Airbnb has removed almost all New York City listings from its platform following a change in the law. The city wants to take action against the housing shortage and high rents, but many are skeptical about this.
New York is the number one destination in the USA for many Germans, including Petra Behr and her daughter Anne-Kristin from Stade in Lower Saxony. The two found their room with a shared bathroom in Brooklyn via the booking portal Airbnb, mother Petra tells the team ARD studio New York: “I couldn’t find anything that was halfway central for less than $300 a night. Then I looked for Airbnb, because that’s what we do all the time. And then I said, I’d rather Airbnb, I can stay longer in New York and save Of course, money too.”
Your booking is a typical short-term rental. And that’s exactly what the new New York law prohibits, which is why many providers are upset. Now the following applies: If you want to rent for less than 30 days at a time in the future, you must be officially registered with the city; must live in the property himself, be present during the rental, make the entire apartment accessible to his short-term tenants and may only accommodate two guests at a time.
The measure is intended to relieve pressure on the housing market
The city of New York argues that this will bring more apartments back onto the tight rental market. “Nonsense,” says Julian Ehrhardt, who is an Airbnb host himself, and is audibly angry: “That’s a lot of bullshit! That’s a resounding slap in the face from NY for all tourists. Especially for families. NY is a really expensive city. Short-term rentals were the only affordable option for them. And that’s no longer possible.”
Rents in New York are as high as the city’s skyscrapers: dizzying! In Julian’s neighborhood in Brooklyn, for example, an ultra-small one-bedroom apartment can quickly cost $2,500 a month – cold, of course. Heather, who lives a few streets away, also knows such prices. Until now, she has happily rented out her small studio apartment when she is away on business.
The original idea was perverted
In this way she was able to refinance her own expenses, and there were also very practical reasons: “I travel a lot for work and am away for two to four weeks at a time. It’s a good way to pay the rent and have someone here, because in… For example, summer is super, super hot and of course your clothes and other things can suffer if you don’t run the air conditioning.”
Many New Yorkers are against the new laws.
Such rentals correspond to the original idea of Airbnb: private individuals rent to private individuals for a few days. As in many other cities around the world, there are now real professional providers in New York who operate several properties with many small units, so-called “Airbnb farms”. At the beginning of the year, there were almost 39,000 listings on Airbnb for New York alone, which makes around 1.5 percent of its global sales here.
Giga hosts are the main problem
For many locals, these giga hosts are exactly the problem. This is also the case for Natalie, who rents herself and understands the city: “The majority of all Airbnb providers in New York City are people who rent a lot of apartments professionally and rent them out commercially via Airbnb. In doing so, they are depriving us New Yorkers of valuable living space. It is “It’s a shame that this majority is jeopardizing the idea to the detriment of the minority who are using Airbnb the way it was intended. The city is trying to solve a real problem. And I can understand what their law is trying to achieve.”
If you have already booked a trip to New York and are arriving by December 1st, nothing will change. Booked trips with a later arrival, however, will be canceled by Airbnb and any money paid will be refunded. Anyone currently searching Airbnb for New York will find almost no offers anymore.
Hotels are hoping for an upswing
The hotels in the city should be happy about this. For years they have fought against the spread of Airbnb. Vijay Dandapani from the Hotel Association New York emphasizes that his members pay higher taxes and have to meet stricter hygiene and safety requirements. There have always been requirements for the platforms, but they have never adhered to them: “We at the hotel association welcome these rules because there is a law that has been in force since 2010, and these rules help, this law now finally to enforce it.”
After a few days in midsummer New York, Petra Behr and her daughter are heading back to Northern Germany: “After graduating from high school, we said we would like to go to New York, and the fact that it has now worked out is of course great.”