Coalition Arises to Combat Airbnb Media Push, Lobbying and Illegal Hoteling
Sept. 12, 2014 — Illegal hoteling is one of the many banes of co-op and condo boards, and one that stings particularly hard because of the the security issue off non-background-checked strangers roaming your building's halls and stairwells. There's also the loss of sublet fees paid by approved residents who play by the rules, and the fact banks won't offer mortgages to people buying an apartment in heavily rented-out cooperatives and condominiums. Plus, New York law forbids apartment rentals for less than 30 days, in buildings with three or more units.
Airbnb and similar short-term rental sites don't much care about any of that. In fact, Airbnb and the organization Peers began a PR and lobbying campaign this spring to try to overturn our laws governing short-term rentals. But now to combat that deep-pocket carpetbagging comes a coalition of more than 100 affordable-housing advocates, community groups, elected officials and others attempting to highlight the impact of illegal hoteling.
One of the first steps taken by the coalition, called Share Better, is the creation of a parody video using real customer reviews to highlight the darker side of the real-estate transactions in the much-ballyhooed "sharing economy." The group says it will as well "leverage paid media, grassroots organizing, public education, and potential legislative action to counter massive Airbnb spending, and prevent the illegal hotel industry from continuing to violate state law and eliminate scarce affordable housing."
Extra Ammunition
While that last part isn't in the forefront of most condo and co-op boards' considerations, it's important in its own right and represents some extra ammunition to fight illegal hoteling. As it happens,residential units that are unlawfully converted to more lucrative short-term rentals exacerbates New York’s affordable-housing crisis by depleting an already scare supply apartments.
12 percent of hosts
control 30 percent of
Airbnb's NYC listings.
And while Airbnb — which is currently under investigation by the state Attorney General for violating short-term rental laws — touts itself as helping everyday Joes and Janes just trying to make a buck and survive in this city, the numbers appear to say otherwise. Share Better, using figures from the independent data-extraction company Connotate, says that of the 19,522 New York City listings on Airbnb as of January 2014, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) covered an entire apartment, in violation of state law, and that more than 200 of the offerings came from just five hosts. Indeed, it said, 12 percent of hosts control 30 percent of all New York City listings.
Share and Share Alike
Given how difficult it is already for co-ops and condos to document and deal with illegal hoteling, boards might want to consider teaming with the extant Share Better groups to help fight any legislative change that would make it easier to residents to thumb their noses at the rules and put the rest of the building at risk. In the meantime, we'll leave you with three things: An example of what we mean by "putting the rest of the building at risk" (even when it's a legal rental); an example of how a Brooklyn condo board is fighting illegal hoteling; and this Share Better video:
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