NYC Hotels to Travelers: Pay Up and Shut Up

travel tips Nov 26, 2024
NYC Hotels love it when lawmakers ban competition from mom and pop vacation rentals

One year in to New York City's infamous "Local Law 18" banning short term rentals, it's clear that the big winner is the city's hotel industry, and the big losers are local mom and pop short term renters and the travelling public.

Also on the losing end? Housing affordability, which Local Law 18 (LL18) was meant to improve.

According to Business Insider, rents in the city rose 3.5% in the year following LL18's passage compared to a 3.4% increase during the year before its passage. Some improvement, huh?

Even worse, according to Business Insider, "Long-term rental inventory in the city proper — which was supposed to get a boost — grew just 3.4% over the year ended August 2024, a fraction of the 15.4% rate seen over the prior year, according to StreetEasy."

Meanwhile, New York City hotels should be giving the authors of LL18 a big wet kiss.

Business Insider points out that "NYC hotel prices are up 7% over the past year, compared to 2% nationally, according to data from real estate analytics firm CoStar. Further, NYC's hotel occupancy rate was 87% in August of this year, while the national average was 67% for the same period."

Two things are clear:

First, the answer to the housing crisis is to build more housing instead of screwing up the short term rental market.

Second, travelers benefit from a greater variety of choices in their accommodations, not restrictions that drive up their vacation costs.