More than half the Airbnb rentals in New York City for the month of November may have been illegal based on rent laws in the state, according to a New York Daily News report.
After pressure from New York government officials, particularly State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, the short-term rental website finally conceded to sharing its user data. On Tuesday, the start-up revealed data showing the type of listings available, and how much money the hosts make, according to the New York Times.
A Daily News analysis of the data found that of the 35,966 listings for New York City last month, 19,742, or about 55 percent, were for an entire apartment. Under state law it is illegal to rent out an entire apartment for less than 30 days, unless it is a one- or two- family home.
The Times was more conservative on the analysis saying it was unclear what percentage of homes were defaulting on the law.
Some of the other salient features of the report include the fact that Airbnb hosts in the city usually make a little more than $5,000 a year through their rentals, and that 75 percent of the revenue earned by these hosts came from people who only have one or two listings on Airbnb, per the Times.
· More than half of NYC Airbnb users may be breaking the law, but few are operating major illegal hotels: report [NY Daily News]
· Airbnb Releases Trove of New York City Home-Sharing Data [New York Times]
· Airbnb Archives [Curbed]
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