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I think you're conflating morality and legality. How does breaking regulations make him a sociopath? Who is he harming? In what world is renting an apartment

I think you're conflating morality and legality. How does breaking regulations make him a sociopath? Who is he harming? In what world is renting an apartment, albeit against regulation and terms of the lease, an offense ANYWHERE NEAR insider trading, identity theft, or insurance fraud? Am I missing something?

hapless 13y ago
* He is defrauding his landlords. They rented him property on the understanding that it was a legal and low-risk engagement. * He is hurting the neighbors to the properties he re-rents. They arranged to live in residential neighborhoods adjacent to other semi-permanent residents, not an illegal hotel. Hotels are not found in charming residential neighborhoods for a reason: nobody wants to live next to them. * He is evading taxes that are used to improve new yorkers' quality of life at little/no expense to local residents. * Insurance fraud is a probable consequence of his business. Since it's hard to get commercial insurance for your illegal venture, if he has ANY insurance, it would be a renter's policy and maybe a personal umbrella policy. Any claims he made would be fraudulent.
- Turing_Machine 13y ago
  "used to improve new yorkers' quality of life at little/no expense to local residents" Well, except for the losses from non-visitors who avoid cities with outrageously high "let's rip off our guests" taxes. Those people may not be directly visible, but I assure you they are real.
  - hapless 13y ago
    if a 15% hotel tax is what steers you away from one of the world's preeminent tourist destinations, I'm not sure that you were going to add much to the local economy. (To be a little less snarky, the microeconomics of the situation indicate it's probably not that damaging. Your hotel stay is probably less than half of your costs of visiting, so a 15% markup on that component alone doesn't raise the overall price of a trip very much.)
    - Turing_Machine 13y ago
      There are more premier tourist destinations in the world than I'll ever have time to visit in my lifespan.
      - Nursie 13y ago
        It's not like there's a shortage of people who want to go to new york and can spare the extra 15% though, is it? The city was packed to the rafters long before Air BnB came along to 'disrupt' everything.
  - throwawaykf 13y ago
    Heh, I'm surprised there have been no New Yorkers yet chiming in to say "good riddance". Most New Yorkers -- in my experience -- seem to share the sentiment that there are too many tourists already.
potatolicious 13y ago
I think comparing it to identity theft or insurance fraud is a bit extreme, but the harm is real. There are many reasons why certain buildings are not allowed to operate as hotels - just a few off my head: - Bedbugs. They're at pandemic levels in NYC, and the more volume of people moving in/out of a place the more likely you are to get them. Hotels are required to mitigate the bedbug threat with a level of thoroughness that simply is impossible unless the building owner is aware that there's a hotel operating under their roof. I would be mighty pissed if I found a AirBnb in my building, as that dramatically raises everyone's risk of infestation. - Noise. Particularly in neighborhoods like mine that are restaurant and bar districts, where a large part of the attraction of the location is the ability to stumble home directly from an innumerable number of bars. Temporary residents have no incentive to keep things reasonable. Whenever this point is brought up you get a few anecdotal stories about "the British family that was sooooo quiet", but no mention of the rest of the time where we'd have to put up with the noise. - Security. I live in a small pre-war building with 20 units. I've met literally every one of my neighbors. This building isn't Fort Knox - once you're inside the main door it doesn't take Harry Houdini to break into any one apartment. Real hotels have security cameras, personnel on-site, and much more elaborate locks on doors... we do not. These are real risks and real harm happening to neighbors of guys like this. His actions have a negative impact. While calling him a sociopath might be a tad extreme, it certainly isn't completely without merit. None of these problems are unsolvable - but they are unsolvable unless the hoteling party is operating in the open. If we're going to allow people rent out their apartments in a pseudo-hotel manner, then the neighbors, the building owner, and the city needs to know about it in order to mitigate all of the above.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  AFAIK Houdini only broke out of places, not into them.
greenyoda 13y ago
If he has the attitude that "the law applies to other people, but not to me", he might very well be a sociopath. And if you think that insider trading is a serious crime, why shouldn't tax evasion (he doesn't pay NYC hotel tax), which deprives needy people of city services or causes law-abiding people to pay higher taxes, be a real crime?

