Proposed New York City Hotel Regulation Threatens To Push Prices Even Higher
With prices skyrocketing, the city is weighing whether to regulate hotels further by barring them from hiring contracted workers.
With prices skyrocketing, the city is weighing whether to regulate hotels further by barring them from hiring contracted workers.
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Plus: Fort Collins tries passing zoning reform for the third time, Coastal California cracks down on Airbnbs, and state lawmakers try to unban rent control.
Plus: Austin's newly passed zoning reforms could be in legal jeopardy, HUD releases its latest census of the homeless population, and a little-discussed Florida reform is spurring a wave of home construction.
The regulation is part of a suite of new restrictions on hotels sought by the local hotel workers union.
Plus: A listener asks the editors to name America's unsung or undersung heroes.
"The city is treating our private property as the city's housing stock."
Miami Beach's crackdown on Airbnb is "in jarring conflict" with a state law capping municipal fines at $1,000 per day, Judge Michael Hanzman ruled.
The bad news is he's a congressman now. And he's trying to stomp all over Section 230 in order to attack home-sharing apps.
Gov. Ron DeSantis essentially accused the company of taking part in a boycott of Israel. It has 20,000 properties in the country.
The most remarkable thing about the new rules: Hotel lobbyists managed to convince the city council to give up $100 million in tax revenue.
Online room-sharing services had no avenue to legally challenge demands for private info.
The fine is likely unconstitutional, and the city's strong-arm tactics were blocked by a judge this week.
New York City's new zoning ordinance would give the city an effective veto over proposed hotel projects in much of the city.
Hosts will be required to get a license, report their activities, and only rent properties where they reside.
Hotels are trying to stop competition from Airbnb, but they're doing just fine.
On Wednesday, the city council will consider the mayor's proposal to make Airbnb rentals without city permission a misdemeanor.
The Goldwater Institute filed three cases in California, Seattle, and Miami Beach to defend the rights of property owners against unfair home sharing laws.
Home sharing competes with hotels, of course, but it's not a zero-sum game. Hosts on platforms like Airbnb are responsive to market conditions.
The Scott Pruitt condo scandal is all about rent-seeking, but not in the way the D.C. city government seems to think.
But they're not excessive, she says.
The newly released bill would clarify Uber drivers' and Airbnb hosts' status as independent contractors but would require tax withholding.
On the cusp of ending a two-month budget impasse, Wisconsin lawmakers might stick it to Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms.
More people are working in the gig economy than ever before, but the current tax code punishes Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts. Here's how Congress can fix that.
Short-term rentals are not the source of what ails the city.
"I'm tired of feeling like an outsider in my own neighborhood," she says. Maybe that's because she's an actress from New York.
Documents show how the national trade group helped push anti-homesharing rules in several states and cities last year.
The city says it will target homeowners who opposed the new rules, but some of those homeowners are fighting back.
Arbitrary restrictions include limiting Airbnb to one unit per block face in one city and forbidding second homes from being rented out.
If there is an unjustified asymmetry between bed and breakfasts and Airbnb rentals, why not relax regulations on the former?
Government is a weapon old industries use to squeeze out entrepreneurs.
The popular "homesharing" service made it affordable to book a beachfront property in Santa Monica. Then the city intervened.
Hawaii lawmakers want to make unlicensed short-term rentals a class C felony.
City commissioner frets that Airbnb users aren't paying "the tourist development tax" and other special taxes targeting visitors.
City officials should learn that Airbnb and other short term rental services can't be legislated out of existence.
The Hotel Carter is "undeniably, unequivocally, the worst hotel in New York City" but thanks to anti-Airbnb regulations, it's a "winner."
Letting workers and bosses come to terms is better than the government protecting old business models and raising prices.
Company abandons legal challenge after NYC promises not to bring enforcement actions against it. City says it will only target users.
Regulations are "draconian and unintelligible," lawsuit says. Other have described them as "literally incomprehensible" and "dizzyingly complex."
Don't understand the rules? Too bad. You can still get fined up to $5,000 per day by the city.
Crony capitalism leads to price gouging, again.
Usually opponents, the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council joined forces with the Hotel Association of New York City to fight short-term rentals.
From the moment it was passed, it was begging for a lawsuit. It got one.
City's short-term rental rules are too vague for people to understand, judge says.
High rents have been a problem a lot longer then Airbnb has existed.