The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement raided an East Williamsburg loft building and busted some of its residents for running an 8-unit illegal hotel out of a loft, according to the Daily News and the Department of Buildings.
The raid, which took place last week, was conducted after the city received a 311 call bringing the hotel operation to the city’s attention.
The illegal hotel operation is described in the Department of Building’s deposition history for the building’s address as “8 furnished rooms exceeding occupancy load with no natural light or ventilation” (though other loft units in the building may be similar, there’s less oversight on such units under New York City’s Loft Laws— which don’t apply to commercial operations such as Airbnb shares).
The Daily News reports that the rooms were advertised on the websites Airbnb and Kayak for less than $35 a night (a current loft rental listing at 210 Cook goes for $2,999 a month).
A partial vacate exists on the premises.
An Airbnb spokesperson tells Bushwick Daily that: “Nothing is more important than the safety of our guests and while these situations are incredibly rare, we take them very seriously, and are committed to continuing to identify and remove bad actors from our platform. We have no tolerance for illegal hotels and have removed these hosts from our platform. Our team is rebooking these guests to ensure they can enjoy the rest of their time in New York.”
Bushwick Daily has also reached out to the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and the building’s owners for comment and will update should it be received.
No word on whether these Airbnb-ers ever had similar issues:
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