7 ms·

Interesting comment on related article by NYT that offers some insight into what type of behavior this bill may be aimed at curbing ... http://cityroom.blogs.n

by p3ll0n 16y ago

Interesting comment on related article by NYT that offers some insight into what type of behavior this bill may be aimed at curbing ... http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/bill-could-make-subletting-a-tad-illegal/#comment-700185 http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/bill-could-make...

djb_hackernews 16y ago
I've seriously underestimated the popularity of airbnb if people are purpose building structures (undercover no less) for the sole purpose of marketing them as a place to crash on airbnb. Also amazed that neighborhood groups have "Illegal Hotels Committee"s
- starkfist 16y ago
  Also amazed that neighborhood groups have "Illegal Hotels Committee"s NYC is close quarters. It's not necessarily cool to have a different set of partying neighbors every day of the week.
  - sstrudeau 16y ago
    Yeah, our neighbor pretty blatantly runs an illegal hotel out of her house in Brooklyn. Usually it's fine but she often has young, European guests who like to party in her backyard (about 10 feet from our bedroom window) until 6am. Luckily this is reserved for weekend evenings (most days) so we don't complain; though if it got out of hand, it might be nice to have some alternative to (almost never enforced) noise ordinances. That said, I'd rather live with this than cut off opportunities/efficiencies created by airbnb!
    - natrius 16y ago
      To solve the noise issue, lower the burden of proof for noise citations for people who are renting out their apartments as hotel rooms. When landlords have a stake in keeping the noise down, it seems like it would be easier to keep in check.
- joshwa 16y ago
  The illegal hotel problem (esp on the west side of NY) is indeed actually big enough to warrant a committee on the community board-- the west side is home to a lot of SRO's and seedy 'hotels' that cater to folks coming into NYC via the Port Authority bus terminal.
- earl 16y ago
  Well, try living with me. I live in Ashbury Heights in SF. Our next door neighbor runs a possibly illegal short stay hotel. It sucks ass -- this is a quiet residential neighborhood and he rents to either redneck trash that think it's appropriate to open their car windows, blast country music as loud as their stereos will go, and drink cheap beer on the sidewalk at 2 in the morning or to eurotrash who at least have their loud parties in the house, but tend to party much later. I've had to repeatedly call the police, and finally settled the problem, for the most part, by setting my alarm for 4 AM and ringing the doorbell of the owners / using an air horn to wake the owners up. I made him understand that when I don't sleep, his family doesn't sleep, and he finally cracked down on it. I still have his drunk assholes peeing on our garden once a month.
  - blhack 16y ago
    >I still have his drunk assholes peeing on our garden once a month. Get a dog.
    - pavel_lishin 16y ago
      Running electrified fencing is probably cheaper in the long run. Although I guess it'll only solve the problem once per guest.
  - madair 16y ago
    Sounds like a lot of people are "trash" to you.
    - drdew 16y ago
      They are trash to me too.
huhtenberg 16y ago
I don't see how the issue of operating unlicensed hotels is specific to shorter-than-a-month sublets.
- tjsnyder 16y ago
  It's not and I'm pretty sure it's already illegal to operate these unlicensed hotels anyways.
fgf 16y ago
This is already illegal, the problems already solved. Distrust of corporate/labour/professional groups that want regulate something out of "safety concerns" etc. is far too low.
natrius 16y ago
I've actually rented a room in the place that comment is complaining about. Small world. I found it on craigslist before AirBnB even existed, so the building wasn't built just for the site. It may have been built for short-term rentals in general, but I doubt it. Toshi was working on the mezzanine level of the apartment while we were there, and there's a shower with a window out to the living room, which isn't particularly conducive to rentals... It was a way better experience than using a hotel. He actually double booked the room for a couple of the days, so he gave us a different apartment in Manhattan for those days. We ended up getting to experience more neighborhoods on a deeper level than we would have otherwise. You could always split a trip between two normal hotels, but they usually aren't in actual neighborhoods. Making this illegal is dumb, and it reeks of wholesale purchasing of legislation.
- pavel_lishin 16y ago
  > It was a way better experience than using a hotel. He actually double booked the room for a couple of the days, so he gave us a different apartment in Manhattan for those days. How good would the experience be if he didn't have that second apartment?
  - natrius 16y ago
    It would've sucked. The double booking was an accident as far as I could tell, and that's not unheard of at normal hotels. I wasn't counting the chance of getting to stay in multiple places as a benefit of short-term rentals. It's negligible.

