How to Air BNB? New Law & City Approval

Anyone have experience as an Air BNB host in NYC with the new law? A new law passed requires you to apply to the city to be a short term host. The fee to apply, is $145 and you don’t get it back if you’re not approved. Anyone have experience with this and know if its worth it or not?

cambellara

in General Discussion 2 years ago

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justinromeu26 | 2 years ago

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densifying if done right is good. evan mentions the schools and that was an issue here with us as there was over crowding and we went to a meeting with someone from the chancellor’s office and they literally told us they wanted to build another but could not find land in our area. City taxes are lower than the suburbs and that is because when you have 30 houses on a block, each person pays a lot less pro rata than the people in the suburbs do who have 8 houses in the same space (say to pave the road and provide other services). yet these people (i mean close relations of mine on LI) complain about high taxes and then complain when someone comes along and proposes densifying the downtown districts (with little impact on the areas they live in on the outskirts). People have to live somewhere and a lot of this sounds like a win-win to someone who wants a vibrant cbd and low taxes.

Sometimes it feels like the city perpetuates problems to ensure job securi ty but the problem is they are trying to please everyone and that will never solve a problem. they give a little bit here and a little bit there and all these things work against one another.

ysabil | 2 years ago

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Yes, DOB is punitive, yes construction and renovation are expensive, and yes short term rentals (inc. AirBnb) contribute to the housing problem. But by far the largest cause is zoning, and specifically push back from existing owners on increasing density in their neighborhoods aka ‘Not In My Back Yard’. There are some legitimate concerns around densifying- mostly pertaining to infrastructure such as schools – but those should be solvable. Building more housing, especially mixed income projects, is the only way that NYC is going to resolve this crisis.

justinromeu26 | 2 years ago

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they have a habit of making all these laws lurker that they have no intention of enforcing and that has the effect of forcing honest operators out of whatever it is they were doing and leaving those who don’t mind breaking the law. it drags the entire place down for all of us. if they would stop making laws and address some of the underlying issues, we could have a nice place to live.

Lurker | 2 years ago

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That came off wrong–I believe New York has a housing problem. But it’s far more complicated than “airbnb exists and so New Yorkers have more expensive housing.” That is the propaganda I’m referring to. New York has had a shortage of affordable housing for ages, long before Airbnb was a thing, and there are lots of contributors.
For instance it’s incredibly expensive to do new construction or a renovation, and the pace is slow and the city DOB is punitive. The housing code also doesn’t remotely reflect the way people actually live here, with basement apartments, de facto SROs and so on.
Airbnb absolutely brought a bunch of terrible habits with it, but as with bike lanes, electric scooters, Uber, and many other innovations that flourish elsewhere, NY went the draconian route and banned it rather than trying to fix it.

colonialrevival | 2 years ago

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I was ready to believe you until the “propaganda about housing shortages” part. Now, I somehow hold my original opinion even stronger than before.

Lurker | 2 years ago

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Respectfully it’s a lot more complicated than that. There is a big difference between an airbnb in a private home and one in an apartment building. I am biased as I used to Airbnb but found from renters why they were preferred to hotels: In our neighborhood there are no hotels that are decent, many are filled with homeless people by the city, there are few that can support a family in any sense of comfort, and if you recall pre-covid we had a bed bug crisis, plus the expense and lack of privacy and facilities in a hotel.

Til the new laws, there were a total of 40,000 rentals in all of NYC, which is less than a rounding error in terms of the million-plus residences in the city. And there are thousands of vacant apartments—short term rentals don’t cause that.
https://gothamist.com/news/how-many-nyc-apartments-are-vacant-no-one-actually-knows

Around the world and the US they’ve figured out a way to allow short term rentals and make it work for everyone, safely. Somehow NYC didn’t, which is notable, and the sole reason is because of the hotel lobby and related unions, not quality of life, or safety, or all the propaganda about housing shortages. Absolutely there should be rules and enforcement. But the city went way overboard .

colonialrevival | 2 years ago

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Given the abuse of illegal short term rentals over the past 10 years—this is a good thing. We have hotels for a reason.

Lurker | 2 years ago

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Other than rentals that are longer than 30 days, the new regulations make virtually all airbnb/vrbo etc rentals illegal. The exception is if you are willing to have a guest/stranger share and have access to all living space in your home, without separate locked doors, at all times, and while you are staying there for the entirety of the stay.

dorkofwindsor | 2 years ago

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i’d love to hear a success story as well. given that there have only been 36 approved in the entire city, im hoping maybe there is one out there to discuss. but due to severe understaffing they have only reviewed 13% of ones submitted thus far.

the “current” effective date is sep 5, and that has been pushed back several times, so its still a “fluid” situation.