NY Hosts: Airbnb Rally for Fair Home Sharing Regulation - Wed. Oct. 26th @ 11am

An email from Airbnb:

SHORT VERSION:
What: Rally for Fair Home Sharing Regulation
When: Wednesday, October 26 at 11am
Where: 633 Third Avenue (between 40th & 41st Streets) New York, NY 10017
REGISTER:
https://act.airbnbaction.com/page/s/rally-for-fair-home-sharing-reform

The long email:

We have important news to share with our hosts in New York.

On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an anti-home sharing bill into law. Unfortunately, this ignored the voices of tens of thousands of New Yorkers who rent their own homes to make ends meet. Various news reports, including editorials in the New York Daily News and the New York Post, described the bill as being the product of a special interest backroom deal where the public did not have an opportunity to participate in the process. A majority of New Yorkers have embraced responsible home sharing, and we will continue to fight for a smart policy solution that works for everyone.

For so many of you who are listing shared spaces and private rooms, the new law does not impact your ability to continue sharing your permanent homes. The new law also doesn’t prohibit advertising entire home listings in 1–2 family homes or any rentals for 30 days or more. However, it does prohibit advertising short-term rentals that violate the State’s Multiple Dwelling Law, namely, entire home listings for less than 30 days in multiple dwelling buildings (three-plus family units) categorized as “Class A” in New York City (e.g., tenements, apartment houses).

Not only do we believe that this law is bad policy, but we believe that it is unlawful in the way the city intends to enforce it. That’s why we immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the act on state and federal grounds.

While the case moves forward, Airbnb is committed to working with elected officials to enact comprehensive home sharing regulations. Our proposal – Sharing for a Stronger New York – protects affordable housing by limiting hosts to sharing a single entire home listing in New York City and cracking down on commercial operators who threaten to remove housing from the permanent market. Our policy proposal protects hosts, guests, and public safety by requiring registration, insurance, and tax collection.

We invite you to join our Rally for Fair Home Sharing Regulation this Wednesday, October 26, at 11am in NYC. At the rally, hosts will be asking for the chance to meet with Governor Cuomo. Hosts never had the chance to make their voices heard when the backroom deal to punish the middle class was done, but we can still exercise our right to make clear to the Governor and others how important home sharing is to New Yorkers.

RSVP

While our community’s voice may have been locked out of the legislative process, we can still exercise our right to make clear to the Governor and others how important home sharing is as an economic lifeline to many New Yorkers.
We’re also committed to helping create the kinds of powerful experiences that happen when hosts like you share their space with people from different communities and cultures. Sharing your space while you’re present remains entirely legal and we hope everyone will consider opening their homes and connecting with travelers from around the world. Likewise, you can continue listing your home for rent so long as the rental is in a 1–2 family home or for a period of 30 days or more.
We’ll stay in close touch with you about the lawsuit and how the new law may affect you and your listing. For more information, you can read our full statement here.
Thank you for being a part of this community. And we very much appreciate how so many of you have had the courage to stand up and fight for the people against the powerful.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sincerely,

The Airbnb Team

Curious…so can someone in NY rent out a second home for less than thirty days - if it’s a stand alone property, and not in a multiple dwelling building?

Very interesting the way they want to rally up the masses. Would they ever admit to the misuse of their platforms by those who would run commercial enterprises?

I wonder if they are going to delist the obvious illegal ones.

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Yes, because a stand alone property is not “affordable”.
NY wants to protect the affordable housing from being taken of the market and put up for short term rental.

In basis there is nothing wrong with that.

AirBnB should have come with its own solution, offer NY a 60 or 90 day limit, and enforce it.
But AirBnB did not want that, and in the end the honest users that are really renting out their own homes are punished.

I don’t get it. Doesn’t it say that those who homeshare are unaffected ? Is the point that Airbnb thinks people in a city with a housing shortage should be able to list whole properties too?

Agree that had Airbnb been more proactive this would probably never have happened.

AIR may decide it’s worth it for them to get ahead of this in other cities before additional bans get legislated, however, I read an article that estimated that 40% of AIR’s profits in Los Angeles came from commercially held units (rather than a property owner with a single listing). In that light, you can see why AIR was trying to bury their head in the sand - a huge proportion of their profit seems to come from the “bad apples”. If I remember correctly, the study discounted a large number of listings that showed no availability for the next 3 months (these are almost always listings created by a property owner who lives in the unit and rarely rents it out, except when they leave town.) In contrast, the commercially held/managed AIR properties are rented out constantly as every vacant night represents a loss to the owners and subsequently, these aggressively marketed units (they cut last minute nightly rates to 50% in my neighborhood) are the bread and butter of AIR’s profitability.

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A single or two family house is legal according to the state and city laws. BUT you also need to check zoning laws.

I know of hosts who have received fines for zoning laws, sprinklers, exit signs, etc.

Hey everyone, my name is James Farrell and I’m a reporter with the Queens Tribune newspaper based out in Whitestone, Queens. I’m trying to do a story to understand how this law affects Airbnb hosts in Queens and I’m trying to get in touch with hosts who have been affected by the law (either positively or negatively) to hear their perspectives. If anyone is interested in speaking with me, or knows someone who might be, please let me know. You can email me at jfarrell@queenstribune.com or call me on my office phone during the day at (718) 357-7400 x 127. I’d love to hear your stories. Thanks so much!

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