The worst little hostel in Kew Gardens

Forest Hills Post

A quiet Kew Gardens home was illegally converted into a dormitory-style, transient hotel with as many as four bunk beds to a room over the summer — and the law-breaking homeowner was slapped with more than $100,000 in violations.

The two-family home, located at 121-08 84th Ave., was converted to a six-family home with three units on the first floor and three more in the attic level, according to Department of Buildings (DOB) summons.

The homeowner, Edward J. Erhard IV, was issued with 12 summonses and fined $108,500 for the violations. At a hearing in late January, a judge upheld the charges — which include illegal conversion of occupancy and illegal construction without permits — and ordered Erhard to pay the large sum.

Complaints of the illegal hotel operation date back to July 2018 with neighbors stating as many as 16 to 18 people were staying at the two-family house, according to DOB records.
Rooms within the house, which sits on a residential tree-lined block, were advertised on Facebook, according to the complaints.

When an inspector was finally able to enter the building on July 11, 2019 with the help of law enforcement, he found several long-term and transient renters sharing rooms within the house — with as many as three people to a room, according to hearing testimony.

The inspector met two women who were paying $40 a night for a one-night stay — one was sharing a room with a long-term tenant, while the other was staying on the living room couch.

Long Island City luxury hotel transforms into "motivational" short stay hostel.

QNS


The Paper Factory, a boutique hotel in an industrial section of Long Island City, has been acquired by The Collective, the British pioneer of the communal living movement.

The Collective will transform the building, located at 37-06 36th St., into a co-living environment and cultural destination that integrates the surrounding neighborhood at the southern end of the Kaufman Arts District.

The Collective bases its unique living environment on “A Theory of Human Motivation” by American psychologist Abraham Maslow, which he published in 1943. In it, Maslow described the “hierarchy of needs,” five different levels that when met allows a person to “self-actualize” reaching their fullest potential as a human being.

“We are profoundly excited for our arrival in Queens,” The Collective Founder and CEO Reza Merchant said. “We love to join culturally vibrant neighborhoods who are embarking on their own phase of change, and to work alongside locals to understand their current needs. Our vision for Paper Factory is to activate an inspiring environment where the community of Long Island City and our members can share unforgettable, enriching experiences that have a lasting impact on their lives.”

The Collective’s members can take advantage of flexible terms starting from a single night up to a few weeks, with all amenities, utilities, Wi-Fi, linen change and concierge services rolled into a single, simplified cost.

The first phase of rejuvenation at Paper Factory will its expansive ground and basement floors into a 
highly varied series of spaces designed to host daily experiences, ranging from cutting-edge music programming to educational gatherings around the future of living to mindfulness and wellbeing workshops. The program, which will be open to members and to the public, will strike a balance between intellectual growth, spiritual inspiration and cultural discovery.

 “We are very focused not just how people feel in our spaces, but what they may become there,” Merchant said. “We take a huge amount of inspiration from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and believe it is our duty to cater to all needs of the pyramid, starting from essentials like food and shelter. All the way to the top, which is self-actualization. Seeing people grow and achieve their full potential in life is what gets us out of bed every morning.”

Despite all the vibrant marketing jargon here (which is also disturbingly cult-like), this is a glorified and stylized homeless shelter.

Rockaway hostel vacated

From DNA Info:

The city shut down a "dangerous" illegal hostel run by a controversial operator who advertised the home as an airy getaway close to the beach — which hosted as many as 22 people at a time without proper exits or fire alarms, officials said.

Drifter Inn, at 427 Beach 69th Street, put up to eight people in a room inside the two-family Victorian home, renting bunk beds out at $35 a night on weekdays and $50 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The hostel was operated by Laura Jones, who has now been permanently banned from Airbnb, a company spokesman said.

In 2014, Jones tried opening the Hostile Hostel — which caused a stir over bungalow names including the “wife beater” and “gang violence.”

It later closed due to controversy surrounding the room themes, which Jones said was just a joke.

She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

On July 13, the Department of Buildings and the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement ordered a full vacate of the new hostel, saying it was illegally converted from a two-family residence to include seven furnished rooms lacking necessary exits, fire alarms or sprinklers.