by p3ll0n 16y ago

djb_hackernews 16y ago

I've seriously underestimated the popularity of airbnb if people are purpose building structures (undercover no less) for the sole purpose of marketing them as a place to crash on airbnb. Also amazed that neighborhood groups have "Illegal Hotels Committee"s

starkfist 16y ago
Also amazed that neighborhood groups have "Illegal Hotels Committee"s NYC is close quarters. It's not necessarily cool to have a different set of partying neighbors every day of the week.
- sstrudeau 16y ago
  Yeah, our neighbor pretty blatantly runs an illegal hotel out of her house in Brooklyn. Usually it's fine but she often has young, European guests who like to party in her backyard (about 10 feet from our bedroom window) until 6am. Luckily this is reserved for weekend evenings (most days) so we don't complain; though if it got out of hand, it might be nice to have some alternative to (almost never enforced) noise ordinances. That said, I'd rather live with this than cut off opportunities/efficiencies created by airbnb!
  - natrius 16y ago
    To solve the noise issue, lower the burden of proof for noise citations for people who are renting out their apartments as hotel rooms. When landlords have a stake in keeping the noise down, it seems like it would be easier to keep in check.
joshwa 16y ago
The illegal hotel problem (esp on the west side of NY) is indeed actually big enough to warrant a committee on the community board-- the west side is home to a lot of SRO's and seedy 'hotels' that cater to folks coming into NYC via the Port Authority bus terminal.
earl 16y ago
Well, try living with me. I live in Ashbury Heights in SF. Our next door neighbor runs a possibly illegal short stay hotel. It sucks ass -- this is a quiet residential neighborhood and he rents to either redneck trash that think it's appropriate to open their car windows, blast country music as loud as their stereos will go, and drink cheap beer on the sidewalk at 2 in the morning or to eurotrash who at least have their loud parties in the house, but tend to party much later. I've had to repeatedly call the police, and finally settled the problem, for the most part, by setting my alarm for 4 AM and ringing the doorbell of the owners / using an air horn to wake the owners up. I made him understand that when I don't sleep, his family doesn't sleep, and he finally cracked down on it. I still have his drunk assholes peeing on our garden once a month.
- blhack 16y ago
  >I still have his drunk assholes peeing on our garden once a month. Get a dog.
  - pavel_lishin 16y ago
    Running electrified fencing is probably cheaper in the long run. Although I guess it'll only solve the problem once per guest.
- madair 16y ago
  Sounds like a lot of people are "trash" to you.
  - drdew 16y ago
    They are trash to me too.

huhtenberg 16y ago

I don't see how the issue of operating unlicensed hotels is specific to shorter-than-a-month sublets.

tjsnyder 16y ago
It's not and I'm pretty sure it's already illegal to operate these unlicensed hotels anyways.

fgf 16y ago

This is already illegal, the problems already solved. Distrust of corporate/labour/professional groups that want regulate something out of "safety concerns" etc. is far too low.

natrius 16y ago

I've actually rented a room in the place that comment is complaining about. Small world. I found it on craigslist before AirBnB even existed, so the building wasn't built just for the site. It may have been built for short-term rentals in general, but I doubt it. Toshi was working on the mezzanine level of the apartment while we were there, and there's a shower with a window out to the living room, which isn't particularly conducive to rentals... It was a way better experience than using a hotel. He actually double booked the room for a couple of the days, so he gave us a different apartment in Manhattan for those days. We ended up getting to experience more neighborhoods on a deeper level than we would have otherwise. You could always split a trip between two normal hotels, but they usually aren't in actual neighborhoods. Making this illegal is dumb, and it reeks of wholesale purchasing of legislation.

pavel_lishin 16y ago
> It was a way better experience than using a hotel. He actually double booked the room for a couple of the days, so he gave us a different apartment in Manhattan for those days. How good would the experience be if he didn't have that second apartment?
- natrius 16y ago
  It would've sucked. The double booking was an accident as far as I could tell, and that's not unheard of at normal hotels. I wasn't counting the chance of getting to stay in multiple places as a benefit of short-term rentals. It's negligible.