The mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement had just begun to enforce a new state law designed to stop people from illegally advertising transient rentals. “They decided to find a slew of reasons why wasn’t justifiable,” she said, “Because even though we lived there, it was a multi-family building.” (The New York State Multiple Dwelling Law has been interpreted to prohibit such buildings from being rented as separate Airbnb units.) After a neighbor complained about Airbnb operations on the block, the city inspectors came. Her ex-husband and daughter kept apartments there, while offering five Airbnb listings throughout the home. The hotel industry and labor unions have lobbied for limitations to the home-sharing service (Photo by Shannon Stapleton) Opponents of Airbnb rally before a hearing at City Hall in 2015.

“That’s when everything went to chaos,” she said. In 2015, Cames and her ex-husband decided to purchase another townhouse in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where they expanded their Airbnb operations. “A lot of people enjoy being in a real neighborhood, coming home to somewhere quiet.” “It was immediately popular,” she told The Bridge. But Cames quickly realized how many tourists, charmed by the townhouse and the neighborhood, wanted to stay in her house. She was skeptical, since the home-sharing website, founded in California just three years earlier, was barely out of its startup phase. Instead, a friend recommended she try Airbnb. However, Cames, who is a real-estate agent, was unable to rent the two-bedroom, floor-through apartment at the price she had hoped for. “I am a regular New Yorker, but I cannot afford my house without Airbnb,” said Evelyn Badia, a Park Slope host (Photo by Arden Phillips)įive years ago, Tatiana Cames renovated her recently-purchased townhouse in Clinton Hill with the hope of producing rental income from part of the building.

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