The Potential Permanent Elimination of Airbnb in New York City

[Carlos300]

On September 5th 2023, the New York City Democrat Politicians Plan to Close Down Permanently

Airbnb for Short Term Renting. Hundreds of Small Homeowners Might Face Bank Foreclosures.

Has Anyone Heard Any Updates About This ??

[Gaspar78]

i agree with carlos. We all need a perspective on this nyc situation. thanks for bringint it up carlos!

[Carlos300]

Are there Any New York City Hosts that have been Approved by the Government, for a Registration Number ?

[Carlos300]

I am a Superhost with Airbnb Trying to Get the New Law Short Term Guest Hosting Rental Registration Number.

I Paid my $149. Dollar Non-Refundable Fee, One Month and a Half Ago, and I have been tryng to Contact them

on their Official Website and on their Official Phone Number, for One week Now, and Nobody Answers me.

Has Any other Host had Luck with their Registration Number, or getting Status Updates ?

[Asiatic0]

Hi Carlos.  I filed back in May and crickets.  Waiting to hear what the next steps are post 8/8/23 Supreme Court rejection of the short term rental restriction law suite.  I would expect air b b to appeal this decision but only time will tell how this plays out.  Also waiting to hear how the city plans to address the migrant pandemonium in nyc and discussions about a potential voucher program rumored at  $125 per person/ per night. Word on the street is that an announcement is coming from the city on the later.  This of course is not a solution but perhaps an alternative if there isn't good news on the horizon for NYC short term rentals.  Putting politics to the side for minute and just bringing it up since these are two crisis's facing nyc currently.

[Candice58]

Why am I seeing hundreds of rental properties that are private rooms in apartments except from registration?

also why am I seeing listings still up

that are short term when we were sent that email telling us to either register or host for 30 days. Everyone knows the most people will not get approved because also every building is on the list that doesn’t want air bnb in their buildings. Also why isn’t air bnb fighting this ruling? Are they just going to go out of business in nyc and many cities globally. I’m so confused 

**

 this person has 5 or 6 listings that are exempt. There are hundreds in rental properties that are in the rooms section of air bnb. 

**[Identifiable listing removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines- Please note that is not allowed to post a listing link unless posted by a listing owner]

SMH

[Mar125]

why are you rushing it? are you rushing to get approved? no, you don’t need to. you can operate as a pending registration without needing to pay taxes. 

in my view, it’s the best that could happen to you unless you are told to delist during pending period? 

[Mar125]

@Gia3482 

Hvae you thought of expanding this effort to California too? We face the same kind of de facto ban in California in many cities.

[Vernon53]

How can I contact the group via email?  I own a number of NYC-focused websites and I want to give every NYC homeowner and their families who are also impacted, a way to voice their concerns directly to VOTERS and those Council Members who voted for it.  One of the sites, among many that I own, is NYCPolitics.com.

[Carlos300]

All New York City Airbnb Hosts are Biting their Nails,

to see If the New York City Politicians will Grant Us a Registration Number,

for Short Term Hosting, on September 5th.

My Nails are Gone !

[Carlos300]

The New York City Politicians are Trying to Shut Down Most of Airbnb, on September 5th 2023.

Airbnb has had Only One Protest Rally so far, and it was During the Work Week, 

Instead of on a Saturday or Sunday.

We Need to Have Many More Airbnb Sponsored Rallies in Manhattan.

All Hosts Need to Encourage Airbnb to Hold a Rally Every 2 Weeks.

What Happens in New York City Will Start to Happen in All of the Country's Cities,

Unless We Struggling Middle Class Small Home Owners Win.

[Robin4]

@Carlos300 

Unfortunately the horse has bolted Carlos, the future for Airbnb is looking bleak I am afraid.

Alarm bells sounded in Jan 2016 when Rahm Emanuel, the then major of Chicago introduced into council his 'Airbnb Ordinance', yeah he actually singled out Airbnb! That Airbnb Ordinance was an increase to 21% the tax levied on all short term rentals.

