{"id":361088,"date":"2026-09-30T19:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T19:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361088\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T19:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T19:48:09","slug":"airbnb-advocates-push-to-ease-nyc-short-term-rental-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361088\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb advocates push to ease NYC short-term rental restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airbnb advocates are calling on the NYC Council to pass legislation they say would make short-term rentals<\/a> more accessible for homeowners.<\/p>\n

The legislation, called Intro. 879<\/a>, would increase the number of guests allowed in a short-term rental from two to four. It would also allow homeowners to rent out their homes for short stays even while they are away.<\/p>\n

Under the current rules established by Local Law 18, homeowners must remain in the home while guests are staying there and can host no more than two paying guests. Advocates for short-term rentals say the restrictions have made it too difficult for homeowners to participate in the short-term rental market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Alexander, executive director of NAACP New York, who advocates for Intro. 879, explained that Local Law 18 was originally established with restrictions to help preserve the city\u2019s limited housing supply.<\/p>\n

Despite keeping larger corporations off Airbnb\u2019s registry, the law\u2019s restrictions have also prevented many local homeowners from participating in the short-term rental market, advocates say.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have single-family and two-family homes, brownstones in Brooklyn, Harlem, other properties in Queens, that can\u2019t be used as short-term rentals because the property owner has to be in the unit per Local Law 18, meaning no privacy for short-term renters,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n

There are homeowners who can benefit by opening up their homes as Airbnbs,\u00a0 Alexander said, explaining that the extra income can help pay for mortgages, bills or other necessary expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing and homeownership has been a pathway to wealth creation for families, particularly for families of color,\u201d he said. \u201cNew York, still, despite this effort to build housing and apartments, we still have homeowners. Nuancing the conversation around affordability and how New Yorkers are impacted by New York\u2019s policies requires that we take a second look at Local Law 18.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council Member Mercedes Narcisse (D-Brooklyn), who sponsored the bill, echoed Alexander\u2019s points.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are homeowners in my district with a spare room and a mortgage that keeps going up,\u201d she said. \u201cBefore Local Law 18, some of them rented that room to visitors and used the money to pay property taxes, keep up with repairs, and stay in the homes they worked hard to buy. The law took that away, and the housing relief we were promised never came.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a missed opportunity with the World Cup this year, as NYC homeowners missed out to the tune of nearly $5,000 each, according Airbnb data.\n<\/p>\n

Airbnb leadership reported that 55% of New Jersey tourists first searched New York before booking their stay for the massive tournament in the Garden State. During this time period, New Jersey had eight times the typical number of check-ins and the median host earnings were $4,600.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat money should have gone to families here in our city,\u201d Narcisse said.\n<\/p>\n

Further, Airbnb reported that since Local Law 18 was established in 2023, the restrictive short-term rental regulations cost homeowners more than $320 million in lost income<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill would just make those necessary changes so that it is possible for single-family and two-family homes to be used more effectively as short-term rentals,\u201d Alexander said.\n<\/p>\n

Opposition to Intro. 879<\/p>\n

There is opposition to Intro. 879, including from NYC\u2019s hotel industry.\n<\/p>\n

Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City<\/a>, called the bill \u201cirresponsible\u201d and \u201coutright negative for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that the bill is not designed to help most homeowners due to the language in the bill. For example, he said the word \u201capartment\u201d is not thoroughly defined in the bill.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very clever bill,\u201d he said. \u201cPrivate equity places can get in here, buy these places. It is not to help these small people, or alleged small people \u2014 maybe there are some who are strained because of mortgages \u2014 but they can be helped in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Narcisse said the bill \u201conly covers one- and two-family homes, so apartment buildings aren\u2019t part of it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people renting out space in the home they live in,\u201d she said. \u201cNo tenant gets pushed out, and it doesn\u2019t open the door to illegal hotels in apartment buildings. The bill simply raises the guest limit from two to four and lets homeowners host while they\u2019re traveling, while keeping protections for the city\u2019s long-term housing supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dandapani said the bill should be opposed.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAirbnb does not own these assets,\u201d he said. \u201cHotel owners and operators either own or operate. Airbnb is a platform, but they have no oversight.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

There are many more benefits to hotels than Airbnbs \u2014 including safety benefits \u2014 Dandapani explained.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAirbnb\u2014no one knows who they employ. No one knows if there is human trafficking going on at an Airbnb because there is no front desk. They don\u2019t adhere to fire codes that hotels adhere to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Intro. 879 is currently in the council\u2019s committee on housing and buildings and would still need the mayor\u2019s sign-off to become law.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airbnb advocates are calling on the NYC Council to pass legislation they say would make short-term rentals more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[13382,2907,5806,75,84,83,9,24,63,613],"class_list":["post-361088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-airbnb","tag-housing","tag-local-law-18","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pm-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361088","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=361088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}