"A tenant renting a residence pursuant to an existing lease in a dwelling having four or more residential units shall have the right to sublease his premises subject to the written consent of the landlord in advance of the subletting. Such consent shall not be unreasonably withheld."
N.Y.S. Real Property Law, Section 226-b(2)(a).
So that Brooklyn waiter shouldn't be too hard to find.
A good first step would be imposing a limit of one rental property per person on the site, and making at least basic efforts to enforce it.
To be fair, this is basically an NYC problem. I haven't seen nearly the same level of shadiness on AirBnB in other cities, where people renting out spare rooms and couches seems to be the norm. But in NYC, a lot of the AirBnB listings are unlicensed hotels and unlicensed hostels, not people renting out spare rooms. I wouldn't be surprised if a good number were affiliated with organized-crime groups, either, since those are the main operators of unlicensed hotels.
London, too.
Why do you care?
> I wouldn't be surprised if a good number were affiliated with organized-crime groups, either, since those are the main operators of unlicensed hotels.
When renting a room is outlawed, only outlaws will rent rooms.
If they want to help people do whatever they want with their houses in the country or in suburbs, Airbnb should knock themselves out. But in the city, where they help introduce really obnoxious neighbors, they should go away.
ps -- when I lived in Yorkville, my gf and I paid $3700 for our apartment. If you think I have exactly no tolerance for loud neighbors, well, you're right. That's not even on the high end of middle class housing in that area.
