign from New York’s hotel industry accusing the company of lowering the stock of affordable housing in New York.

The bill would also require hosts to give their full names and addresses to the mayor’s office, report whether the home is their primary residence and say whether they are just renting a room or their entire home. Penalties would be applied to listings that do not comply with the reporting requirements, although lawyers for the City Council are still figuring out what these would be.

The City Council and Airbnb did not have statistics for how many rent-regulated apartments make up Airbnb listings, but politicians believe it takes low- and moderate-income housing off of the rental market based on anecdotal accounts.

15 comments:

JQ LLC said...

If AirBnb wants to find a legitimate way to continue profiting off the city and it's "hosts" instead of lobbying the city to compete they should demand the same deal commercial chain hotels are getting for housing the homeless.

Silly as that sounds, AirBnb gets no damn sympathy and deserve to be put to pasture, they have helped create this mess with their shitty idea causing gentrification and not keeping track of their unscrupulous clients which seem to make up the majority of their listings. And with the demand they nurtured it only exacerbated the rates hotels charge for lodging.

Sure people have the right to treat their homes how they want, but it doesn't look good to see different strangers coming in and out of houses every week and looks even worse seeing strangers milling about apartment buildings.

And even hosts can be creepy, A good example is that lowlife who murdered that college professor in Ditmars Park. That guy rented his couch through an app and tried to rape a woman as she slept.

Anonymous said...

yeah I'll believe this when it happens. Airbnb is a totally illegal operation thats been allowed to operate in NYC because of.... Well, How? "Honest" graft?

Anonymous said...

Just like in Russia everything had to go through Kremlin
Today it called Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, Mayor’s Office of media, Mayor’s Office of film and television, Mayor’s Office of "this and that"

Anyway they cant do shit if it the home owners primary residence and the owner also resides, that would be violating a homeowners rights. The boiler plate this bill exempts privet homeowners.
I also doubt they can force airBNB to supply personal info on private listings.
Anyway this is just a bill and favor for the mobbed up hotel industry it wont change anything if it does pass.

Anonymous said...

City want to take control of the rent controlled apartments and large multiple dwellings buildings to force them into taking section 8s.

Problem if passed when will this "snooping" and gunpoint communist tactics stop ?
How long will it be before they extend this proposed bill to snoop on and go after private homes where the owners live?
Bang on your door and say "we come to have a look behind every door and closet and its battering RAM and handcuffs if you don't let us in"
This bill is a foot in your door and another step toward communism.

Anonymous said...

AirBnB should not be treated like a tech company. They are simply a website that provides a service online and makes things a little easier but they dont manufacture drugs or technology that actually saves lives. We are doomed to experience another housing bubble because of it and we need to pay careful attention to it and start regulating it.

Anonymous said...

Must be the hotel associations squeezing their balls. Please do it quick! They have become a blight!

Anonymous said...

It's outrageous that a person who owns his or her home is obligated by law to disclose to the government to whom they are renting a room for a few nights. It's sound like some communist gulag crap. If a person rents his or her home, the lease should determine whether subletting is allowed or not. Not the government! This proposed regulation will surely be struck down by the Courts.

Anonymous said...

The hotel lobby wins again.

Tho if people are turning entire rent controlled apartments into AirBNB while living elsewhere, they don't deserve that apartment.

Anonymous said...

Yes, AirBnB used to house homeless crack baby mama's. HA HA HA That's one way to shut it down. Put the urban homeless in them.

Anonymous said...

Its a smoke screen to get into you house and see how much space you have available VS how much space you (according to them) you actually need to use.
--Then another "magic fix" WILL COME in the future, likely under the guise of of a new safety inspection where they will harvest all your info.

They pull this shit in northern European city's. They come to your house for some inspection then you get a notice saying: "you have wasted space, we can help you put a tenant on a legal lease or choice 2: pay some huge penalty to keep you home private"
Its kind of like paying the phone company to have an unlisted landline, but can cost you an upwards of $1000 per SQ foot, per year on what whatever they wanna call "underutilized wasted space"

The current form of the bill appears very dangerous, because it allows them to sneak in "amendments" at some point in the future.
As usual the dumb as public believes this shit being spoonfed them is a meal, when in fact it will actually be used them, to make things WORSE and neighborhoods even more "diverse" in the future.

Does middle village have its share of "diversity" and section 8 people on the level the mayor wishes to see....Hmmm ?

Gary W said...

City Council
Marxists: Look, a successful business!!! Destroy it!.

Anonymous said...

The city may as well place cameras to scan all your doors. ---Perhaps that's coming too. The bastards want more eyes into your household. It seems the city has had a beef with small homeowners ever since good 1/2 would not answer the door for census workers a couple years ago.

Anonymous said...

Blame all the assholes who abused what was a good system via Airbnb. You give people a little license to do something and some jackass will take it way too far and ruin the system for everyone else. NYC is the worst for this kind of crap because there are far too many people trying to do this wrong/illegally. Maybe once the airbnbs get put into order, the city can commence with stopping homeowners from overdeveloping their properties. My neighor, at this very moment (despit the rain)is outside laying foundation to build some sort of shed/garage that he is most likely going to try and rent. He's already got a partial vacate on his property from illegal conversion within and TWO illegal basement apartments, but does anyone care? This is why I cannot wait to leave this hellhole and never, ever look back.

Anonymous said...

"City Council
Marxists: Look, a successful business!!! Destroy it!."

So is drug dealing and loan sharking. Should we encourage those businesses also?

Anonymous said...

>drug dealing

Your friendly neighborhood dope peddler is a model of capitalism and fills a gap and massive demand that big businesses won't.

>loan sharking

Charge lower interest rates than payday loan places.