Dream NYC Vacation Spoiled By Nightmare Airbnb Rental
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A dream vacation to New York turned into a nightmare for three tourists from Germany and Switzerland.
The three women, who did not want to be named, used Airbnb to book what they thought would be the perfect apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported.
"We didn't expect a luxury apartment. We just expected a normal apartment, which looked clean, and nice and cozy," one of the women said. "It was just a trash hole."
To make matters worse, they weren't the only ones staying there.
"We thought we had a single apartment just for us, and we had this lady in there."
The women left and spent the night in the building's community center.
The next day, they found out the truth about their rental, exposing a much bigger issue.
The apartment at 541 Wythe Avenue is government subsidized housing for middle-income residents, which makes it illegal to list on websites like Airbnb.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which supervises these types of apartments, told CBS 2 "we prohibit subletting and will open an investigation into this allegation of misuse."
But in a July 2015 memo, HPD acknowledged "there is a growing market in temporary apartment rentals."
Isaac Abraham, from the tenant's association of Kent Village, said there's no enforcement.
"I've been in this building, and in many others, people walk in with carry-ons that I know don't belong here," he said.
New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal leads the charge against illegal Airbnb rentals, and said this should have never happened.
"An apartment like that should be rented out to someone who is a New York resident," she said. "Airbnb needs to better police its websites."
The company told CBS2 the specific renter has been a host for four years, and it will take action against similar complaints. However, the company made no mention of the apartment being an illegal listing.
As for the tourists, Airbnb helped them find another place to stay.