Back in March, Airbnb officials announced that they'd be launching a new website to let residents file complaints about guests directly with the company.
As DNAinfo reported, that tool is now live.
Here's the Airbnb blog with more:
Every time a host welcomes a guest into their home, they are also welcoming them into their neighborhood. We’re proud that since Airbnb got started, there have been over 80 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings and those guests have been welcomed by hosts and their neighbors in over 190 countries worldwide.
The overwhelming majority of Airbnb guests are respectful travelers, so complaints and issues are incredibly rare, but we always want to do everything we can to help our community members be good neighbors in the places our hosts call home. To help achieve that goal, today, we’re launching a new resource for neighbors of Airbnb hosts.
Starting today, anyone can go to airbnb.com/neighbors to share specific concerns they might have about a listing in their community. These concerns could include things like noise complaints. From there, our team will review their concern and, if necessary, follow up with the host regarding the issue.
Neighbors can submit information without having their name disclosed to a host or allow our team to pass along their contact information so the host can follow up with them directly. Once a neighbor submits feedback, we will send a confirmation email, along with a case number.
City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal wasn't impressed with the new tool, telling DNAinfo: "New Yorkers already have a way to file complaints against neighbor disturbances: 311. Airbnb's complaint submission page is a way to prevent its users from getting the fines for breaking city laws."
In New York, it is illegal to rent out an apartment for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present.
16 comments:
Oh please! AirBnb does not care. For years Stuy Town's residents, Tennants Association and former management company ALL reported AirBnb listings here in Stuy Town where it is a violation of a signed lease to list apartments with the service and AirBnb were slow to act, when they acted at all. At any given time there were 30-50 apartments listed. AirBnb said they had no way to prevent the apartments from being listed, even when it was suggested to them that they create a block list where property owners could include the addresses of their properties. Bottom line is AirBnb doesn't care about their impact on communities and the fact they are slowly addressing this some 5 years after the problem began drives that home.
How do you know your neighbor is renting their place out on AirBnB? What if your neighbors are just a bunch of a-holes who make a lot of noise? What if they're new neighbors but you don't know that?
I'm not defending AirBnB here, but this makes little sense. AirBnB is not the only company out there renting apartments,, and a lot of people rent out their places independently. You're probably helping AirBnB target your neighbors for advertising by reporting them.
So many questions.
You know your neighbor is renting because a lot of ads include exterior photos of the buildings and overshare detailed information about who they are. This makes it very easy to hit Google and figure out who these people are. Then there's also the fact you see a wide range of people coming and going with luggage.
"In New York, it is illegal to rent out an apartment for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present."
Does that apply to condo and coops also, or only to rental apartments?
"How do you know your neighbor is renting their place out on AirBnB? What if your neighbors are just a bunch of a-holes who make a lot of noise? What if they're new neighbors but you don't know that?"
6:23 raises an excellent point. I mean I would LOVE to vent on the AIrBnB blog about these people who recently showed up who spend all day/night in their other-apartment-facing screenless window smoking and yellin' and littering, but what if I'm just bitching about new tenants or garden-variety subletters? So I just complain here and let my cat give them disdainful looks instead (he's a very proper cat).
"You know your neighbor is renting because a lot of ads include exterior photos of the buildings and overshare detailed information about who they are. This makes it very easy to hit Google and figure out who these people are."
10:02, with all due respect, AirBnB is enough of an intrusion on our lives, and now we're supposed to start Nancy Drewing for their rentals too? Also, plenty of full-time residents use luggage. I hear my hallmate rolling a case every morning. Who knows why. But she lives here. We can't let "has a rolly suitcase and I've never seen him before" be the litmus of whether someone belongs in a building.
It's not the guests that are the problem, it's the people renting their apartments.
This is how I see it, would all those tourists visiting NY each year come if hotels were the only option? If yes than there would be even more hotels being built in the EV. Which is worst, living next to a year of construction and then a big hotel with constant taxis and loud guests visiting the club on the rooftop or a handful of visitors spending a weekend on your block?
Councilmember Rosenthal: I've found that that 311 referrals to the police about a noisy bar generally get rejected. Are you saying if I call 311 about a noisy neighbor the police will come to my building to investigate?
@7:08 AM: If you see different people at various times of the day and night entering or exiting the same apartment with their luggage its probably airbnb. It's not that complicated. You might even see them hanging out in front of the building waiting for someone to let them in. I don't see how doing an online search is an added intrusion. The real question is how much it bothers you, and what, if anything you can do about it...
9:12, once home I pretty much stay in my own apartment, so only if the AirBnB is taking place in the apartment directly next to mine, would I notice "different people at various times of the day and night entering or exiting the same apartment with their luggage" unless I were loitering in the hallways, which would make me as a tenant probably as annoying as any rando AirBnB-er.
I agree with you that an online search is not an added intrusion IF you are fairly sure that a particular apartment is AirBnB-ing and you want to confirm that. In that case it is certainly worth it. But for those of us who merely suspect that AirBnB-ing is illegally taking place somewhere that we live, yes, I feel it is way too much work to go online and look for exterior photos of your building so you can call 311 and say what? This is a problem that needs to be addressed through landlord crackdowns.
"In New York, it is illegal to rent out an apartment for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present."
Does that apply to condo and coops also, or only to rental apartments?"
That depends on the Co-op or Condo board - I know in the building where I just sold my Co-op, short term rentals were forbidden and they changed the wording of the leases to clarify that. It still didn't stop certain people from doing it, so we had to put in an expensive new front desk system that tracked all non-residents and reported on who appeared to have "friends from out of town" visiting every weekend for the entire summer.
No. Do not complain to AirBnB this way because it will not hold them accountable. You need to call 311 and/or contact the owner/landlord/renter/lessee/lessor/noisemaker directly, and/or call the police, and/or take legal action in the courts yourself, and/or take other direct action. Do not let AirBnB bully you in any way!
If you rent out a coop or condo you are still renting it out so coop and condo buildings also apply.
It applies to every building in nyc except if you have a hotel or dorm permit/licence/zoning.
This is a joke. Airbnb is trying to get tenants to avoid going to the city and stopping their clients from renting, It's against the law. Report it to the City. I stopped 2 tenants by just threatening them with a report to the city hotline. The landlord would love to throw them out. Stand up! Do it!
Anonymous 8:43, If the choice were between "living next to a year of construction and then a big hotel with constant taxis and loud guests visiting the club on the rooftop, or a handful of visitors spending a weekend on your block?" the answer would be "a handful of visitors spending a weekend on your block." But those aren't the options.
The problems aren't even noisy AirBnB-ers -- it's the revolving door of AirBnb-ers, constantly seeing different people come and go from the apartment down the hall, it's the bedbugs they bring with them.
Coming home and not going back out again doesn't make the problem go away, either.
10:39, it does not depend on the coop or condo board. It's a law, not a house rule. So it applies to all buildings in NYC except hotels and dorms. Period. The coop or condo board doesn't have the power to overrule a law.
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