More Airbnb Chicanery

Come on, you guys – ‘you guys’ being Airbnb – there’s already enough gray area and questionability with the whole operation, especially in the NYC market; bad press in the New York Times itself is the last thing you need.

If one’s goal is to indeed “build an open and transparent community,” behaviors such as removing listings on the sly in order to boost the appearance of compliance, falsifying reports, and generally attempting to skedaddle around the fact that in New York, “state law bans apartment rentals of fewer than 30 days unless a permanent occupant is present, meaning that short-term, full apartment rentals are illegal. A host with multiple listings cannot be present in multiple locations at once” do not engender much trust, to say the least. As we’ve previously mentioned, the whole enterprise is such a tricky proposition in this city, and abusing the laws only hurts honest renters.

Read the entire article over at the Times, and – as we have stated before and cannot overstate – tread lightly, NYC tenants. The repercussions generally aren’t worth it.