Airbnb and 3 local Hosts filed separate lawsuits against the City of NY

news.airbnb.com

2 points·gdcohen··6 comments

Worth a read if you've ever used Airbnb for a short term stay in NYC (or if you're an Airbnb host). The City of NY is about to start enforcing a ban on short term rentals on Airbnb, VRBO, etc.

That's the take-away Airbnb wants us to have, but that's just not what the law says, as the company knows perfectly well. Please see the sibling comment in regard to this.

It seems that - at least partially - the lawsuits revolve around the need to register and how complicated this is made.

At least according to this:

https://www.citysignal.com/airbnb-regulations-nyc-january-20...

there are no substantial changes to the Law in type of rent and duration allowed, already you could not legally rent for less than 30 days a "whole" unit, the fact that everyone did it nonetheless is another thing.

The law and rules effectively ban short-term rentals in New York City

An intentionally misleading statement from Airbnb. The law in question does severely restrict the class of permissible rentals (to owner- and tenant-occupied units), and will certainly bite them in the ass as far as this market is concerned -- but, as Airbnb is perfectly aware, it is not a blanket ban on short-term rentals at large.

Also, the law in question does not create new restrictions at all -- but rather creates a structure for enforcing existing restrictions.

Unfortunately it's more restrictive than just owner-occupied units. It's essentially an unlocked room (for up to 2 people) in someone's house/apt that includes shared living spaces.

For example, there are many multi-family houses where a family lives upstairs but can't rent out the downstairs apt.

Right - the new law is quite restrictive. But it doesn't say what Airbnb wants us to believe it says.

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