hapless 13y ago

* He is defrauding his landlords. They rented him property on the understanding that it was a legal and low-risk engagement. * He is hurting the neighbors to the properties he re-rents. They arranged to live in residential neighborhoods adjacent to other semi-permanent residents, not an illegal hotel. Hotels are not found in charming residential neighborhoods for a reason: nobody wants to live next to them. * He is evading taxes that are used to improve new yorkers' quality of life at little/no expense to local residents. * Insurance fraud is a probable consequence of his business. Since it's hard to get commercial insurance for your illegal venture, if he has ANY insurance, it would be a renter's policy and maybe a personal umbrella policy. Any claims he made would be fraudulent.

Turing_Machine 13y ago
"used to improve new yorkers' quality of life at little/no expense to local residents" Well, except for the losses from non-visitors who avoid cities with outrageously high "let's rip off our guests" taxes. Those people may not be directly visible, but I assure you they are real.
- hapless 13y ago
  if a 15% hotel tax is what steers you away from one of the world's preeminent tourist destinations, I'm not sure that you were going to add much to the local economy. (To be a little less snarky, the microeconomics of the situation indicate it's probably not that damaging. Your hotel stay is probably less than half of your costs of visiting, so a 15% markup on that component alone doesn't raise the overall price of a trip very much.)
  - Turing_Machine 13y ago
    There are more premier tourist destinations in the world than I'll ever have time to visit in my lifespan.
    - Nursie 13y ago
      It's not like there's a shortage of people who want to go to new york and can spare the extra 15% though, is it? The city was packed to the rafters long before Air BnB came along to 'disrupt' everything.
- throwawaykf 13y ago
  Heh, I'm surprised there have been no New Yorkers yet chiming in to say "good riddance". Most New Yorkers -- in my experience -- seem to share the sentiment that there are too many tourists already.

potatolicious 13y ago

I think comparing it to identity theft or insurance fraud is a bit extreme, but the harm is real. There are many reasons why certain buildings are not allowed to operate as hotels - just a few off my head: - Bedbugs. They're at pandemic levels in NYC, and the more volume of people moving in/out of a place the more likely you are to get them. Hotels are required to mitigate the bedbug threat with a level of thoroughness that simply is impossible unless the building owner is aware that there's a hotel operating under their roof. I would be mighty pissed if I found a AirBnb in my building, as that dramatically raises everyone's risk of infestation. - Noise. Particularly in neighborhoods like mine that are restaurant and bar districts, where a large part of the attraction of the location is the ability to stumble home directly from an innumerable number of bars. Temporary residents have no incentive to keep things reasonable. Whenever this point is brought up you get a few anecdotal stories about "the British family that was sooooo quiet", but no mention of the rest of the time where we'd have to put up with the noise. - Security. I live in a small pre-war building with 20 units. I've met literally every one of my neighbors. This building isn't Fort Knox - once you're inside the main door it doesn't take Harry Houdini to break into any one apartment. Real hotels have security cameras, personnel on-site, and much more elaborate locks on doors... we do not. These are real risks and real harm happening to neighbors of guys like this. His actions have a negative impact. While calling him a sociopath might be a tad extreme, it certainly isn't completely without merit. None of these problems are unsolvable - but they are unsolvable unless the hoteling party is operating in the open. If we're going to allow people rent out their apartments in a pseudo-hotel manner, then the neighbors, the building owner, and the city needs to know about it in order to mitigate all of the above.

auctiontheory 13y ago
AFAIK Houdini only broke out of places, not into them.

greenyoda 13y ago

If he has the attitude that "the law applies to other people, but not to me", he might very well be a sociopath. And if you think that insider trading is a serious crime, why shouldn't tax evasion (he doesn't pay NYC hotel tax), which deprives needy people of city services or causes law-abiding people to pay higher taxes, be a real crime?