New York – 72 percent illegal: A large part of the Airbnb offers in New York in the past four years are said to have been illegal. This is the result of an investigation commissioned by the New York federal attorney Eric Schneiderman. Accordingly, the city escaped more than 33 million dollars (about 26 million euros) in hotel taxes through the platform.
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Airbnb mediates apartments, rooms or beds on the Internet for a commission. The New York City Justice has long tried to take action against it. Schneiderman’s office has now evaluated data from 16,000 landlords over the period from January 2010 to June 2014. Airbnb had to release the information after a court decision.
The result: the platform is being infiltrated by commercial landlords. These large providers are only six percent of the total users, but account for 37 percent of sales. A single user offered 272 apartments and turned over $ 6.8 million. Through him alone, Airbnb earned almost $ 800,000 in fees.
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The company announced that it has now taken precautions against commercial use. Even before Airbnb Schneiderman handed over user data in May, it had removed around 2000 offers from its website. Schneiderman, for his part, has now announced an initiative against illegal rentals.
There are already functioning regulations
In San Francisco, Airbnb and authorities have now agreed on a regulation. There, landlords now have to register with the city and pay hotel taxes. They are not allowed to sublet their apartments for more than 90 days if they are not there themselves. In New York, however, tenancy law is much more complicated.
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Travelers use portals such as Airbnb because the overnight stay is cheaper than many hotels, the apartments are usually located in an interesting area and direct contact with locals is often possible. Last year, three million apartments around the world were booked through the website. The business magazine “Forbes” estimated the Internet company’s 2012 annual sales at $ 150 million.
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