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]

Interior shots of 145 Sixth Avenue

The folks at Streeteasy.com have created a section on their website where residents displaced by last week’s storm can find short-term rentals. However, some of the available listings are better suited to a more well-heeled crowd, as Curbed noted.

An Upper East Side townhouse at 407 East 75th Street that once belonged to photographer Richard Avedon, and later housed former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s brother, can be rented for three months to the tune of $225,000. If a would-be tenant’s regular home won’t be habitable for some time, the property can be purchased for a cool $12.5 million. [more]