Airbnb launches Super PAC to back pro ‘short-term rental’ candidates in New York
Airbnb has launched a Super PAC ready to pony up $5 million to help elect city and state candidates willing to support short-term rentals.
The online rental company’s new political arm — “Keeping New York Affordable” — is ready to back candidates in more than a dozen City Council primaries this June, The Post has learned.
Airbnb’s support will run through 2026 and favor candidates that allow homeowners to rent their homes short-term on its app, countering the hotel industry — particularly the Hotel Trades Council union — which sees short-term rentals as competition for tourists.
The company suffered a crushing defeat in 2023 when the City Council passed a law imposing strict regulations on home-sharing — forcing Airbnb to remove tens of thousands of Big Apple rentals from its site, which sent traditional hotel rates soaring.
The law — requiring hosts to be present when guests are in their home — decimated the short-term, home-rental industry.
But as The Post reported Sunday, Airbnb is fighting to claw its way back in New York — by way of politics.
The company is lobbying to pass a new bill introduced by Council Member Farah Louis (D-Brooklyn) and backed by Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) that would “restore short-term rental rights to small, neighborhood homeowners” and pave the way for its citywide reemergence.
Co-sponsors of the bill include councilmembers Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Queens), Kevin Riley (D-Bronx), Diana Ayala (Bronx/Manhattan) and Mercedes Narcisse (D-Brooklyn).
The Hotel Trades Council has launched an ad campaign opposing the bill — and said Monday it’s prepared to defeat Airbnb again.
“It wouldn’t be another Airbnb legislative fight without this $80 billion tech company announcing a big money super PAC. They’ve tried this before and each time their money hasn’t influenced elected officials who know that dollars don’t vote, but their constituents who care about the negative impact of short-term rentals on affordable housing and public safety do,” said HTC spokesman Austin Shafran.
