Airbnb Hosts Who Are Holding Out --- Crackdown on short-term rentals drastically reduced the business. Here's how the hangers-on are making it work.

“New York City three years ago enacted one of the country's strictest crackdowns on short-term rentals, which reduced the number of listings across the five boroughs by more than 90%.

 

Most hosts on Airbnb and other online-booking companies abruptly pulled their listings from the platforms after a new law enabled the city to enforce longstanding regulations on rentals of fewer than 30 days.

 

A small number of homeowners, however, are sticking it out. As of June, more than 3,500 hosts were registered with the city for short-term rentals.

 

At least another 9,000 are hosting guests for 30 days or longer, allowing them to bypass many of the city's regulations that apply to shorter stays.

 

The Wall Street Journal spoke with several New York City homeowners who continue to host Airbnb guests about their experiences.

 

Alex Story

 

East Village, Manhattan

 

Property type: Two-family townhouse

 

Occupation: Adjunct professor, aspiring novelist

 

Airbnb host since 2014

 

Story says it takes a while for the place she's lived in for the last 30 years to feel like home again after her Airbnb guests leave. Her home's second unit has a long-term tenant, and Story vacates her own space when she gets a booking. She stays with her partner or travels for at least a month, maybe two, in order to comply with the 30-day minimum stay rule.

 

During that time, her guests are truly living in her home. She had to set up automatic sprinklers to keep the outdoor plants alive. She often comes back to see the furniture's been rearranged. Once, someone threw away all her spices. Guests' left-behind socks and T-shirts surface weeks later.

 

"Five days or weeks at a time means it's still my home," she said. "If you're here for a month or two it becomes your place."

 

She bought the property, which once housed the 1980s-era nightclub, 8BC, in 1996. The building was in rough shape, and condemned a few years later. Story took out a large loan in 2003 to tear it down and rebuild.

 

"In the end, a lot of us are just people trying to get by, trying to keep our homes," she said.

 

Joy Williams

 

Harlem, Manhattan

 

Property type: Three-family home

 

Occupation: Entrepreneur and university administrator

 

Airbnb host since 2012

 

Williams lives with her sisters in the bottom unit of her three-family townhouse. She used to rent out one of the upper apartments on Airbnb for a few days or maybe a week at a time. But after the 2023 law took effect, Williams started hosting guests for 30 days or longer.

 

Joy's yellow brick and white limestone home is located in the historic Strivers' Row neighborhood, named for the culturally significant residents who have clustered there since the Harlem Renaissance in the early 1900s. Musicians ranging from composer Will Marion Cook to the rapper Tupac Shakur, and former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. all lived there.

 

Williams's guests have included professors and other academics associated with New York schools, including nearby Columbia University, as well as visiting grandparents, summer interns and traveling nurses.

 

Still, her occupancy rate has declined to about 60% from over 80% and she brings in half the income she did with short-term rentals.

 

The problem is that bookings rarely line up perfectly, one after another, leaving periods where her unit is sitting empty. If one guest leaves on Sept. 15 and the next guest isn't scheduled to arrive until Oct. 1, for example, Williams loses out on two weeks' worth of potential rental income due to the 30-day minimum stay requirement.

 

"My preference would be to have the ability to do short-term rental," she said. "I could fill in the blanks."

 

Sanjay Soni

 

Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn

 

Property type: Two-family townhouse

 

Occupation: Small-business owner

 

Airbnb host since 2016

 

Soni and his wife invested more than $30,000 gut-renovating and furnishing their home's ground-floor apartment for their parents' monthslong visits from India. They bought an expensive mattress, installed a new stove and work station and fully stocked the kitchen with dishes and appliances.

 

To help pay their mortgage, they rent out the unit on Airbnb for 30 days or more during the nine to 10 months a year it isn't occupied by family.

 

But finding a tenant for a month hasn't been easy. Before the city's crackdown took effect, Soni earned an average $25,000 a year hosting short-term guests through Airbnb. Bookings dropped significantly after he switched to longer stays.

 

Soni hasn't been able to raise his rental rate in three years to cover his property's rising insurance, upkeep and utility expenses.

 

Most frustratingly, Soni, below, regularly fields requests from acquaintances and former guests offering to rent his apartment for a week or two at a time -- off the books.

 

Soni said he always declines, wary of running afoul of city rules but also because he prefers the security of operating through the Airbnb platform.

 

"We don't want to take any chances," he said.

 

Joseph Leovane

 

St. Albans, Queens

 

Property type: Single-family home

 

Occupation: not working, disabled

 

Airbnb host since 2019

 

Leovane went through the city's lengthy registration process to continue hosting short-term stays in his home. One of the biggest challenges: complying with the rule that he must remain in the home while hosting guests.

 

Since there is only one entrance to his home, Leovane had previously built an interior door inside the entryway that separated the downstairs area where he lives from the stairs that bring guests up to the space they rent on the second floor.

 

After the 2023 law took effect, city inspectors issued him a number of violations, including for the door, which he then had to tear down.

 

"Would you allow strangers in your house, with a door without a lock?" he said. "It doesn't make any sense."

 

One time a married couple who were staying for a week brought their two big German shepherds.

 

The dogs ran up and down the stairs, barking, every time someone came to the front door.

 

Leovane kept his distance as much as possible.

 

"They told me, 'the dogs don't bite, they're good dogs,'" he said. "But, hey, listen, I'm a stranger to those dogs. They don't know me."

 

Leovane, who said he relies on the revenue he earns through Airbnb to pay his bills, said he made about $11,000 last year. Before the city's crackdown, he pulled in about $30,000 a year.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: Airbnb Hosts Who Are Holding Out --- Crackdown on short-term rentals drastically reduced the business. Here's how the hangers-on are making it work. King, Kate.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 19 Oct 2026: A3.