Airbnb launches big-dollar ad campaign pushing for Cuomo veto
Lee lives in Ozone Park, has cancer and rents out his home on Airbnb to help pay his medical bills. Diego lives in a book-lined apartment Inwood and hosts on Airbnb to help pay for his studies at Columbia University.
Both are featured in a new, multimedia ad campaign Airbnb is launching Wednesday morning to push Gov. Andrew Cuomo to veto a bill that would levy steep fines on Airbnb hosts who advertise their apartments online in violation of the state’s housing laws.
“If the hotel industry’s bill is signed into law, these New Yorkers would be exposed to severe fines simply for offering to share their homes to visitors from around the world,” said Josh Meltzer, Airbnb’s public policy chief in New York.
The short-term rental of apartments in multi-family buildings has, since 2010, been illegal unless the host is also on-site. The bill in question, which the state Legislature passed in June, would levy fines of up to $7,500 on hosts who advertise rentals in multi-family buildings in violation of the law.
Cuomo has yet to indicate whether he will sign the bill or veto it.
The ads, which Airbnb says cost “just south of seven figures,” will run through mid-November in New York City on cable and broadcast TV, in the digital space statewide, and in New York City taxis.
The campaign seeks to counteract the influence of three politically empowered groups, who together backed the bill passed in June: hotel union members, who believe Airbnb is undermining the hotel industry; affordable housing advocates, who contend Airbnb is depleting housing stock in an already unaffordable city; and big landlords, who want to exert more control over how apartments in their buildings are used.
“If Airbnb is willing to spend millions to protect illegal hosts who steal affordable housing from NY tenants, it just shows what an integral part of their business the advertising of illegal units is,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who sponsored the anti-Airbnb bill, in an emailed statement.