Airbnb has reached an agreement to hand over data for over 17,000 listings in NYC.
Airbnb and New York City are inching closer to making peace over data sharing.
The startup has reached an agreement to hand over semi-anonymized host and reservation data for over 17,000 listings in the city. It’s also providing data for every NYC listing rented between January 1st, 2018 and February 18th, 2019 that might have violated the city’s short-term rental laws. Airbnb’s info could help NYC determine the scale of this practice and prosecute offenders.
Once receiving the data, the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) can then request de-anonymized data for specific listings that are likely to be illegal. In that event, the OSE would receive identifying data like addresses, total days booked, payout information, emails, and phone numbers.
This doesn’t represent a definitive end to the quarrel between Airbnb and NYC, but it could have a significant influence on how the city treats home rental services.
Cities like Paris, Barcelona, and Santa Monica have tough restrictions on Airbnb rentals. San Francisco has adopted a similar policy to New York, while Las Vegas has slapped Airbnb with some strict regulations to protect its hotel industry. In Japan, nearly 80 percent of Airbnbs were axed last summer in response to new regulations. It’s possible that local governments in these areas might take a gander at the NYC agreement and decide they’d like the same arrangement.
