{"id":348211,"date":"2025-11-01T15:03:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T15:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/348211\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T15:03:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T15:03:29","slug":"airbnb-fight-returns-new-council-bill-sparks-fears-of-back-door-rollback-in-hells-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/348211\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb Fight Returns \u2014 New Council Bill Sparks Fears of \u201cBack-Door\u201d Rollback in Hell\u2019s Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new City Council bill that would allow homeowners to rent out their properties on a short-term basis has sparked a renewed debate over Airbnb in New York City \u2014 and raised alarms in Hell\u2019s Kitchen, where illegal hotel conversions have reshaped blocks and housing stock for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\"\"A sign on a W48th Street building advises tourists that the property is not a hotel and any room they believe to have booked there was a scam. Photo: Catie Savage<\/p>\n

The proposal, Intro 948<\/a>, introduced by Brooklyn Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse, would roll back portions of Local Law 18<\/a>, the 2022 regulation that effectively shut down most short-term rentals by requiring hosts to register with the city and be physically present in the home during any stay under 30 days. The rule drove a reported 90% decrease in Airbnb listings citywide and was widely seen as closing the final loophole that allowed residential apartments to be used as de facto hotel units.<\/p>\n

The new bill would allow owners of one- and two-family homes to rent out their properties to up to four adult guests (plus children) without the host present. Supporters say the bill is aimed at homeowners \u2014 especially in outer-borough neighborhoods \u2014 who rely on rental income to offset rising housing costs.<\/p>\n

Airbnb praised the new measure as \u201ca balanced fix,\u201d arguing it would not meaningfully affect the long-term rental market. The company has been pushing the Council for broader reforms as recently as September<\/a>, when it backed Intro 1107 \u2014 a separate proposal that sought to loosen parts of Local Law 18 \u2014 but faced sharp opposition from the hotel industry<\/a> and ultimately stalled in committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AirbnbHomeowners rallied to pass similar legislation in December 2024, which ultimately stalled in committee. Photo: Samantha Maldonado\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

At the time, Airbnb said the city\u2019s strict regulations had failed to deliver promised affordability gains, pointing to rising rents, stagnant vacancies and mounting pressure on homeowners who once relied on hosting income. While Intro 1107 never advanced, Airbnb says the latest bill reflects the same idea: that targeted changes can support homeowners and neighborhood businesses \u201cwithout taking any housing off the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tenant advocates, housing groups and the hotel workers\u2019 union strongly oppose the legislation, arguing that any rollback risks reopening the very loopholes Local Law 18 was designed to close.<\/p>\n

Those concerns are deeply rooted in Hell\u2019s Kitchen.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the City sued LuxUrban Hotels<\/a> \u2014 a Miami-based operator accused of running dozens of illegal short-term rentals in Midtown \u2014 for allegedly failing to make payments on a $1.2 million settlement<\/a> it agreed to in March 2024. The City said LuxUrban illegally operated 67 short-term rental units across 29 buildings, including 11 residential properties on W49th Street, where neighbors long complained about security risks, noise, stranger turnover and hallway congestion in buildings designed only for long-term tenants.<\/p>\n

\"RowLuxUrban listed illegal short-term rental at 11 residential properties on W49th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. Photo: Catie Savage<\/p>\n

Officials have repeatedly described these illegal hotel conversions as \u201cdisplacement in slow motion,\u201d removing apartments from the residential market while destabilizing the surrounding blocks.<\/p>\n

Tom Cayler, a longtime Hell\u2019s Kitchen resident and member of the Coalition Against Illegal Hotels, argues that Intro 948 is not a narrow homeowner relief bill but a structural weakening of residential protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill would allow every dwelling unit in NYC to become a permanent short-term rental,\u201d Cayler said. His concern centers on the removal of the host presence requirement, which he calls \u201cthe only guardrail preventing an apartment from becoming a hotel room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Cayler, a longtime Hell\u2019s Kitchen resident and member of the Coalition Against Illegal Hotels. Photo: Catie Savage<\/p>\n

Cayler also points out that the bill allows up to four adult guests with no limit on the number of children under 18, and does not require any adult renter or host to actually be on site during the stay. The amended definitions also allow interior rooms like kitchens or living spaces to be locked off from guests, meaning a unit could be rented with access only to a bathroom and sleeping area, raising questions around safety, fire egress and overcrowding.<\/p>\n

He warns that, taken together, these provisions amount to \u201ca back-door reversal of Local Law 18\u201d by making it possible to operate a residential apartment as a full-time short-term rental. Without the on-site host requirement, Cayler says private equity firms and commercial operators would once again have the incentive to buy up smaller homes and convert them into de-facto hotel units, especially in neighborhoods where housing demand is already high. The risk, he argues, is that the city could slide back into a pattern where residential buildings function like transient lodging facilities \u2014 the very dynamic Local Law 18 was created to curb.<\/p>\n

Hell\u2019s Kitchen Councilmember Erik Bottcher said the legislation risks undoing progress made under Local Law 18 and \u201cmoving the city in the wrong direction.\u201d He framed the debate in the context of the ongoing housing crisis, noting that \u201cevery single unit of housing we can protect for long-term tenants matters.\u201d Bottcher added that Hell\u2019s Kitchen has already seen the damaging effects of unregulated short-term rentals \u2014 from rent-stabilized tenants living alongside transient guests, to rising rents and the loss of affordable apartments. \u201cOur focus must remain on keeping people housed, protecting tenants, and ensuring that every available apartment contributes to solving, rather than worsening, our city\u2019s affordability crisis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe residential property at 408 W36th Street is currently listed on Booking.com for short-term rentals. Photos: Catie Savage and Booking.com<\/p>\n

Throughout Hell\u2019s Kitchen, signs of a renewed short-term rental market are already visible. At 408 W36th Street, a walk-up just west of 9th Avenue, a property calling itself \u201cAl Shami 408 Hudson Yard\u201d is currently listed on Booking.com for about $175 per night<\/a>. Sixteen lockboxes are mounted to a boarded-up ground floor window beside a printed sign advertising WiFi access and a phone number for check-in \u2014 a setup commonly associated with unsupervised rentals. Recent online reviews describe shared bathrooms, dirty linens and \u201cminimal facilities and services,\u201d with one guest writing that the property felt \u201cmore like an apartment building\u201d than a hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major change in NYC housing policy being pushed in a lame-duck period,\u201d Cayler said. \u201cThe impacts on neighborhoods like ours would be immediate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s sponsors \u2014 Narcisse, fellow Brooklyn Councilmembers Farah Louis and Chris Banks and Bronx Councilmembers Kevin Riley, Oswald Feliz and Althea Stevens \u2014 represent districts where short-term rentals have been framed as pathways to intergenerational stability for Black and brown homeowners.<\/p>\n

Tenant advocates counter that the city\u2019s housing shortage is now too severe to treat housing as supplemental income.<\/p>\n

The bill has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing, and with a new Council speaker and a new mayor incoming, its future is uncertain. But in Hell\u2019s Kitchen \u2014 where residents have been through repeated cycles of \u201cAirbnb buildings,\u201d illegal hotel crackdowns and neighborhood turnover \u2014 the stakes feel familiar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new City Council bill that would allow homeowners to rent out their properties on a short-term basis…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":348212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[17053,5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-348211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-airbnb","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115475056220552477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}