New York City Votes to Outlaw Whole Home Airbnbs - 45-0

The New York City Council just unanimously passed a new bill to outlaw whole home Airbnbs 45-0. The mayor is expected to sign the bill.

To make things worse, the new law will force Airbnb to turn over all information on all hosts! So no more with the city investigators having to catch hosts one by one. Now they’ll have to whole list and they can just start sending out computer-generated fine notices. Thousands of dollars in fines for each violation.

The law is supposed to make whole home rentals illegal. But it doesn’t distinguish between hosts who are landlords and have taken a rental apartment off the market - and hosts who are simply renting their place out while they’re on vacation or out of town for a few days.

This is the first time the city will have the actual resources it needs (the full list of hosts from Airbnb) to actually close down NYC hosts. And it won’t be just those who have whole home listings. It will be EVERYBODY.

The law in New York cannot force Airbnb to do anything. Airbnb is not the leaseholders. They are simply a marketing agency. Air just recently fought and won that battle here in Naples, FL. They will not hand over host information.

Well, I hope you’re right! I really want to see Airbnb stand up for hosts on this one.

NYC says they’re going to charge Airbnb $1,500 for every host they don’t turn over.

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@KenH, you are correct! Airbnb will either:

  1. Delist every single NYC listing
    or
  2. Make each host certify that they wish to continue past a certain date, with each host acknowledging that
    their personal information will be handed over to NYC.

@JonYork, the legislation takes effect 180 days AFTER our Mayor signs off on it (which he has not). So at LEAST 6 months.

And as @KenH points out, Airbnb is not going to down without a fight (lawsuits), and possibly, a compromise.

We shall see…

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Wow!..unreal.