A New Law Will Impact Where You Stay In NYC: Here’s What You Need To Know

Visitors to New York City who enjoy the ease and convenience of booking a room on Airbnb or Vrbo are in for a bit of bad news. Starting on September 5th, New York will start to enact its Short-Term Rental Registration Law, which forces short-term rental hosts to register their venue with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. Though the law was adopted in January 2022, it is only coming into effect now and we're looking at the implications. According to some, for visitors to New York City, it could significantly reduce the amount of lodging choices. To learn more about this new AirBNB law in New York City, keep reading, below.

The goal of the new city law is to clamp down on short-term rentals. It makes it a law for hosts to adhere to these new regulations and does not allow booking platforms, including Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, to process transactions for unregistered hosts.

Hosts are only allowed to offer short-term rentals if they stay with their guests in the apartment or unit, and are no longer allowed to have more than two paying guests at the same time.

Earlier this year, Airbnb filed a series of lawsuits pertaining to this new law. They were dismissed by the judge. Between 2017 and 2021, the city got almost 12,000 complaints in regards to illegal short-term rentals.

For travelers, this provides new challenges. They will not be able to book unregistered properties, and already-booked reservations could be rendered void.

Some listings could drop out of the market altogether, if they do not meet the requirements of this new law.

This could all make group travel a little less easy. Visitors coming to the city in groups might have to rent hotel rooms instead of a single Airbnb. They also might run up against higher prices for listings that are still available.

How will this new AirBNB law in New York City affect you? For those coming to New York, a hotel might be looking like a better and better move. We recommend checking out the Holiday Inn Express, Times Square—an IHG Hotel. It's an affordable, clean hotel only 10 minutes away from Times Square. And we also put together this helpful packing guide, for everyone looking to make sure all of their travel bases are covered.