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AirBuy&Bone: Escorts Love Airbnb Too
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 14, 2014
Modified Apr 14, 2014
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Airbnb
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 14, 2014
Modified Apr 14, 2014
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When you agree to take money so strangers can stay in your apartment and put their bare feet on your rugs and paw your Cheez-Its, the strangers might also have sex in your bed, for money.
The Post reports that escort services are now using Airbnb to host clients.
One apartment that got turned into an hourly love nest belongs to publicist Jessica Penzari, 29, who rented it out through Airbnb March 21 through 23. “She told me that she was in the Army and needed a place to hang out before she got shipped out,” Penzari said of her Airbnb “guest.” “She said she was being deployed that week. She was asking for places to go out with her friends.”
Yeah, deployed to Operation Enduring Sex! *High-fives fifteen Australian males crammed in one bedroom Airbnb rental next door*
But when a hooker got slashed by a client in the West 43rd Street apartment over the price of his “massage,” Penzari got a call from cops. When she returned, Penzari was shocked to find telltale remnants including baby wipes and “at least 10 condoms.”
Airbnb put her up at the InterContinental for two nights, and paid for her apartment to be cleaned and for her locks to be changed.
Meanwhile, as the attorney general continues to investigate Airbnb's books, the illegal service (now valued at $10 billion) is doing its best to show just how vital it is to New York's economy. "Just this year alone, the Airbnb community will generate $768 million in economic activity in New York and support 6,600 jobs," one of the Airbnb's founders writes in a release accompanying an infographic.
That's $136 million more than Airbnb claimed it "generated" for the city last year. Airbnb also asserts that if given the chance to pay taxes under current New York hotel occupancy tax rates, it would contribute $21 million in tax revenue.
Airbnb wants to operate in New York like it does in San Francisco and Portland, where it charges guests the standard 14% hotel tax. Here, the Hotel Occupancy Tax for renters whose rooms are let for more than $40/night, for more than 14 days or more than twice a year is 5.875% plus $2 per day. The company is lobbying Albany to pass laws to allow it to act as a tax middleman by July 1.
The attorney general's office has argued that Airbnb isn't standing up for the couple renting out their spare bedroom to cover their medical bills and support their pickle-jarring business, but for the parasitic real estate insiders who essentially operate a network of illegal hotels.
According to data they obtained from Airbnb, the AG estimates that the top 40 Airbnb hosts in the city have grossed at least $400,000 in the past three years, earning a total of around $35 million.
Attorney General Schneiderman's office did not immediately return a request for comment on Airbnb's most recent figures.
Tagged
airbnb
eric schneiderman
hotel tax
sharing economy
taxes
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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