New York Subpoenaed AirBnb For All NYC User Data 181
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The war between New York City and Airbnb is raging on, and the future of the hospitality business hangs in the balance. The city is fighting the startup for breaking local laws against operating an illegal hotel out of your home, worried that hustlers are abusing the online service to turn a profit. To that end, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just slapped the company with a subpoena to hand over the user data of all New Yorkers who've listed their apartment on the site, the New York Daily News reported today. That's about 225,000 users."
AirBNB HELL!!!!!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Am right now 5:20 AM in the morning in Los Angeles in AirBNB HELL!!! The property management company for the building next door has started renting out units on AirBNB, probably not telling the property owner and collecting the difference in rent. Right now there is a huge party going on next door and it started at 3 AM. This is not the first time this has happened. Tenants in the building couldn't park in their own spots because the party guests took them last time. When they complained to management they where told if you pay as much as their paying in rent you can have the spot back. Am sure the cops have been called more then once. Am guessing that the tenets will sue because keeping a peaceful residence is one of major parts of leases. I've also told one or two of them that I am keeping a log and am willing to testify in any court case. Speaking of which am going to call the cops just to have an official record of my complaint.
AirBNB needs to figure this out or be made illegal. End of fucking story. If I get fired from work for being up all night. I will talk to a lawyer about using AirBNB.
Re:Look past the article's version of the cast ... (Score:5, Interesting)
I very much think the city can have an issue on its own, without the hotel lobby being involved.
Property owners are learning that they can make more money posting their apartments on AirBnB than renting them out traditionally. It's in their economic best interest to hire a cleaning service, throw in some flat-pack furniture, and stop renting normally. This distorts the rental market as people who live in the city end up competing with short-term tourists for places to live. Cities want to be somewhere people live, not just somewhere people visit.
AirBnB hosts also compete against hotels with a stacked deck. They're not forced to charge the standard hotel-night taxes, nor meet ID checking requirements on guests, pay commercial property tax, meet commercial firecode requirements, etc. I can understand why hotels would be angry, but they're far from the only group with a vested interest in the outcome.
Re:Look past the article's version of the cast ... (Score:3, Interesting)
You will rapidly change your mind when your neighbour becomes an airbnb. You will find bunches of people paying pittance and holding all night parties, inviting hundreds of facebook friends, having no respect for the property they are in, no respect for you or your home. Then the next weekend you get to look forward to it all again with another group.
For this reason it needs to be illegal everywhere. (and probably will be soon) You can't take a business which is regulated and controlled to minimise impact (e.g hotels, holiday lettings, party venues) and claim you have the right to do it anywhere you want because new technology suddenly enabled it.
Airbnb landlords are either already operating illegally or be as legislation changes to prevent it. Homes are not businesses. They are homes.
Re:Look past the article's version of the cast ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I am an Architect in NYC that has worked with owners of the buildings (which is typically not the owners of the units) that are having to remove violations and stop-work orders in an effort to maintain the building (which requires permits to do so, which cannot be gotten with a stop-work order in place). While there might be "hotel lobby" conspiracies involved, there is actually very legitimate reasons for this on the building life-safety side of things. Most large residential buildings are class R-2 Residential zoning (permanent living) not R-1 (temporary living), and therefore not set up to act as a place for people who might not understand english, might not be familiar with the building, and might not have any idea what to do in case of a fire. R-1 requires lighted exit signs, strobes, sprinkler / smoke detectors, and so on that R-2 doesn't need since the residents are knowledgable about the methods to escape fires and other life-safety issues. So building owners caught with AirBnB renters in it (and believe me I have seen it quite a bit) are required to bring the ENTIRE building up to R-1 level. Not fun or cheap, however, as with any life-safety issue, once the first family from Amsterdam is killed because they couldn't find their way out of the burning building, everyone will ask the City why this wan't enforced...