Council members want hostels to come back

From AM-NY:

Several City Council members are pushing to legalize youth hostels in New York City, five years after a citywide crackdown wiped them out.

In 2010, the state legislature passed the "Illegal Hotels Bill" that outlawed using residential units as hotel rooms, shutting down virtually the entire hostel industry in New York. Fifty-five hostels across the city were shuttered for either violating zoning laws or operating under conditions that the city deemed dangerous.

Former City Council member Mark Weprin introduced a bill in February to regulate hostels, allowing them to open and operate in commercial zones. After Weprin resigned in June to work for Gov. Andrew Cuomo the bill was taken up by Council Member Margaret Chin.

Like Weprin, Chin also claimed that the city lost millions in revenue over the past few years because many young travelers can't find affordable accommodations and skip the city.

"What we're doing is resolving this unintended consequence in legislation that would allow hostels to operate in a reasonable manner and take advantage of this pool of global tourism," said Paul Leonard, a spokesman for Chin, a Democrat who represents lower Manhattan. A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the administration is reviewing the legislation and has no official position yet.

Other sponsors of the bill are council members David Greenfield, Jumaane Williams, Rafael Espinal Jr. and Karen Koslowitz.

About five hostels currently operate in the city but they categorize themselves as hotels on the city's books while advertising as hostels or offer "hostel-like" amenities, with the exception of the nonprofit organization Hostelling International that received a special permit by the city in 1989 to operate as a hostel.

If there are hostels operating legally in NYC, then why do we need new laws to make them more available? There is already a pathway to operation.

Weprin proposes youth hostel legislation

From the Queens Gazette:

Councilmember Mark Weprin has introduced Intro 699 to legalize the construction, regulation and operation of licensed youth hostels in commercial districts within the five boroughs. Presently, New York City does not have a law that legalizes youth hostels.

“Hostels are a popular component of travel all around the world owing to the unique community feel that they offer. A lot of young people do not have the money to stay at luxury hotels,” said Weprin. “We need a place for people on a budget to stay. This is an opportunity to offer young people clean, safe places to stay that are not as expensive as hotels.”

The new legislation would also advance the fight against illegal short-term sublets and rentals of residential facilities that affect residential communities and buildings across the five boroughs.

The Pan Am was supposed to be a youth hostel...

Illegal hotelier ignored court order to stop

New Yorker Renting Out 2-bedroom Apartment with... by Gothamist
From the Daily News:

Your home is not a hotel — unless you’re former club promoter David Jaffee, in which case court papers say five of your homes are hotels.

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement says Jaffee is a repeat offender in the illegal business of running cheap hotels out of Manhattan apartments.

The unit has filed court papers asking permission to search a two-bedroom apartment at 116 John St. which, it says, has been renting “bunk beds” to tourists through www.booking.com for $42 per night.

Jaffee rented the 14th floor apartment in October 2014 for $4,350 per month. The two-year lease, which is attached to the city’s court papers, clearly states that subletting is forbidden.

However, the managers of the building, Metro Loft Management and 116 John St. Subtenant LLC, say Jaffee almost immediately started renting beds in the unit for short-term stays, billing the apartment online as a “Financial District Hotel John Street.”

David Lepard, a lawyer with the OSE, says in an affidavit that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten signed an order on April 2 barring Jaffee from continuing to sublet the apartment, but building managers told city officials that Jaffee has ignored Wooten's order.

Mark Weprin continues his cluelessness

From Capital New York:

Councilman Mark Weprin announced legislation on Monday that would allow youth hostels in New York City.

The bill, Intro. 699, would allow hostels to operate with four to eight beds in each dormitory-style room and reopen a market targeted for young individuals that are backpacking in New York City.

It would allow licensed hostels to operate in commercial areas and be subject to regulation by the city Department of Consumer Affairs.

Hostels in New York City struggled after a 2010 New York law outlawed renting apartments for less than 30 days.

Weprin, a Queens Democrat, said that the bill will open a new market and won’t compete with hotels because it’ll be marketed towards a younger demographic that doesn’t care for its surroundings and is focused on an affordable stay.

