New York City’s tremendous flop in its fight against AirBnB
For reasons that are not always clear and transparent, large cities often have a hatred for temporary rental platforms. While it is true that the latter can limit the quantity of properties available for long-term rentals, at the same time they allow the valorisation of temporarily unused properties, creating an additional source of income for the owners, A to tell the truth, I have always had the doubt that the action of local administrations on temporary rentals is guided more by the power of the powerful organized hospitality lobby, the hotels, than by consideration of the well-being of property owners, tourists and, in general, of local trade.
As in Italy in Florence or Rome, cities such as New York City in the USA have also imposed strong limits on temporary rentals. To be precise, and concise, New York has imposed obligations on owners who temporarily rent out their properties: rentals of less than 30 days are only allowed if the hosts register with the city. Hosts must then commit to being physically present in the home for the entire duration of the rental, sharing the home with their guest. Not even more than two guests are allowed at a time, meaning families are effectively excluded. Basically a hidden ban on short term rentals. AirBnB kicked out of the Big Apple.
The results are what any sensible person, i.e. not a blinded left-wing administrator, could have expected: just under 2% of New York City's 22,000 short-term rentals on Airbnb have been registered in the city since, at the beginning in September, a new law went into effect banning most ads. On the other hand, many illegal short-term rental advertisements have appeared on social media and lesser-known platforms, while some are still listed on Airbnb itself.
The number of short-term listings on Airbnb fell by more than 80%, from 22,434 in August to just 3,227 as of Oct. 1, according to Inside Airbnb, a watchdog group that tracks the booking platform. But only 417 properties have been registered with the city, suggesting that very few short-term rentals have managed to get permission to continue operating.
The crackdown in New York has created a “black market” in short-term rentals in the city, says Lisa Grossman, spokeswoman for Restore Homeowner Autonomy and Rights (RHOAR), a local group that opposed the law. Grossman says she saw the short-term rental market gain traction on places like Facebook after the ban.
New York's crackdown on short-term rentals has dramatically reshaped the city's vacation rental market. People use sites like Craigslist, Facebook, Houfy and others, where they can search for guests or places to book without the checks and balances of booking platforms like Airbnb. Hotel prices are set to rise as demand increases.
So the result was to see, on the one hand, less protection for the tourist tenants, who do not have the guarantees that were ensured by Airbnb, nor, on the other hand, for the owners, who have little information on the people to whom they entrust their properties. Furthermore, there has been an increase in tax evasion since, at this point, no one has any interest in declaring. In the end, the market-killing solution had the effect of displeasing everyone, tourists and owners alike. It's not clear whether it satisfied the hotel owners because, in the end, tourists make do in order not to go to hotels they couldn't afford.
The association of small landowners, RHOAR, hopes to be able to change the draconian rule, but you also know that it is easier to stop the earth's motion than a stupid law.
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The article New York City's terrible flop in its fight against AirBnB comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-tremendo-flop-di-new-york-city-nella-sua-lotta-contro-airbnb/ on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 16:04:42 +0000.