Nearly three-quarters of all Airbnb rentals in New York City are illegal, violating zoning or other laws, according to a report that New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman released on Thursday. Commercial operators supply more than a third of the units and generate more than a third of the revenue, a New York Times article states. More than 40 percent of host revenue comes from bookings in the Lower East Side/Chinatown, Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen, and Greenwich Village/SoHo. By contrast, all the reservations in Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx account for less than 3 percent of the New York City total. An Airbnb spokesman said the findings don’t account for the more than 2,000 listings the home rental service already removed from its community in New York.