Airbnb were a bit too busy raking in money to mount any sort of real challenge, and in May that year the Airbnb Ordinance passed through Council 43 votes for, 7 against!

Obviously the vote represented community sentiment and lets face it, councils are there to represent their ratepayers interests.

That was the springboard for other jurisdictions across the US and Europe to also introduce measures to curb the spread of STR. STR hosting restrictions have snowballed around the world in the larger population centres and rather than meet the problem head on, Airbnb's answer to this impost was to recruit more hosts to spread the income base.

I don't know what the figure is in the USA but, here in Australia every time I submit a review I am told I can earn $1076 for every successful new host I can introduce to the platform. Nobody at the top seems to care that 45% of hosts world wide in their first 2 years are deadwood to Airbnb! They may host less than a dozen stays per year, stumble not knowing or being proficient at what they do, possibly lodge a claim or two......it costs more to keep them on the books than the revenue they produce brings into Airbnb. But rather than get behind their successful hosts, give them the back-up and support they need, they are forever chasing more newbies!

The average Airbnb host in 2022 earned $13,000 per year ($262 per week) .....$7.86 pr week for Airbnb in host service fees . 45% of them are earning less than $5,000 per year, a grand total to Airbnb of $2,88 per week!!!

Last year, their Summer 2022 releases saw a change in direction....."Live like a local" became the slogan and they started promoting default week minimum stays in off population areas, presumably to shift business away from traditional areas where hosting restrictions were biting harder and harder. From January to August 2022 Airbnb lost 34.3% of it's gross value according to iproperty management.com

Nobody upstairs has ever thought to promote the good that Airbnb can do in communities!

In 2018 I did a poll amongst the 126 guest stays I had for that year. I asked every guest, “How much money would you have spent in this community during your stay”? Now about half of them were simply one night stays, they may have bought a pizza, some soft drink and a bottle of wine, maybe $50. Others who stayed for 4 or 5 nights might have spent $800-$1,000. The average over those 126 stays for that year was $280 per stay. If you multiply that it comes to $35,280 Airbnb guests spent while at my listing. Multiply that by the 100 or so local Airbnb listings at that time,that amounts to $3,528,000, yes that’s $3.5M Airbnb guests brought into our local community of 40,000 in 2018.

I published a letter detailing this in the local paper and when council and local traders read this or heard about it they realised the benefits to be gained by welcoming Airbnb business that in many instances would not have come. And watch out any council that tries to take away or limit their traders business. Some businesses have my ‘Airbnb Welcome Here’ stickers on the window and offer my guests a 5% discount. The local health inspector  even transcribed my house rules into Simplified Chinese text. I don’t have any enemies in my area and as far as my area is concerned there are not enough days in the year for Airbnb.

I formed my one person lobby group and it worked, and as hosts this is what we have to do! It's no good sitting on our a*ses and expect Airbnb to fight for us.....they have had years to do it but each year the hosting screws get turned that bit tighter.

Carlos, feel it's too late you are fighting against large and powerful lobby groups who, over the past decade  have seen this incredible intrusion into the hospitality industry, and they won't stop until STR is outlawed. Airbnb are just going to keep on re-inventing themselves to try and stay relevant but, I am staring 80 years of age in the eye now Carlos. I have had a great 8 years with Airbnb but I am glad I am coming to the end of my hosting life. I will be sad to give it away, it's been a great 8 years......I am sorry to say it but, I can see absolutely no good  road ahead for STR 

Cheers.........Rob

[Carlos300]

Thank You Robin for Your Excellent Explanation !!

It was Very Insightful about Airbnb's Managerial Ways.

[Robin4]

@Carlos300 

You know Carlos, this is an incredibly important topic you have raised, and have a look what has happened just in this thread of yours.....there has only been 5 responses, two of them being mine, and no post has gained even a handful of likes.

Hosts I am afraid are like lambs to the slaughter, they just don't seem to care that every year their business gets taken further and further away from them.

They sit back and blame everyone but themselves. As hosts we are all sitting back waiting for a fairy godmother to wave a magic wand and make STR accessible and easy again.

