fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Hundreds, maybe thousands of rooms to rent on Airbnb locally

by Paul Smart
April 24, 2017
in Community
0
(Photo by Dion Ogust)
(Photo by Dion Ogust)

The numbers of properties available around our region on the massive online lodging services Airbnb and VRBO can catch one’s breath. A random scan of Woodstock pulls up around 200 listings on each service, with only about one third duplicating. The Stone Ridge area has over 120 Airbnb rooms and homes for rent, versus 12 on VRBO. Saugerties’ numbers come in at 79 and 61, respectively, with Kingston at 5 on VRBO and 50 for Airbnb. New Paltz has 37 VRBO rentals and 28 on Airbnb. There are 26 Airbnb options in the Belleayre area and nothing on VRBO. Go across the river and Rhinebeck area numbers are in the high dozens while Hudson settles in over 100 on both lists.

All told, Airbnb has 630 listings for the general Catskills area and over 1000 for the Hudson Valley, while VRBO has 916 for the Catskills and 585 in the Hudson Valley.

Definitions of geographic areas shift and change on both websites, as do the numbers of available properties depending on season. Just a month ago, when the leaves were peaking with color, Woodstock area numbers were double what they were this week. Figures were occasionally in the 500 range for both listing services during the summer. But occasionally they’d drop.

With so much talk about lodging room shortages throughout the region, it seems this relatively new economic market has started to accommodate that need. It’s also provided steady streams of extra income for many with larger homes, and some big flows to those with enough capital to set aside properties solely for “vacation rental” income, which is considerably higher than one can get from regular monthly rents.

It augments other elements of new “sharable income,” from the taxi alternative Uber, still urban-based and not yet showing any presence in the Hudson Valley, and Zipcars, which have set up outlets on all our region’s college campuses already.

But it also raises questions about a growing number of controversies surrounding issues of competitiveness, taxable income, and regulation.

Last month, state Attorney general Eric Schneiderman released a report on Airbnb’s presence and effects in New York City, drawing on four years of figures supplied by the company that’s said to be valued at $10 billion and is contemplating going public in the coming years. Entitled Airbnb in the City, it charted 497,322 private stays in 35,354 unique places that were for less than 30 days and did not involve a shared room, but characterized three quarters of those rentals as being illegal by violating zoning codes. Furthermore, it was found that one third of all the city’s rentals were by commercial entities, some of whom were renting out apartments that would normally be on the open market.

“The rapid rise of short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have dramatically expanded the use of traditional apartments as transient hotel rooms — sparking a public debate in New York and in communities worldwide about the real-world consequences of this online marketplace,” Schneiderman’s report noted. “Where supporters of Airbnb and other rental sites see a catalyst for entrepreneurship, critics see a threat to the safety, affordability, and residential character of local communities. Are the new platforms fueling a black market for unsafe hotels? By bidding up the price of apartments in popular areas, do short-term rentals make metropolitan areas like New York City less affordable? Is the influx of out-of-town visitors upsetting the quiet of longstanding residential neighborhoods?”

While some of the things charted in the report would likely never migrate north, such as the creation of hostel-like situations in apartments and an overall raising of all rents in a neighborhood, its very presence has opened some local eyes to a phenomenon that’s grown exponentially in the last two to three years. Yet for many it’s still so new they haven’t formed policies towards any of it.

Page 1 of 2
12Next
Tags: airbnbcatskills
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Paul Smart

Related Posts

A busy July 4 week in Saugerties
Community

Guide to 4th of July events and fireworks in Ulster County

July 1, 2025
Detained
Community

Detained

June 26, 2025
Body of work: Ulster County’s tattoo shops empower personal expression and salvation
Community

Body of work: Ulster County’s tattoo shops empower personal expression and salvation

June 28, 2025
Creative community mourns passing of renowned musician, composer & teacher Bill Vanaver
Community

Creative community mourns passing of renowned musician, composer & teacher Bill Vanaver

June 24, 2025
Local elected officials gather to support Equality Act, condemn cruelty in the service of power
Community

Local elected officials gather to support Equality Act, condemn cruelty in the service of power

June 26, 2025
Woodstock to review police jobs as costs rise
Community

McKenna takes the heat again

June 22, 2025
Next Post

Inmates help decorate Saugerties village park

Weather

Kingston, NY
63°
Clear
5:24 am8:36 pm EDT
Feels like: 63°F
Wind: 2mph S
Humidity: 92%
Pressure: 29.9"Hg
UV index: 0
FriSatSun
82°F / 55°F
86°F / 64°F
93°F / 70°F
powered by Weather Atlas

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing