Skip to main content

Airbnb fights for New York host against unclear ‘illegal hotels law’

Screen Shot 2013-05-21 at 11.10.17 AM

We initially reported that renting out your space in bustling New York City for those seeking short-term accommodations is being interpreted as illegal – a man named Nigel Warren had to learn the hard way when he was asked to pay $2,400 for offering his space on popular travel accommodation site Airbnb. Originally Airbnb wasn’t heavily involved in Warren’s case, but now the company is willing to back the fined host with funding and a litigation team.

David Hantman, Airbnb’s Head of Global Public Policy, confirmed their support for Warren in a blog post, stating that they are determined to fight the ruling until justice is served. “In 2010, the State of New York passed a law designed to crack down on bad actors that operate illegal hotels – a goal we all share. Unfortunately, the 2010 law also had the unintended consequence of impacting regular New Yorkers,” Hantman explains. “The New York law needs to be clarified and should be made more fair for regular New Yorkers who occasionally rent out their own homes to help make ends meet.”

The post also makes clear that although they have decided to aid Warren’s extenuating cause, it cannot realistically provide individual assistance to every Airbnb host that encounters a mishap – it’s still up to the user to ascertain the legalities of property rentals in their own locale. Airbnb has available accommodations in over 34,000 cities and 192 countries – that’s too many possible law loopholes for the company to cover personally, and the reason why they leave it up to the hosts to verify their own city laws and leases.

According to Hantman, “recent legislation introduced in the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate to exempt from the 2010 law those individuals who are renting out their own homes” is truly a great sign, especially since New York is one of their more popular and prized vacation destinations. This is not the end of the battle though, as there are other pressing matters to worry about, such as the amount of flack Airbnb is getting in San Francisco, where the company is based. However, the company’s involvement in Warren’s case and the positive response they seem to be getting has emboldened their pursuit to continue being a reliable resource of many homes-away-from-homes.

“We are committed to clearing the path as best we can for our hosts and the travelers who visit them,” says Hantman. “We will continue to fight Nigel’s ruling, and we continue to fight for a fairer, clearer New York law. The sharing economy is here to stay, and so are we.”

Editors' Recommendations

Jam Kotenko
Former Digital Trends Contributor
When she's not busy watching movies and TV shows or traveling to new places, Jam is probably on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or…
X rival Threads could be about to get millions of more users
Instagram Threads app.

Threads -- Meta’s rival to X, formerly Twitter -- has just launched in the European Union (EU), a market with nearly half a billion people.

The app launched in the U.S. to much fanfare in July, with Meta hoping to attract X users disillusioned with the turbulence on the platform since Elon Musk acquired it for $44 billion 14 months ago.

Read more
X (formerly Twitter) returns after global outage
A white X on a black background, which could be Twitter's new logo.

X, formerly known as Twitter, went down for about 90 minutes for users worldwide early on Thursday ET.

Anyone opening the social media app across all platforms was met with a blank timeline. On desktop, users saw a message that simply read, "Welcome to X," while on mobile the app showed suggestions for accounts to follow.

Read more
How to create multiple profiles on a Facebook account
A series of social media app icons on a colorful smartphone screen.

Facebook (and, by extension, Meta) are particular in the way that they allow users to create accounts and interact with their platform. Being the opposite of the typical anonymous service, Facebook sticks to the rule of one account per one person. However, Facebook allows its users to create multiple profiles that are all linked to one main Facebook account.

In much the same way as Japanese philosophy tells us we have three faces — one to show the world, one to show family, and one to show no one but ourselves — these profiles allow us to put a different 'face' out to different aspects or hobbies. One profile can keep tabs on your friends, while another goes hardcore into networking and selling tech on Facebook Marketplace.

Read more