New York, NY– In response to the rampant growth of Airbnb illegal hotel listings, New York State Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF-Manhattan) conducted an undercover sting operation of Airbnb illegal hotel use.

Assemblymember Rosenthal began the sting operation by first identifying hosts with “entire home/apartments” and multiple listings to ensure that only serial violators were targeted, as it is illegal to rent an entire home/apartment for fewer than 30 days without being present under state law. During the course of one week, Airbnb user accounts were created, rooms were booked, and a site visit of each rental unit was conducted, chronicling all interactions with hosts, other guests, and building residents.

“This undercover investigation exposed that Airbnb is an enabler of the rampant illegal activity and is robbing New York City of precious units of affordable housing. We were able to identify unlawful hotel operations with just the click of a mouse and a camera. Seeing firsthand how easy Airbnb makes it to illegally rent residential units, it's no surprise why we are losing so much affordable housing," said NYS Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal.

Highlights of the Sting Operation

• In the first rental unit visited, the host had at least seven rental units, and admitted that he does not live in the apartment, renting it was in violation of the law, and that if anyone asks, Rosenthal was told to say she was a friend and not mention Airbnb.
• The second rental unit was located in a large apartment building and Rosenthal was told by a building resident that the landlord rented a number of units as a hotel for tourists.
• The third rental unit was actually controlled by a rental company, not an actual tenant, with over 200 rental units, and the “host” was just a rental agent.
• The fourth rental unit was located in a 421-A building, and the host explicitly advertised on Airbnb that the apartment is used exclusively as a hotel rental for tourists and that no one lived in that rental unit full time.

Below are news reports of the sting operation:

CBS2 Exclusive: Assemblywoman Goes Undercover, Finds Industry Of Illegal Airbnb Rentals

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Business is still booming for Airbnb in New York City, even though a report last year from the state attorney general found that most of the listings in New York City violate the law and take affordable housing off the market for New Yorkers.

As CBS2’s Sonia Rincon reported, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, went undercover to see exactly how it’s happening.

Rosenthal used a hidden camera and got one leasing agent to admit he didn’t really live at an apartment and that it wasn’t really supposed to be rented short-term.

“If somebody asks you something, never mention in the building Airbnb,” he told her. “ … because this is supposed to be residential.”

State law prohibits someone from renting out an apartment for less than 30 days unless that person is also staying in the unit.

But those aren’t the types of places Rosenthal found on Airbnb.

“Thousands of units that belong in the housing market to rent to New Yorkers are taken off the market and reserved for tourists,” Rosenthal said.

She says the apartments she saw had no evidence of anyone living there.

“So, in fact, they were hotel rooms,” Rosenthal said. “There were no clothes in the closet. There was no food in the kitchen.”

Karina Trono from Argentina had just checked out after a couple days in an apartment on West 31st Street. Nobody was living there, and it was like a hotel, she said.

“Yes, there’s an office,” she explained. “You go to the office, and there’s a person who asks you for the reservation. You give your reservation, and you have the key.”

An apartment at a luxury building on West 33rd Street was advertised on Airbnb as being exclusively a rental for tourists. The listing actually said no one lives there.

Rosenthal said landlords, leasing agencies and Airbnb are all profiting while New Yorkers lose.

The assemblywoman went to get one key from someone named Stephanie at a leasing office, not the apartment. Stephanie did not live in the apartment.

“We have over 200 apartments. That’s why everybody has to come,” an employee at Ideal Oasis said, adding that Stephanie is an agent who “just books apartments.”

CBS2 went to the office, too, and asked a man who said he worked there if he knew properties were being rented illegally.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Definitely not happening.”

Irish tourists who stopped to pick up a key for a weeklong rental were confused when CBS2 explained that the rental is illegal in New York.

“If it’s not legal, how are they getting away with it then?” asked tourist Collette Bonner.

The answer to that, according to Rosenthal, is the city isn’t sufficiently enforcing the law.

But the enforcement is complaint driven, and many neighbors of the short-term rental apartments don’t complain — in many cases because they don’t know it’s illegal.

“It’s none of my business,” said John Savio, a neighbor to an Airbnb unit. “If the city has a problem with it, the city has to do something about it.”

Airbnb claims it advises users that they should follow local laws and provides information about them.

“Nobody supports bad actors who turn apartments into large-scale illegal hotels,” an Airbnb spokesman told Rincon. “We have removed thousands of listings from our site and Ideal Oasis is prohibited from accepting reservations on our site.”

Airbnb said city enforcement agencies should be targeting illegal hotel operators, but also that rental laws need to be clarified.

Rosenthal’s sting operation was also reported in the NY Post:

Lawmaker uses video sting to catch illegal Airbnb renters