It seems the first wave of enforcement has come from HOAs, I've heard of various people having to remove their listing for that reason. [1]
Now it appears, according to the article above, municipal authorities are pushing back. Could this be a result of lobbying from hotels? Vacation rentals is not a new concept, and couchsurfing has been around for years as well. It seems that just because couchsurfing/vacation rentals are getting a wider audience that it's now suddenly a problem.
I personally don't want my HOA or government telling me who I can or can not have over to stay. Their place is not in my home.
1: http://betabeat.com/2011/05/airbnb-takes-manhattan-with-2k-b...
They aren't telling you who you can or can not have over, they are prohibiting you from having temporary guests that pay.
Why? Well, an establishment that houses temporary guests traditionally has to answer to health & safety codes and regulations. Under-the-radar AirBnB rentals circumvent that system.
You'd probably get similar kickback if you tried running an informal restaurant out of your home. "Who is the government to tell me who I can and can not serve food!" Well, restaurant health codes, that's who.
It wasn't my main source of income, and I'm not running a business. In fact, I'd rather not have someone on my couch every day, I like my space. I'm saying it should be my choice to have a kid from Massachusetts, a student from Spain, or a grandmother from South Carolina, or my family stay.
edit: http://cookitfor.us/
Right. Now try to get the average person to care about the distinction.
The average person can understand that. In fact, most people do. The "benefits" of AirBNB are usually lost on the average person, who cannot understand why someone would rent out their house directly to total strangers.
Different considerations apply in communities which are not vacation spots.
Which sucks, but it is the free market. Just goes to show that contract rights aren't enough to ensure freedom.
We aren't telling you that you can't do X...but Article 294-984b, section 49a states that doing X is a $50,000 fine.
You choose to join an HOA.
check it, i am certain you signed something like this
Co-op = the cooperative owns the shared areas; the members own shares in the coooperative entity.
Both = the entity (HOA/cooperative) pays for the maintenance/other costs of the shared areas. Co-ops collect the money for these expenses through monthly dues and yearly assessments. I do not know how co-ops collect for these expenses.
My unit is a condo; I fractionally own portions of the building and land. My condo pays for the expenses associated with the common areas through monthly dues and yearly assessments.
"For more than a year now, New York City has been enforcing a new state law that makes it illegal for homeowners like Hogan to rent out their house or apartment for less than a month. All across the city, police raids have shut down hundreds of similar informal bed-and-breakfast establishments, with nearly 1,900 different violations issued in under twelve months. Often, the fees associated with the citations stretch into tens of thousands of dollars. Hogan was threatened with a $25,000 fine—all for marketing the empty rooms in his house.
. . . .
"The crackdown in New York is similar to ones happening in several major European cities. Paris, for instance, passed a law in 2005 banning the rental of any residential property for less than a year, and began enforcing that law in 2010. London is now engaging in a wave of enforcement in the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics."
This is the first journalistic report I have seen of such widespread, persistent enforcement actions. Is this the general experience of HN participants (and, especially, Airbnb participants) in your part of the world? What is your rating of the risk of being cited for a local law violation if you list your place as a short-term rental online?