A hotel-industry group is breaking out the big guns to go after Airbnb, hiring a former NYPD officer to look for illegal rentals on the popular home-sharing service.
Retired narcotics cop Herman Weisberg’s private security and investigation firm, Sage Intelligence Group, has been called on by the Hotel Association of New York City to go undercover looking for criminal activity it believes is caused by Airbnb users.
“For illegal and criminal activity, it’s ripe for the picking,” Weisberg said. “If you’re looking to stay out of the limelight, it’s the perfect set-up for illicit activity.”
The ex-cop has also worked with the Secret Service on providing security to diplomats, and he was the lead cop arresting Tyco executives on grand-larceny charges for fleecing the company of tens of millions of dollars.
As a city resident, he says he understands how and why seeing strangers come in and out of a residential building could be upsetting.
“I like to know who belongs in my building,” Weisberg said. “I’ve always had eyes and ears open. It’s unsettling to me as a New Yorker.”
In addition to paying for Weisberg’s contract, the Hotel Association is running a public-awareness campaign to fight the app-related rentals.
But Airbnb — which says it vets hosts and guests more thoroughly than hotels do — has complained that the group is engaging in illegal lobbying and has conflicts of interest.
Josh Meltzer, Airbnb’s head of public policy in New York, said the home-sharing site looks closely into guests and hosts and matches them against databases for criminal activity.
“Another day, another scare tactic from big hotels that will do everything they can to price gouge consumers and punish hardworking New Yorkers,” he said.
The hiring of the detective also comes as a new complaint hot line backed by the hotel industry drew 731 calls in June, its first month of operation, which began in June. That compares with roughly 1,300 complaints made to 311 last year.
Hot-line callers included a woman who said she feared for her safety because short-term guests were knocking on doors at all hours of the night.
A man in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, complained that guests block his parking spot, causing him to be late for work.
A woman in Midtown called to say that her building’s sewage was backing up and trash was piling up and that she suspected short-term guests and the crews hired to clean up after them were to blame.
Weisberg said he’ll likely uncover illegal activity because short-term rentals are inviting to criminals.
“If I was in their shoes, I would probably favor illegal hotels over legal hotels because of a lack of scrutiny,” he said.
The hotel trade groups are also homing in on building-code and fire-safety violations. Since Jan. 1, the city has issued 435 citations to 136 buildings for illegally housing transients through apartment-sharing services.