"Notice that the person doing this illegal business is the only one benefiting from it." The landlord/property owner is still paying property taxes, and their

"Notice that the person doing this illegal business is the only one benefiting from it." The landlord/property owner is still paying property taxes, and their utility bills. Also, as a previous commenter mentioned (jim_h)... "A tourist who stays at a hotel ($100/night) might only have budgeted $50/day to spend outside of hotel costs." "A cheap tourist could budget $100/day, stay at a temp place and still get more out of NYC than someone who budgeted $150/day and stayed at a hotel." But, most importantly, mrtron says... "I would agree - the money spent on hotels probably doesn't stay as local as money spent on food and entertainment." Also, you mentioned "what is supposed to be a residential area" - but most of NYC seems to be mixed-use zoning, where you have a commercial entity attached to a multi-family residence, or even have commercial entities at the base of the building.