The Airbnb Economy in New York: Lucrative but Often Unlawful

Re:The Airbnb Economy in New York: Lucrative but Often Unlawful by tgeek on Monday November 04, 2013 @11:02PM (#6673161)

I lived in a building where the landlord stopped renting out apartments normally and started instead putting them on Airbnb. He charged ~30% for doing it via Airbnb than the normal rents would have been. Then they raised rents more on apartments in the building. When I left ~4 out of 50 or so units were on Airbnb. Apartment next to me was a continuous ramble of people who left trash around and threw late parties(more than the normal residents).

I'm all for the idea of Airbnb, but there needs to be something in place that prevents this type of thing. Finding an apartment in NYC is rough enough, but artificially reducing supply via this type of thing causes the rent increases even more.

Taxing it seems like the only way to put the reverse pressure on landlords doing this, but I'm doubtful it will do enough.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Airbnb Economy in New York: Lucrative but Often Unlawful by benastan on Monday November 04, 2013 @11:56PM (#6673291)

Your landlord was running a hotel.

I've stayed with people who had a few properties that they rented on Airbnb. Renting 1-5 seems okay. More or less, you're running a B&B.

When it gets to whole floors or buildings, you've got a hotel on your hands. That is and should be illegal and Airbnb should work with authorities to shut that down.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Airbnb Economy in New York: Lucrative but Often Unlawful by bradleyjg on Monday November 04, 2013 @11:16PM (#6673203)

What they should do is throw 'P' and Leslie in jail for six months or a year. It'll make the next people think twice before breaking the law.

Prison shouldn't just be for poor people. This is much more likely to harm me than some guy selling pot.

[ Parent | on HN ]