A year after the implementation and enforcement of Local Law 18, Airbnb is asking New York City for a second chance.
The short-term rental company is calling on the city to scale back its controversial short-term rental law, Bloomberg reported. Brian Chesky’s company said the measure “failed to deliver on the promise to combat the housing crisis” in a blog post.
Airbnb’s frustration with the city kicked into high gear after Labor Day last year when Local Law 18 came into effect, requiring short-term rental hosts to register with the city. That policy was on top of a rarely enforced ban on rentals of fewer than 30 days unless the host was present.
The impact was immediate. The vast majority of short-term rentals disappeared from the city overnight, a boon to the hotel sector‘s effort reclaim the tourism dollars that drifted elsewhere.
Proponents of Local Law 18 hailed it as a measure that would alleviate the city’s housing crisis, but that hasn’t come to pass. A study from Airbnb months after the enforcement of illegal short-term rentals went into effect found that rents still rose and vacant units didn’t materialize as a result of the policy, though the sample size then was limited.
As of last month, short-term Airbnb listings in New York City are down 83 percent year-over-year to 3,700, according to AirDNA. Airbnb is likely missing out on millions of dollars, as the company made $85 million in revenue in New York City alone in 2022.
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The company does still have a presence in the market, as prospective hosts can apply with the city. There was a backlog of applications at the start of the enforcement period, but that has been mostly cleared. Of the nearly 6,700 applications made to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement in the past year, roughly 38 percent were approved and 38 percent denied, with the rest being sent back to applicants for revision.