NY Outlaws Thousands of Airbnb Listings

Figurines are seen in front of the Airbnb logo in this illustration taken Feb. 27, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

Beginning Sept. 5, New York City will enforce new regulations that limit residents’ ability to rent out homes through short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.

The move is expected to cause a big drop in the number of listings from the platforms and potentially steer travelers toward hotels or New Jersey.

Local Law 18—passed in New York City in 2022—includes several rules that may eliminate the appeal of staying in apartments:

• Short-term rentals can accommodate no more than two paying guests at a time, regardless of the property’s size or the number of bedrooms.
• Hosts are required to be physically present while their properties are being rented.
• Hosts and visitors must leave the interior doors within the rental unlocked, allowing occupants access to the entire unit.

The new law requires rental hosts to register their units with the city to obtain a license to host on Airbnb. It also prohibits booking platforms like Airbnb from processing transactions for units that are not registered.

Further, hosts “cannot rent out an entire apartment or home to visitors for less than 30 days, even if you own or live in the building,” New York City Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) explains on its website. “This applies to all permanent residential buildings.”

“There are penalties for both hosts and booking services who fail to comply with the requirements of the law,” the office said.

The measure aims to curb illegal short-term rentals, enhance guest safety, and alleviate housing market pressures.

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Airbnb has previously called the legislation a “de facto ban” on its business.

Theo Yedinsky, global policy director for Airbnb, said: “New York City’s short-term rental rules are a blow to its tourism economy and the thousands of New Yorkers and small businesses in the outer boroughs who rely on home sharing and tourism dollars to help make ends meet.”

Earlier this month, a New York judge dismissed Airbnb’s lawsuit over the rules, noting that the restrictions were “entirely rational.” The judge cited data that the city had received nearly 12,000 complaints about short-term rentals from 2017 to 2021.

The law was initially set to go into effect in early July but was pushed back to September to give both parties the opportunity to fully brief the issues before the court.

“We’re trying to find a path forward with the city but for the moment, it’s going to be complicated,” Nathan Rotman, Senior Public Policy Manager at Airbnb, told the Gothamist. “Parts of the city are going to lose out on the economic opportunity these visitors bring, and a lot of hosts are going to lose what little income they make from the short-term renting that they do on an occasional basis.”

Airbnb estimated 5,300 existing reservations would be affected in the first week of enforcement, according to the Wall Street Journal. There are more than 40,500 short-term rental stays in New York City beginning on or after Sept. 5.

Additionally, Airbnb has stopped accepting short-term rental reservations for hosts who have not provided the platform with their NYC registration number. In 2022 alone, short-term rental listings made $85 million in New York. The city estimates there are about 10,800 illegal short-term rentals citywide.

In 2022, more than 56 million people visited the five boroughs in New York City and 63 million travelers are expected this year, according to the New York City Tourism and Conventions.

Reuters contributed to this report.