I think the Mods have made the right choice @Chris in keeping the topic.
If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read it 
And by the way this type of discussion, is discussed on all the major Airbnb forums including Airbnb’s Community Centre.
Meanwhile, the OP has not responded to any of the posts. We are all p******
into the wind. 
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Chris please. That’s rather sanctimonious. There might be PLENTY of hosts posting here who are illegal or at minimum, improper. It has also sparked an interesting discussion. It’s not for you to judge, and I’m not going to remove it.
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I doubt there is anyone on this forum more militant about the NYC rental laws than I. I believe Airbnb is a plague in many urban environments and must be regulated. However, the OP’s situation is an interesting one and I understand the temptation to do what she hoped to do. It could defray the extraordinary expense of switching apartments in NYC. Deposits, broker fees, moving. It is shockingly expensive.
I would like to remind the OP, however, of the following:
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Tourists and transient guests are a disturbance to renters who are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of the homes.
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You did sign an agreement saying you would not sublet.
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There is liability involved in renting above and beyond just getting caught. You are exposing the landlord to liability. You have NO landlord insurance yourself. If there is a fire or any other kind of accident your landlord is on the hook.
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OK, I will try to give some unbiased advice here (as a non-lawyer).
The Airbnb Terms of Service outline what exactly it is that guests are doing when they stay at our listings:
“You understand that a confirmed booking of an Accommodation (“Accommodation Booking”) is a limited license granted to you by the Host to enter, occupy and use the Accommodation for the duration of your stay, during which time the Host (only where and to the extent permitted by applicable law) retains the right to re-enter the Accommodation, in accordance with your agreement with the Host.”
So as you can see, you are not subletting to guests because you remain in control of the apartment at all times (even though you would never actually re-enter the apartment while they are present). As such Airbnb is not generally considered to violate “no subletting” clauses.
Some savvy landlords are adding specific “no short term rental” or “single family only” clauses, but it sounds like your lease does not do this.If you think about it, a landlord generally has no ability to stop you from inviting a friend to stay at your place while you’re away temporarily, and Airbnb is basically an extension of that except the guest is a stranger you met through a booking engine on the internet.
However NYC does have specific short term rental and possibly zoning laws on the books that could affect you. I’m not knowledgeable enough about them to comment.
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The law is very clear in NYC, the host must be present during str. See below:
I believe also a str is considered a form of subletting.
• The New York State Multiple Dwelling Law, which covers buildings with three or more units, prohibits transient rentals of fewer than 30 days at a time, unless the owner is present for the time a guest is renting.
• Lease agreements for market-rate renters and co-op owners usually prohibit subletting of any type without permission from the landlord or co-op board. For would-be hosts who live in a rent-controlled or rent-stabilized property, there may be restrictions or prohibitions on subleasing, which, if violated, could lead to eviction?
READ THE ARTICLE
• New York State now has a law targeting the advertising of illegal listings on sites like Airbnb. If a listing is in violation of the multiple dwelling law, an additional penalty of $1,000 per advertised listing may be imposed on the host.
For those who are interested, link below. I am a NYC host but not in a MD.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/overview-airbnb-law-new-york-city.html
So, maybe rent it for the full 30-day period, and hope that person actually leaves? No question, this is not legal, but much of NYCity is not legal. The stories I could tell about being shaken down for garbage removal would make your hair ends stick straight out. Oh, and what the female chef had to do to get decent meat was abhorrent.
This is very poor logic. One bad turn deserves another?
She has a no sublet clause, period. She wants permission from this forum to do something she knows is wrong. I personally can’t sanction it. I do wonder if she is reading any of this lol.
A rather generous and naive interpretation. I doubt any landlord would think Doing Airbnb is not subletting! But yes, they should ban it specifically if they don’t want tenants doing Air.
Yeah. NYC landlords often stink, but a lot of it is because of terrible renters. Tenants’ rights are very strong, here. You can stop paying your rent, and (if i recall correctly) you can squat for 275 days before the landlord can get you evicted. If you pay your rent on the 274th day, the clock starts over.
This is one of many reasons we will not host anyone for more than 2 weeks. If they stay in our room 30 nights, they can claim tenancy - and i don’t want to share my bathroom with that drama.
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No, absolutely not! And don’t let them use your address for any reason either because tenancy can be established that way. There are a couple of other ways as well but my pseudo-Bailey’s libation has over-rode (over-ridden?) uh, taken control of my memory cells (temporarily).
