The Impact of New York City’s Short-Term Rental Regulations on Small Business Owners

“They are taking away my business and I think that is not fair.”

Julio Pabón talks about his business as a short-term rental host on the Airbnb platform. Since last Tuesday, he will not be able to host guests in the 5 rooms of his house in the Bronx because the city’s mayor’s office of special compliance has not approved the registration application that he submitted two months ago.

“And they sent me a note saying ‘thank you, you signed up, now we are investigating,'” Pabón added.

In addition to the obligation to register with the mayor’s Office of Special Compliance (OSE), the law allows owners of buildings where registrations of this type of rental are not accepted to notify the mayor’s office and request that their buildings be included in the list of prohibited buildings. So far about 50 buildings are on that list.

“And I tell you, I understand the decisions, I understand the housing shortage,” Pabón said.

According to him, he knows of cases of many buildings that stopped renting to New Yorkers to use apartments like Airbnb.

The mayor’s office of Special Compliance sent a statement stating:

“The registry creates a clear path for hosts to follow the city’s old laws and protects travelers from illegal and unsafe accommodations, while ending the proliferation of illegal short-term rentals.”

As of Monday, September 4, the office received 3,829 applications of which it has reviewed 896 and approved fewer than 300.

For its part, Airbnb said in a statement:

“New York City’s short-term rental rules are a blow to its tourism economy and to the thousands of New Yorkers and small businesses in the outer boroughs who rely on shared housing and tourism dollars to make ends meet” .

Pabón is 71 years old, lives with his wife and receives a minimal social security check. Renting for Airbnb he earns from 600 to 2000 dollars a month, depending on the season.

“It frustrates one because it makes me think about what I have to do now to then be able to increase the income that I will surely lose due to the bureaucracy of a city that did not prepare well for what they are doing.”

2023-09-06 17:11:00
#rules #shortterm #rentals #Airbnb #similar