Airbnb founders Nathan Blecharczyk, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky

Four major providers of short-term rental services have banded together to create a legislative blueprint that they hope will guide how cities set short-term rental regulations, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Airbnb, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and FlipKey announced today that they have launched the Short Term Rental Advocacy Center, a website that will aggregate short-term-rental-friendly regulations from around the country. The group calls for cities to tax short-term rentals in a manner akin to how hotels and inns are taxed. Cities that ban short-term rentals, the group said in a press release, stand to lose out on significant tax revenues, and current regulation was more than sufficient.  [more]

Big Data could have major implications for sustainable development

Big data — the collection of large and complex data sets — can transform building construction and management, investment, leasing and even government policy, according to scholars and experts on sustainable real estate. [more]

Robert Chan of Toshi Inc. (Image c/o Business Insider)

A New York state judge ruled in the city’s favor Friday on a lawsuit that it had brought against Smart Apartments, barring the large scale-operator of short-term rentals from operating or advertising residential apartment units as limited-occupancy hotel rooms, Law360 reported.

In an October suit, the city alleged that Smart Apartments, by booking and housing visitors in illegally-converted apartment buildings, was indulging in deceptive trade practices against tourists. On Friday, Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Smart Apartment’s practices were indeed a public nuisance and put visitors and building residents at risk. [more]

Gramercy Starck and Steve Sladkus

The Gramercy Starck condominium board is suing a Houston couple who rented out their apartment for short-term stays, claiming their guests hosted wild parties, defaced doors with obscene graffiti and fought with building staff. The condo owners’ actions allegedly violated the city’s multiple dwelling law, designed to curb illegal hotel operations. [more]

80 John Street

A Russian investment analyst could face jail time for allegedly illegally renting out her swank Art Deco-style Financial District condo, according to court papers spotted by the New York Post. The accused, Sophie Grishanova, a Columbia University graduate working for Privet Capital, has only 20 days to pay a $3,500 contempt fine and possibly an additional $15,000 attorneys’ fee, subject to court approval, or face incarceration.  [more]

Airbnb’s Nathan Blecharczyk, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky

Principals of the hospitality website Airbnb, which allows homeowners or renters to lease their spaces to visitors on a short-term basis while out of town, are working to change local laws which make it difficult to use the site in New York, WNYC reported.

New York’s multiple dwelling law, which serves to make short-term rentals in large buildings illegal, was tightened in 2011 to curb the spread of illegal hotels in the city. Instead, it’s led to users of Airbnb being slapped with violations by city authorities for hosting strangers in their homes for short periods. In one instance, a man who rented his East Village walk-up to tourists last year for three nights is being fined $30,000. [more]