The variety of short-term Airbnbs obtainable in New York City has dropped 70 p.c after the town started implementing a new law requiring short-term rental operators to register their properties. But regardless of the brand new necessities, there are nonetheless hundreds of listings that could possibly be unregistered.

The drop, recorded between August 4 and September 5, the day New York City started implementing the brand new regulation, represents the disappearance of some 15,000 short-term listings from Airbnb. The figures are primarily based on knowledge offered by Inside Airbnb, a housing advocacy group that tracks listings on the platform.

In August, there have been some 22,000 short-term listings on Airbnb in New York City. As of September 5, there have been 6,841. But it appears some short-term listings have been switched to long-term listings, which might solely be booked for 30 days or extra. The variety of long-term leases jumped by about 11,000 to a complete of 32,612 from August 4 to September 5. These listings don’t should be registered beneath the brand new regulation.

Additionally, Inside Airbnb estimates that round 4,000 rentals in complete have disappeared from Airbnb because the regulation took impact.

That uptick in long-term leases might present that the regulation is working, by pushing hosts to supply flats to these staying in New York City for 30 days or extra. The new registration requirement is supposed to implement older guidelines on short-term leases within the metropolis, and it comes at a time when New Yorkers face excessive rents and housing insecurity. Vacation leases are additionally recognized for bringing noise, trash, and danger to residential neighborhoods and buildings.

At a look, it’s unattainable to inform if a list on Airbnb is registered with the town. Inside Airbnb discovered that solely 28 short-term rentals in New York talked about having a registration quantity from the town of their itemizing, nevertheless it’s not instantly clear if these numbers are authentic, and the variety of short-term leases Inside Airbnb discovered far outpaces the quantity the town has registered.

Ultimately, hosts might want to show registration numbers on their listings. New York City has acquired 3,829 registration purposes, reviewed 896 purposes, and granted 290 as of Monday, in keeping with Christian Klossner, govt director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, which oversees the registration course of. The workplace has denied 90 and returned one other 516 searching for corrections or extra data.

Airbnb says it started blocking new short-term reservations for unregistered leases as early as August 14, however didn’t routinely cancel stays in unregistered flats earlier than December 1 to keep away from disrupting friends’ journey plans. Expedia Group, the guardian firm of Vrbo, is working with “the city and our partners to meet the law’s requirements and minimize disruption to the city’s travelers and tourism economy,” says Richard de Dam Lazaro, the corporate’s senior director of presidency and company affairs. Booking.com didn’t reply to a request for remark.

But amid the chaotic rollout of the brand new regulation, plenty of listings seem like falling by way of the cracks. A search on Airbnb for flats in New York for greater than two friends returns a number of outcomes which will break the brand new regulation. Entire properties are nonetheless obtainable for reserving, some with sufficient house for 12 or 14 friends. One, a townhouse in Harlem, has a yard with a firepit, a front room with a pool desk, and 5 bedrooms, some with a number of beds subsequent to one another, arrange hotel-style. It’s listed for round $1,400 per night time.