{"id":155854,"date":"2026-03-07T00:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/155854\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T00:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:26:14","slug":"nyc-doesnt-have-enough-hotel-rooms-for-fifa-world-cup-must-suspend-airbnb-restrictions-business-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/155854\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC doesn’t have enough hotel rooms for FIFA World Cup, must suspend Airbnb restrictions: business leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City doesn\u2019t have enough hotel rooms for hordes of visitors coming to this summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup<\/a> and should suspend the current restrictions on Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms, business leaders told Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Friday.<\/p>\n

Groups including the Partnership for New York City and chambers of commerce for all five boroughs say the city must pause its short-term rental laws from June 1 to July 31 so more people can stay in the Big Apple during the games \u2014 along with celebrations for the country\u2019s 250th anniversary and Fleet Week.<\/p>\n

FIFA World Cup games will be played at MetLife stadium in July. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The groups said throngs of visitors expected to come for the special events won\u2019t be able to land bookings at the city\u2019s roughly 135,000 hotel rooms, where \u201coccupancy already hovers near 97%.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout additional capacity, hotel prices will surge beyond the reach of working families, spending will leak to New Jersey and the suburbs, and neighborhoods hosting events across the outer boroughs \u2014 where only 20% of hotel rooms are located \u2014 will see visitors but capture none of the overnight economic impact,\u201d states a letter the business groups wrote the elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York will project to the world that it cannot manage the logistics of hospitality at the very moment it is hosting the planet\u2019s biggest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not comment on the letter but said the administration will meet with business leaders next week to hear out their concerns ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Menin did not immediately answer requests for comment.<\/p>\n

While home-sharing apps are not technically banned in New York City, the business leaders noted \u201calmost nobody uses them because city laws say the owner has to stay in the apartment with you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2023 short term rental law <\/a>\u2013 aimed at stays of less than 30 days \u2013 decimated Airbnb and the rest of the short-term rental market in New York City. <\/p>\n

It limits the number of guests per booking to two and requires hosts to register with the city or face hefty fines.<\/a><\/p>\n

Airbnb has spent millions on lobbying efforts<\/a> to overturn or loosen the regulations. The San Francisco-based company blames the Hotel Association of New York City and the powerful hotel union for the stringent rules.<\/p>\n

The law\u2019s backers have said home-sharing apps like Airbnb made homes less affordable by taking units off the market.<\/p>\n

Mamdani and Menin announce the opening of a new school in Manhattan last month. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce launched a digital campaign and petition<\/a> to drive support for a temporary reprieve for short-term rentals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cAct Now, NYC! Or our sales will go to New Jersey this summer,\u201d the group warns.<\/p>\n

Airbnb\u2019s market share in New York City has plummeted since Local Law 18 was enacted in 2023. AP<\/p>\n

About 1.2 million visitors are expected to converge on the region for eight World Cup games at MetLife Stadium, the letter states.<\/p>\n

Another 6 million visitors are expected for events around the 250th anniversary of the country, with which Fleet Week<\/a> will coincide this year.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s plenty of space, according to Vijay Dandapani, chief executive of the Hotel Association of New York City, who said claims of too few hotel rooms are an \u201cabsolute falsity and a red herring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe letter is untethered to any facts and is a propaganda piece put out by Airbnb with the chambers carrying their water,\u201d he told The Post.<\/p>\n

FIFA has actually been \u201ccanceling room blocks\u201d in New York City because there is not enough demand, he added.<\/p>\n

FIFA did not immediately answer a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Airbnb is a member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, whose chief executive Jessica Walker testified at the City Council last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hotel Association for New York City says there enough hotel rooms to meet tourist demand this summer. RightFramePhotoVideo \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are recommending a narrowly tailored suspension of the short-term rental ban for the World Cup window,\u201d she said. \u201cThis costs the city nothing, while preventing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from leaking out of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker told The Post, \u201cPeople see this is as a reasonable request that is meant to be temporary and have guardrails,\u201d adding that \u201cit\u2019s clear who who we represent: small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Orleans, Kansas City, several southern California cities and other locales have changed their short-term rental restrictions in order to accommodate major events, the new letter stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City doesn\u2019t have enough hotel rooms for hordes of visitors coming to this summer\u2019s FIFA World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13382,288,44571,810,19077,13912,9,56,63,65,64,400,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-155854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-airbnb","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-fifa-club-world-cup","11":"tag-hotels","12":"tag-julie-menin","13":"tag-lobbyists","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news","19":"tag-soccer","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}