July 25, 2025
The Wall Street Journal recently published an opinion piece co-authored by Michael Salinger, Jacqueline and Arthur Bahr Professor in Markets, Public Policy & Law, discussing how New York City’s restrictive short-term rental laws, especially Local Law 18, are driving hotel prices to over $500 a night and harming tourism.
As advisers to Airbnb, Salinger and Jon Leibowitz (former FTC chair) describe how these regulations ban most short-term rentals unless the owner is present and eliminate a vital source of income for residents. Such policies primarily benefit the hotel industry at the expense of travelers, middle-class homeowners, small businesses, and even city tax revenue.
Salinger and Leibowitz argue that legal, well-regulated short-term rentals offer needed surge capacity during peak tourist seasons and suggest that zoning reform, not banning home-sharing, is a better path toward solving New York’s housing shortage.
They call for the city to reverse course and embrace the economic potential of home-sharing.
