Meng Receives Response From Airbnb

"I appreciate Airbnb's prompt response to my office and its willingness to remedy this situation," said Congresswoman Meng. "I look forward to continuing my conversations with the company and have a better understanding of what transpired and how we can ensure this does not happen again. As I've said, residents of this neighborhood must not have their safety put at risk and their quality of life disrupted, and State Senator John Liu, Assemblyman Ed Braunstein and I will continue to keep up this fight."

"I thank Airbnb for hearing the community's concerns and working expeditiously with our offices to remove all listings for this residence," said Assemblyman Edward Braunstein. "Moving forward, we will all continue to carefully monitor the activity at this address to help ensure that it is no longer used for illegal short term rentals."

Previous release from March 24, 2022:

QUEENS, NY – Today, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) urged Airbnb to provide insight following a shooting at a house in Bayside, Queens that was advertised as an Airbnb rental.

In a letter to Airbnb's Chief Executive Officer, Meng posed several crucial questions concerning why and how the site has continuously been listed as a rental property despite it being vacant, and what the company is doing to correct the problem.

The text of the letter is below and a copy of the correspondence can be viewed here.

Meng is also working with State Senator John Liu and Assemblyman Ed Braunstein to address the problem.

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March 24, 2022

Mr. Brian Chesky

Chief Executive Officer

Airbnb, Inc.

888 Brannan Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

Dear Mr. Chesky,

I write to express my deep concern for the public safety of communities in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens, New York. Last week, the neighborhood of Bayside experienced a shooting outside a residence on 208th Street near 38th Avenue. One teenager suffered a gunshot wound to the torso and nearby vehicles were damaged by additional gunshots. The residence was advertised as an Airbnb rental, despite being vacant.

An article reported that individuals broke into this residence two years ago and have been listing the property as a rental on Airbnb. Despite your company's efforts to take down the posting, the article also indicates the individuals who broke into the vacant place have continued to repost this residence on Airbnb's website.

As you know, the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits the dissemination of misleading claims for food, drugs, devices, services, or cosmetics. I am gravely concerned with the public safety issues that have arisen from the faulty posting of this property on Airbnb's website. While the 111th Precinct of the New York Police Department continues its investigation into the shooting, I seek answers to the following questions:

• What is Airbnb doing to rectify the faulty listing of this foreclosed property in Bayside?

• What has prevented Airbnb from permanently banning this foreclosed property from being listed on your website?

• Will Airbnb allow it to be relisted despite it being a vacant property and does Airbnb allow any vacant property to be listed?

• What are Airbnb's requirements for a property to be listed as a rental on its website?

• Will Airbnb update its procedures to ensure vacant properties are not listed on its website?

• Does Airbnb work with state and local authorities to ensure that vacant or foreclosed properties are not listed on your website?

As the Congressmember representing the neighborhood of Bayside, Queens, the safety and wellbeing of my community is of paramount importance. Thank you for your assistance in this process and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Grace Meng

Member of Congress