To be honest I am appalled at the lot of you, almost every STR host around the world is subject to hosting restrictions and what are you doing about it.......diddly squat !!!

They say in politics you get the government you deserve......the same is true in the STR market.....you get the hosting restrictions you deserve!

I am fighting but I don't get any support!   So be it!

Cheers..........Rob.

Edit: my feature in the sun didn't go quite according to plan last night! This screenshot tells the tale......

I expected a lot better from last night but, as I said, technology let me down, but we had a great turn up last night....the most I have ever seen in a Zoom meeting, we were spread over 3 pages and we will do it again because, hosting is not just a livelihood to some of us, it's our passion and I will do everything I can to keep it viable!

........Rob

@Mar125 

[Carlos300]

Thank You Rob, for Your Words of Encouragement.

[Nur785]

@Robin4 

I think this is a little harsh for the situation in hand. I'm not sure who or what you were fighting against in your quest and organizing, but it's not so simple in our case. 

First, the only reason the current regulations are not being endorsed until  September 5th is because Airbnb and 3 local hosts sued the city over its new regulations and there is still litigation going on. That means the faith of the airbnb regulations are not final. 

Second, the regulation is not a complete ban. It effectively eliminates a lot of the host management companies but owners who have an extra apartment in their house are still able to host guests as long as they are present, which is also the case in Jersey City mind you. And it's working well for us. 

The stupid thing in NYC regulations is the locked door thing, but that's to specify the difference between a separate unit that can e zoned vs. that cannot be zoned as a multi family unit. Believe me it's more difficult to change the zoning than fighting this rule. I suspect that will be dealt with in the litigation. 

Third, who airbnb is fighting against in NYC is less the giant evil hotel lobby, but more the housing department due to the devastating housing crisis in the city. That is not to say the hotel lobbyists are not funding this. But again, the fight over housing in the City is nothing new and the fight has been going on my entire life.  The city politicians  are mistaken to think this regulation is going to take care of housing problem: 

a. because the owner who has an extra apartment in her house will still airbnb

b. because even if no one airbnbs rental prices are sky high, but so most other things in the city. that's a different problem. 

But this is a fight we are carrying on in another context, namely city has affordable housing projects they are rejecting and using this Airbnb ban to show as something they are doing. They are mistaken. The numbers will be public in the litigation and the fight for affordable housing in the city will go on. 

People who are desperately talking about the ban in NYC and trying to organize protests, I'm afraid, are not really knowledgeable about what's happening in the city. The protests or even "likes" as you put it in this scenario are not helpful. What's helpful is the litigation going on and the fight for affordable housing. 

If one of the affordable housing projects pass, the focus on airbnb will lose its vigor. I also have to say, the airbnb regulation enforcement is really nothing new in NYC. There was such a movement about 10 years ago, and the enforcement completely disappeared and more airbnbs showed up. that is to say, this focus rises and wanes in NYC regularly. 

Also, allowing Airbnb in NYC with no regulations, I sincerely believe, is a BAD idea. It creates rental arbitrage and people who are just bad hosts. The licensing regulation eliminates that. The small host can still apply for a license and still host. 

Again I repeat, we do this everyday in Jersey City. We get a license, we are present during the guest stay. Either I or a member of my family is always in one of the apartments (you get 60 days where you don't have to be present in one year). There are actually ways to set the calendar up that way. You host less people, but that's okay, because we are not a hosting company who is managing 30-40 listings. 

So you getting upset with hosts for not reacting to Carlos's post is undeserved I'm afraid. I don't give Carlos's post a thumbs up because I fundamentally disagree with it. It's not a ban, it's a regulation, it's not entirely a bad thing. The details are still in litigation. I hope this clarifies NYC situation a little better. 

And here is an article about the litigation from NYT, I'm gifting the article, there is no paywall so everyone can read it. 

Cheers, 

nur 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/nyregion/airbnb-sues-nyc-rentals.html?unlocked_article_code=pHPL7...