Airbnb Rentals Are Plummeting in Its Biggest US Market

The drop in Airbnb listings in New York City, which immediately followed the city authority's strict new laws on short-term rentals in early September, has continued in October, as shown by a recent report shared with Newsweek.

According to the latest data from analytics site AirDNA, the number of Airbnb listings in New York City was down 4 percent last month compared to October 2022, "though many listings have changed from short-term to mid-term rentals, setting their minimum stay as 28 nights or more," the company told Newsweek.

The drop is even more dramatic when focusing on short-term listings, where the minimum stay is less than 28 days. The available listings in New York City were down 34 percent from a year ago, while long-term listings have risen by 37 percent.

Long-term listings now make up the vast majority of all listings in the city, suggesting many homeowners are just pivoting instead of pulling out of the market altogether.

At the same time as listings dropped, demand for short-term rentals in the city was also down 11 percent last month compared to a year before, as guests struggled to find options to stay in the city.

"The lack of supply pushed rates up 11 percent, though this is more down to the types of property getting booked, as our Repeat Rent Index, which tells us how much each host on average is actually changing their prices, was down 5 percent from last year, perhaps as hosts put in place offers for longer stays," a spokesperson for AirDNA told Newsweek.

Looking specifically at demand for short stays and long stays, AirDNA found that demand for short stays was actually down 28 percent from a year ago in October, while demand for longer stays is up 6 percent.

New York City officials enforced new legislation on September 5 severely restricting residents' ability to rent out homes through short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, citing a crisis of affordability for both renters and homebuyers and a chronic shortage of housing in the Big Apple.

Under the new rules, which Airbnb called a "de facto ban," hosts need to register with the city to be allowed to rent out their homes on a short-term basis. Companies like Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com are required to check that hosts have gotten their application approved by city officials before accepting payments on short-term stays in their properties.

The move was widely expected to bring down the number of Airbnb listings in the city, a fear that did immediately materialize after the new rules were officially introduced. Thousands of listings in New York City disappeared off the Airbnb platform in the days following September 5, as reported by Business Insider.

The news website reported that there were about 4,600 Airbnb listings in the city following the introduction of the ban, down from 20,000 active listings only a few weeks before, in June.

"In the first two months since New York City's short-term rental rules went into effect we've started to see some of the predictable consequences—short-term rental activity is moving underground to unregulated third-party websites and people looking to stay in New York have fewer accommodation options and are seeing higher hotel prices," a spokesperson for Airbnb told Newsweek.

"New York City is a cautionary tale for other cities and serves as an example of why it is so important for cities to take measured, balanced approaches to short-term rentals regulations."

Update 11/13/23, 4:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from Airbnb.

Are you a traveler or a homeowner who has been affected by new restrictions on Airbnb and short-term rentals? Email g.carbonaro@newsweek.com to share your experience.