Tourists: No other form of life on the New York sidewalks
and subways is more simultaneously loved and despised. We love that they are
here spending their money and enjoying the wonderment of our city while we hate
how they slow us down with their clueless wanderings and slow gait unfamiliar
with the pace of city life.
New York needs tourists. Tourism is a central part of the
city’s economy and messing with the flow of tourists to New York is effectively
kicking the Big Apple squarely in its big balls.
So the New York State Attorney General’s office threatens to
throw cold water on this essential industry with its
subpoena of Airbnb’s New York State records.
Airbnb is a web site that connects
visitors with private hosts who rent out private rooms or apartments, usually
for significantly less than hotels cost. The N.Y. Attorney General’s office
claims that the platform is being abused by people operating illegal hotels and
avoiding hotel taxes.
I did a quick search for hotel room rates in New York City
for the first week of March 2014. Prices are higher around the holidays in
November and December and the second week of March might see abnormally high
rates for people coming for the St.
Patrick’s Day Parade. This study was unscientific, and there are web
sites like Priceline.com and others that can help you find discounts.
Starting with a non-luxury, well-known hotel chain, the Marriot
Marquis in Times Square charges an average of more than $360 per night for one
room for two adults with no children. That jumps to more than $430 per night if
you want such luxuries as a sofa bed in your room. A Marriott on East 40th
Street got a rate of $206 per room.
Going to the cheaper hotels, Days Inn offered a rate of $131
per night on 94th Street. The chain charges $95 per night to stay at
their hotel at JFK Airport. Nothing at JFK Airport is worth $95 a night unless
it comes with a free strippers and cocaine.
A similar search on Airbnb gets you $175 a night for a room
near Times Square in Manhattan and as low as $57 per night near JFK. The
offerings were scattered and not as numerous to put too much of a dent in the
hotel business, judging by the search I did on the web site.
No doubt there are people using Airbnb who are running
illegal hotels outside of the legitimate regulation of the law, but there is a
way to differentiate between these groups and the people making a few extra
bucks renting a room to budget-conscious tourists. And about 90% of the Airbnb
hosts are people renting out rooms in the homes they live in.
For whatever its faults, Airbnb is American capitalism and
New York ingenuity at its best. Even with
the abuses as they are the city and state gain more than they lose by enabling more
tourism. The money tourists don’t spend on hotels they
spend on Broadways shows, Yankee games, hot dogs and hookers. Let them.
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