Airbnb Is Suing New York City Over Short-Term Rental Restrictions: 'Extreme and Oppressive' The home-sharing and vacation rental marketplace is taking action against New York City's Local Law 18 which imposes restrictions on short-term rentals.
By Madeline Garfinkle •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Airbnb filed a lawsuit against New York City on Thursday challenging the city's Local Law 18, which requires short-term rental hosts to register with the mayor's office.
In the suit, Airbnb says the law is the "most extreme and oppressive regulatory scheme yet" by requiring prospective hosts to file an application that includes a cluster of personal and private information, such as reporting the number of individuals living in the home who are not related to the applicant and informing the city of any changes.
Airbnb said such requests are "outrageous."
"[Hosts] must tell the government if, for example, a partner in a romantic relationship moves in or out of the house," the lawsuit states.
The suit also notes that the requirement for prospective hosts to comply with New York City's local rental laws is unrealistic as the law is "near impossible" for lay New Yorkers to understand.
Related: Airbnb Announces 'Anti-Party Crackdown' Ahead of Summer
"It is literally impossible to comply with a maze of complex regulations in different legal codes – which experts say no lay person who has not worked as a building code inspector could ever even hope to understand," Karen Dunn, an attorney representing Airbnb, said in a statement to Entrepreneur.
The company added in the lawsuit that it was informed by the mayor's office that, year to date, the city had only approved nine short-term rentals in all of NYC, accounting for merely 0.04% of all active non-hotel listings on Airbnb's platform that had been booked at least once since the start of 2023.
Entrepreneur has reached out to NYC Mayor Eric Adams' office for comment.
