NYC just all but banned Airbnb and Vrbo in a new law requiring mass registration

New regulations, which the city began enforcing this week, require hosts to register with the city and meet certain obligations if they plan to rent homes to guests for 29 days or less.

The Short-Term Rental Registration Law technically took effect on March 6 of this year, but New York City’s Office of Special Enforcement didn’t begin cracking down until Tuesday. Step one: working with short-term rental companies to ensure they’re using the city’s verification system.

That’s where the culling could begin. Airbnb estimated there were nearly 15,000 listings across NYC last month. But, according to the New York Times, the city had received just 3,250 or so registration applications as of Aug. 28. Of those, just 257 had been approved.

The regulations make some strict demands on people hoping to rent out their homes. Hosts, for instance, can only rent out homes if they’re staying there as well. And no more than two guests are permitted at a time.

Airbnb has opposed the law, calling it a “de facto ban” on short-term rentals and had attempted to block it through legal channels. That lawsuit, however, was dismissed last month.

For people who have an existing reservation at a short-term rental in NYC and are wondering if they need to make alternate plans, the answer is…it depends. If your check-in date is before Dec. 1, you should be fine. There are no plans by the city to cancel the reservation. For those after Dec. 2, however, the company will cancel and refund the reservation.

The new rules could do more than inconvenience travelers. Airbnb stands to potentially lose millions of dollars in revenue in one of its biggest markets. In its lawsuit against the city over the rules, Airbnb said it earned $85 million in net revenue in 2022 in NYC.