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I live in NYC and use airbnb to fill my apt. I do have an agreement with my landlord and they are slumlords so they can’t really threaten me. Before airbnb i dealt with craigslist roomies and good friend roomies so i am also familiar with the eviction process.
If you are going to do this vet your guests so they don’t disturb your neighbors, no kids, no animals, make sure they’re not moving their own furniture in [squatters], and make sure you meet them! This is a lot of work. Also you can try to just bounce out of that apt and forfeit your deposit. It takes around 90 days to evict a normal person. Even more i they have children. NYC laws favor squatters, BUT you could be put on a renter black list if your landlord gets salty enough.
Anyway. I think it’s worth the risk, just be wary of squatters and maybe write in a mandatory weekly cleaning situation if someone books for 2 weeks or more.
There are both landlord restrictions as well as municipal restrictions that need to be considered. First you should investigate any municipal restrictions that you may wish to be aware of as well as the penalties for such. Once you’ve completed that, then you’ll want to address the restrictions of the landlord. Generally it’s best to address this up front and before you have leased a place. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of landlords that would actually allow a short term rental so long as its 1) short term, 2) your rules cover the rules in the lease that you signed, 3) you would be held responsible and accountable as if you lived their yourself and 4) you acquired additional insurance that covered your rental as well. Yes - it’s a lot of hoops to jump through but not impossible. And finally, as others have shared already, seek the advice/review of an attorney familiar with real estate matters. Good luck!
@Jerry_Rockwell the OP isn’t looking for advice on how to Airbnb in their new rental. They’re thinking of airbnbing a place that they’re planning on moving out of, for a month at most.
No, it is not legal. No sublet means no Airbnb. However, you won’t be jailed. If you are leaving the apartment anyway, you have no worries. It is doubtful that your landlord would be bothered to evict you since you have already given notice. My advice as a landlord and an Airbnb host is go ahead and do it. btw I host in my guest house, not my apartments and I have a no Airbnb clause in addition to the no sublet. The only problem might be that if the Airbnb guests decides to stay and creates a tenancy (check the laws in your locale) it might come back and bite you in the a$$, so make sure your guest is on vacation from out of town.
As a longterm landlord I would make sure that there would be repercussions for you that would follow you for a long time, if you were to sublet one of my units on airbnb while having a ‘no sublease’ clause.
If I were to find out I would file for eviction, even if you had already moved out. I don’t want any other landlord having to deal with a tenant like this and would do my share to let the public know, so, if a future landlord would run a check on you, the eviction would show up.
Renting to airbnb would put me in an incredible bind: I have no control over who is in my apartment. I have no name, no background. My insurance wouldn’t cover any potential claim and you’d already be in the wind.
The fact that you write that you don’t expect to get your deposit back tells me that there’s obviously damage that you’ve created and you have no intention of fixing it before you leave. That’s a nightmare tenant to me. Many times the deposit doesn’t cover the repairs, when I’ve dealt with tenants like that.
Smart landlords look at airbnb periodically and check if their units are listed.
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(Putting Flame proof suit on)
Legal/ Court Order Evicition happens when the tenant does something eviction worthy, fails to correct the action OR relinquish the rental back to the landlord. So, OP could ABB and if caught by the landlord, walk away with no eviction bc she would have surrendered possesion of the apartment. No landlord is going to pay the $3k++ to go through an eviction if they tenant has relinquished possesion. Sure they can tell their lanlord friends but this isnt a permanent credit record situation. The permanent credit record situaion happens when you do something ie not pay tent, fail to correct ie pay rent, or fail to surrender possesion.
OPs bigger concern should be the fines from NYC for illegally renting BUT just like in other places she will get a warning fine with a you must stop letter. So She stops and thats that. Honestly, for 4 weeks odds are the lanlord would find out before NYC.
Lastly, in SF you can only ask for first months rent and a security deposit not more than 1.5x rent, no last months, and it is very clear the deposit is not to be used as last months.
More curious is why OP doesnt think she is getting her security deposit back?
Around here, we know which landlords do not return deposits. Even the most pristine move-outs, no return. If you want to bother, you can take the landlord to court and get a judgement, but then you actually have to collect. The northeast can be fairly brutal when it comes to rental properties. My favorite time was when we moved in x, y, and z were broken [and documented] and then we were charged the deposit to fix those three things. I can almost guarantee that x, y, and z were NOT fixed.
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Totally get it! In CA if you landlord didnt give you your deposit back for bogus shit you pay $100 (recouped if you win) to go to Small claims court.