Responding to complaints over a lack of transparency, Airbnb on Tuesday released a horde of data about its New York City operations — but also confirmed that a majority of its rentals may violate New York’s short-term leasing law.
Of the nearly 36,000 listings that were active in mid-November, roughly 55 percent — or 17,942 — were for rentals of entire homes or apartments, most of which are likely illegal. Other than one- or two-family homes, entire dwellings can’t be rented in New York for fewer than 30 days.
The remaining 45 percent of listings were for rentals of private or shared rooms, which the law allows.
While the data dump was intended to soften opposition from elected officials to the tech firm’s intrusion into the market, City Council member Helen Rosenthal (D-Upper West Side) called the new information a distracting “rabbit hole” that doesn’t move the company any closer to compliance.
“We have a New York state law on the books,” Rosenthal said. “Either Airbnb can be a good corporate citizen and enforce the law or they can turn over data so that New York City can enforce the law. They basically told us today they’re not going to do either.”
Airbnb officials argued the data showed that renters, whom they repeatedly characterized as middle class, were simply using the service to supplement their incomes.
The average unit was rented for 42 nights a year and brought in $5,110 per year on average, according to the company’s data.
A proposed council bill would hike the minimum violation for breaking the rental law to nearly twice that sum, $10,000.
“Helen Rosenthal’s solution would be to fine middle-class New Yorkers $10,000 while they are just trying to make ends meet,” said Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas.
“We think a good policy solution is to try to help regular New Yorkers have an economic lifeline,” he added. “We look forward to working with the city to put middle-class New Yorkers first.”
The firm’s records showed that fewer than 1.4 percent of Airbnb hosts have listings for three or more apartments, a red flag for possible illegal hotels that have been the target of complaints by hotel unions.
The company insisted that it’s as opposed to “speculators” acting an illegal hotel operators as the unions.
“Illegal hotels are not in the interests of our guests, our hosts, our company, or the cities where Airbnb hosts share their space,” the firm said in a statement.
The data were made available to reporters and elected officials, but were not released publicly because of concerns over privacy, according to company officials.
Not surprisingly, Airbnb listings were congregated almost entirely in Manhattan and Brooklyn — with fewer than 8 percent in Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx as of last month.
The top three neighborhoods for listings were Williamsburg in Brooklyn, followed by Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village.