Airbnb in the City – New York State Attorney General's Report [pdf]

Re:Airbnb in the City – New York State Attorney General's Re... by uptown on Friday October 17, 2014 @01:42PM (#8472236)

"do you think the people renting these AirBNB units are contributing more or less than $33 million to the local economy by consuming local goods/services when they stay here?"

You could argue that NJ visitors add revenue to the NYC economy when they ride the PATH into NYC, but that doesn't mean they get to hop the turnstile and ride in for free. Airbnb either needs to change the laws, or abide by them. Rationalizing violations citing the "greater good" won't fly in a city where travel and real estate are such valuable components of the economy.

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Re:Airbnb in the City – New York State Attorney General's Re... by namecast on Friday October 17, 2014 @02:40PM (#8472648)

Fully agreed. (And for the record, I'm absolutely not rationalizing their violations - just pointing out that "we're out $33 MM USD because lost tax revenue" is the wrong way to be looking at this. I think we should have some sort of safe harbour provision for people making X dollars a year off AirBNB, personally - once you're making more than the cost of your annual rent, time to pay some taxes.)

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