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Airbnb Founder Proposes Tax, Neighbor Hotline

  • October 3rd 2013

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Airbnb Founder Proposes Tax, Neighbor Hotline: Figure 1
An Airbnb rental in DC.

Several months ago, a court ruling came in the case of Nigel Warren, a man who had been renting out his bedroom in a New York City apartment to Airbnb users. The city caught wind of it, and charged Warren with breaking the law.

Specifically, the city deemed that it was illegal for Warren to rent out portions of his home for short periods while he wasn’t living there at the same time. Warren was fined $2,400, but the much larger effect of the ruling was that it made Airbnb essentially illegal in New York.

Recently, that ruling was overturned, largely on the basis that Warren’s roommate was living in the apartment during the time that it was also being rented out via Airbnb.

The short-term rental website is happy with the reversal, but is also making strides to get in the good graces of cities like New York. In a blog post Thursday, co-founder Brian Chesky proposed a few new measures.

The first would be the introduction of an occupancy tax that Airbnb hosts would be required to pay, a measure that Airbnb would help streamline. Chesky noted that there would be “limited exemptions” for hosts earning below a certain income level. The second would be the creation of a hotline that neighbors could call in the event that Airbnb tenants get unruly. “We are eager to work with New York to remove bad actors in our community that are causing a disturbance to their neighbors, and will create a 24/7 Neighbor Hotline where we will service the complaints,” Chesky wrote.

It will be interesting to see if these measures move forward and whether or not they become standard in other cities where Airbnb operates.

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This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/airbnb_founder_proposes_tax_neighbor_hotline/7648.

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