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.