The hotel industry and labor unions have lobbied for limitations to the home-sharing service (Photo by Shannon Stapleton) Opponents of Airbnb rally before a hearing at City Hall in 2015. “That’s when everything went to chaos,” she said.

In 2015, Cames and her ex-husband decided to purchase another townhouse in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where they expanded their Airbnb operations. “A lot of people enjoy being in a real neighborhood, coming home to somewhere quiet.” “It was immediately popular,” she told The Bridge. But Cames quickly realized how many tourists, charmed by the townhouse and the neighborhood, wanted to stay in her house. She was skeptical, since the home-sharing website, founded in California just three years earlier, was barely out of its startup phase.

Instead, a friend recommended she try Airbnb. However, Cames, who is a real-estate agent, was unable to rent the two-bedroom, floor-through apartment at the price she had hoped for. “I am a regular New Yorker, but I cannot afford my house without Airbnb,” said Evelyn Badia, a Park Slope host (Photo by Arden Phillips)įive years ago, Tatiana Cames renovated her recently-purchased townhouse in Clinton Hill with the hope of producing rental income from part of the building.

Airbnb near brooklyn