Thursday, February 7, 2013

Short-term rentals lead to long-term problems


From WNYC:

The internet is causing big changes in New York’s hospitality business. Many visitors now spend the night in private homes, which they find through websites such as Airbnb. While these rentals tend to be cheaper, they are also very often illegal, and a growing number of hosts – people who rent out their homes or additional rooms – are being slapped with violations by city authorities. Now Airbnb says it is working to change local laws to make it easier to rent out an apartment.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As is typical: an individual asks for permission for XYZ, and they are ignored, but now a company wants something, the city will listen.

Cooperations have full control of this country.

Anonymous said...

What about when the city rents space in an existing, established residential building in order to house homeless people? Isn't that supposed to be short-term housing? Probably the units have no sprinklers or emergency exit plans either.

Anonymous said...

The City should crack down on Airbnb as they are breaking NYC laws. There are also ruining hotel business which are the legal short term residential businesses other than Real Estate firms that broker short term furnished accommodation for periods of a minimum of over 31 days. People are rent their bedrooms etc turning these in flop houses and some cases renting apartments for prostitution that move weekly to avoid detection. The City needs to take on Airbnb to be compliant and rent legally.

Anonymous said...

I found the podcast lacking.

Why didn't they mention examples of negative things that can happen to neighbors of those who choose to rent out their homes to complete strangers.

The podcast was one-sided.

When somebody pays rent, part of what he/she is paying for is some peace of mind in knowing that the person living next door (hopefully) went through some sort of screening process (what a landlord typically does before renting something out). There are definite security issues in situations like this.

This facet to the story isn't even considered.