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Comment by jdlyga | Hacker News Reader

AirBnb has recently been made illegal in my state (New York State) for stays under 30 days. Of course a lot of people don't know or don't care about the law, but they're giving out fines left and right. This is likely true with other states as well.

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Vancouver is moving toward bylaws that will completely ban Airbnb for non-owner occupied residences. This means that people will no longer be able to buy apartments completely for creating a business out of renting them out on Airbnb permanently like a hotel.

I recall a study that estimated 70% of Airbnb Vancouver revenue was coming from these sort of professional Airbnb businesses that will now be outlawed.

I think there's significant danger for Airbnb here in how major tourism cities with ultra low vacancy rates such as Vancouver are clamping down on the service.

It's been illegal to sublet for less than 30 days in Vancouver for more than a decade. Before AirBnB, there were people doing this manually over CraigsList. In most condo buildings, strata boards cracked down hard on short term rentals during the 2010 Olympics here, under that exact bylaw.

Illegal to rent an entire apartment. Renting out a room for less than 30 days is fine.

Can you "rent out" only a room with the rest of the rooms being unoccupied? You can say you are not renting out the entire apartment, it's just that the other rooms have not been occupied.

I should have been more precise in my language.

It’s legal to rent out a room for less than 30 days in NY if the owner/tenant is also occupying the place.

It got similarly banned in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Except there they aren’t having an issue cracking down on illegal sublets/short term rentals. It is showing in the real estate market too, there are a lot of properties newly on the market in the FQ.

AirBnb is illegal or short term rentals? I recently stayed in a short term apartment rental that I booked through booking.com. It was fully licensed, etc..., but was an apartment in a building of otherwise long term renters.

Define "fully licensed". Short term rentals are illegal in NY for "Class A" buildings - Class A meaning buildings that are meant for long term rentals: https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/almID/1202799183928/

So either your rental was illegal, or the building was not a Class A building.

With major cities that are in demand, long-term rentals on AirBnb can disturb housing equality and rent control programs. So we hear about long-term rentals being curtailed a lot.

The states don't need to address what's already being addressed by the major cities, unless it's a big problem outside of the major cities because the housing demand isn't as high. The long-term rental issues aren't as bad outside of the major cities. The short-term rental issues, however, are a bigger issue, because those living in a less urban area have more expectation of knowing their neighbors.

You say “can”, but I live in one of those cities and I assure you it’s not a possibility but a reality.

Oops. Unnecessarily using a qualifier is a mistake, albeit one made while trying to avoid making other mistakes. I stand corrected.

If it's fully licensed then I imagine it is fine - I'm not sure how flexible the law is around licensing short term rentals in otherwise long term buildings though.

It's short-term rentals in unlicensed properties that the state has specifically outlawed. IIRC it wasn't actually legal in the first place, they've just started enforcing it.

AriBnB lost a lot of hosts in San Francisco [1]. The registration requirement is good. Let's see what happens in 2018 as this requirement kicks in.

[1]: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Airbnb-loses-th...

Not just the registration requirement, but if I understand, when you register they also notify the landlord/building/HoA/whatever, when applicable.

In a lot of cities, most condos have minimum rental length in the bylaws, and rental properties have restrictions on subleasing, so the majority of airbnbs break the rules of those contracts. The people in charge of enforcing the rules historically have trouble proving its happening (even if they know). This makes it a lot easier.

  The people in charge of enforcing the rules historically have trouble proving its happening (even if they know).

No trouble at all. Even if the address is not published (which it usually isn't) you can search for a property by map.

There were court cases here in which the landlord sued the tenant. The tenant claiming that he only rented out two or three times, which was belied by the reviews on the prperty, which proved without a doubt that he rented out at least 20 times.

The court awarded all illicit gains from the rentals to the landlord.

Also, be prepared to be kicked out of your appartment pretty swiftly if you rent it out without the explicit permission of the landlord.

Permission is hardly ever granted, because it usually severily (and rightfully) pisses off the other long term tenants in a house.

Airbnb needs to start greasing pockets like the hotel industry or its only going to get worse.

So far, the aggression of the hotel industry against Airbnb been (mostly) out the public eye.

We will see what direction this goes.

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