New York State Capitol
The Albany Times Union reports the State Legislature has passed new rules for people who rent our their homes through short-term rental services like Airbnb.
The measure would require property owners who host those units and the services that facilitate those bookings to register with the state and regularly provide data on their activities.
The bill is intended to help localities across the state better understand the prevalence of short-term rentals in their communities and assess how they might impact housing supply.
It mirrors elements of a local law that took effect last year in New York City that also required hosts to register with the city.
Airbnb declined to comment to the Times Union after the bill was passed. The company was against the legislation because it would require hosts that use their service to potentially keep track of two registration and regulation systems: one from the state and one from their municipality.
The legislation itself has three main components: a statewide registry of short-term rental properties, regular data-sharing about those units, and new tax requirements.
Localities that already have their own registries would be allowed to keep them but the bill would prohibit other municipalities from doing the same moving forward.
Short-term rental hosts with properties in areas without local regulations would have to register those units with the state Department of State and renew that registration every two years.
If the property exists in a municipality that already has its own registry and regulations, the host would have to continue following the local law but also register with the state and abide by those rules as well.
If the host violates part of the new law at least three times in that period, their registration could be revoked, or a fine of $500 per day could be imposed until the issue is resolved.
Booking services would have their own regulations related to data sharing. Those companies would have to hold onto data for up to two years on the dates of each stay facilitated through its service, the number of guests, the cost of the stay and the property details.
That data would then have to be sent to the state in a report, which would then be shared with the locality’s government officials.
Booking services would separately have to send a report to the state each month that includes the listings they maintain and facilitate, the number of nights they were occupied, their registration numbers and where they’re located.
The bill would also subject those properties to the same sales and occupancy taxes as hotels, though Airbnb has said it maintains voluntary tax collections with 35 counties in the state.
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