Online marketplace for long and short stays, Airbnb filed a lawsuit against New York City on Thursday, which it called “de facto ban” on short-term rentals.
Set to take effect in July, the company claims that it will limit the number of persons who can host rentals in the city.
According to the company’s lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court, New York’s city council effectively established “its most extreme and oppressive regulatory scheme yet, which operates as a de facto ban against short-term rentals in New York.”
In a letter to hosts, Airbnb stated that “today’s filing comes only after exhausting all available options for a sensible solution with the City.”
According to the filing, the law will make it more difficult for hosts to do business by requiring them to register with the office of Special Enforcement and certify that they will follow “the maze of complex regulations” for zoning, multiple dwelling law, housing maintenance code, and construction code.
According to Airbnb, OSE application assessments will ensure that “only a small number of hosts will ever be granted a registration.”
According to Airbnb, more than 5,500 short-term accommodations are booked to welcome more than 10,000 people beginning in the first week of July in New York.
According to the suit, a previous law that went into effect in 2021 caused 29,000 hosts to exit the New York short-term rental market. According to the filing, Airbnb’s yearly net revenue in New York City in 2022 will be $85 million.
City councils across the United States are rapidly drafting regulations to regulate short-term rentals, which will force hosts to get licences and pay registration fees in some situations, or limit the number of short-term rentals in business districts.