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Hostels May Become Legal Again in New York City

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Josh started this discussion 8 years 11 months ago

New Legislation Would Bring Youth Hostels Back To NYC

But a group of City Councilmembers is pushing for an amendment to the law, which they say has had a negative consequence: Because hostels were never officially defined in the city's list of building classifications, they are subject to the same laws as apartments, and cannot be rented out to travelers on short-term visits. In other words, youth hostels are illegal in NYC.

According to the proposed legislation, hostels would get official recognition under the city building code. The city would also open a special office to regulate them, and permit hostels only in commercial neighborhoods.

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Rucksack Brian

8 years

It’s interesting how Concilmember Chin sees AirBnB as the problem and hostels as a possible solution.

Chin added that youth hostels could serve as effective competition for Airbnb.

"Current law eliminates the competition for Airbnb, which is taking thousands of units of affordable housing off the rental market," she said. "Without alternative, reasonably-priced accommodations, youth travelers will either continue to sidestep the Big Apple, or worse yet, hunt for illegal apartment rentals through Airbnb, accelerating our affordability crisis.‎"

Could hostels be the saviors of NYC? I like the sound of that!

Does anyone know if the legislation that this article talks about is the same one that HW was writing in 2013, or has it been revised since then? I haven’t seen a new version yet.

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Rucksack Brian

8 years

More from Councilmember Chin in the Gotham Gazette

By barring the expansion of youth hostels, we aren't just eliminating the competition for apartment-gobbling companies like Airbnb. Our city is also losing some two million bed-nights for youth travelers visiting New York.

Given that the United Nations World Trade Organization estimates that global youth travel will soon make up roughly 25 percent of all international travel, New York City needs to act now or lose billions of dollars in potential revenue. Without alternative, reasonably-priced accommodations, youth travelers will continue to sidestep the Big Apple or hunt for illegal apartment rentals through Airbnb, accelerating our affordability crisis.

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zomac

8 years

What? In New York hostels are illegal? I feel a lot of relieved to see that China is not the only one who messes up with the hostel industry.

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Dan from The Ne...

8 years

I can't believe that they are illegal there... I wonder why?

Maybe there were some owners with a few too many NYC cockroaches trying to pass their studio apartments off as hostels!

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Rucksack Brian

8 years

A law was passed 5 or 6 years ago that made hostels in NYC illegal. The law didn't affect the rest of the state.

The official media story was that slumlords were piling beds into unsafe ramshackle buildings and duping innocent travelers into booking them instead of decent accommodation. There is plenty of speculation that this was due to pressure from the hotel association. These dubious places were supposedly overcrowded and dangerous fire hazards. Chances are that some places in NYC were exactly as they described, so people bought it. But all the hostels (as well as B&Bs) got covered by the new law that said you can’t have more than 3 people who are not related by blood or marriage sharing a room (so no dorms) and that short-term rentals for less than 30 days are not acceptable.

Here is a thread from around the time that they started enforcing the law.
New York Hostels Being Shut Down by the City (May 1, 2011)

Now AirBnB is being seen as the bad guy who is taking all the tourism business away as well as destroying the housing market because people are using their property for travelers instead of tenants. And hostels are now being seen as a good solution to the problem. Go figure.

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