“We want young people to come here and very often they don’t care where they stay,” said Weprin at a press conference outside of City Hall on Monday morning. “They just want to put their heads down on a safe, clean place and the youth hostels offer a great opportunity for this market.”

Yes, we need even more hotels in manufacturing zones. Great idea.

Illegal hostel advertises on the subway

These were pasted all over a subway car I was on yesterday. Who needs AirBnB when you have the MTA?

Landlord tries to get illegal hostel shut down

From the Daily News:

An East Harlem landlord is taking steps to shutter an illegal hostel that has been operating in the Lexington Ave. building since the summer, the Daily News has learned.

A three-bedroom apartment in the building at E. 122nd St. is being rented out on booking.com, where guests are invited to stay in apartment 6G at a nightly rate of $199 per bed this holiday season.

Most galling, perhaps, is the fact that this unit is enrolled in a federal program that keeps rents affordable for low-income residents. The apartment in question rents for $1,017 per month — almost $2,000 per month less than the unit would fetch at market rate.

That means the tenant is making a killing — on the taxpayers’ dime.

22 beds in a downtown apartment

From WPIX:

A man is renting out an East Side apartment for “young professionals” for $900. 22 to be exact.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, you’re given a tour of what looks like a cramped dwelling.

It’s a two-bedroom apartment with 22 beds.

The man claims to have plenty of storage space (perhaps under the beds?) and tells how the apartment is walking distance from the subway trains.

He doesn’t mention the word hostel, but a city spokesman says they are investigating this place as a possible illegal hostel.

Hostel's joke names fall flat

From DNA Info:

The Plaza Hotel has the Eloise Suite and the Oak Room. A new pop-up hostel in Rockaway Beach let guests relax after a day in the sun on the "Ike Turner Bed" in the "Wife-Beater Bungalow."

The recently opened Hostile Hostel featured rooms and beds named after gangsters, drug users and domestic abusers, with a website depicting images of machine guns and planes dropping bombs.

But the room names were yanked after DNAinfo inquired about them on Wednesday, with the "Whore House" becoming "The Dorm." The descriptions of the rooms were also pulled from the website, but the bed names remain.

Offering beds named for Chris Brown, Ike Turner and Mel Gibson, the hostel had a shared kitchen space called the "Domestic Violence Bungalow," which advised guests to "get yo spatulas out."

The name of the space was changed on the hostel's website on Wednesday to the "Wife Beater Bungalow" and later to simply "The Kitchen."

Danny Ruscillo, a community leader who works with the 100th Precinct Community Council, said the names were "outrageous."

"This is not a joke, and it's not funny. We're not laughing," he said. "We have enough problems in Rockaway, and we don't need that kind of nonsense."

Pan Am Hotel reopens as a hostel

A fan on Facebook recently brought to my attention that the Pan Am Hotel on Queens Blvd in Elmhurst has a new website, and is apparently being run as both a hotel and hostel. People on a budget will be able to afford to visit New York and the property has found a similar use to its previous incarnation. Sounds like a win-win, especially considering that the entire block was up for sale and at one point there were fears of a humongous crap pile being constructed in its place.

SRO sold to hostel owner

From DNA Info:

A notorious SRO hotel with hundreds of building violations that sits blocks from the waterfront has been sold to a former hostel owner who is considering demolishing the building, DNAinfo New York has learned.

The Greenpoint Hotel — an SRO with more than 200 units of affordable housing for formerly homeless men — has been in a state of severe disrepair for years, said residents and their lawyers, who have sued longtime landlord Jay Deutchman over its condition.

But last month Deutchman sold the Manhattan Avenue building to Gal Sela, whose former Harlem hostel was shuttered by the city for overcrowding and improper zoning in 2010. Sela said he plans to clean up the beleaguered Brooklyn structure to get it up to the city's necessary code before either demolishing it or changing its use next year.

"I may knock it down and build another building," said Sela, who spent $6 million for the deed and $26 million for control over all the tenants' leases, according to property records. "We're keeping the tenants there now...but if they want to be bought out, we want to do that."

Sela said he "obviously" thought the property — which sits across the street from popular cafes Milk and Roses and Champion Coffee — was extremely valuable, but noted he would not decide his ultimate plan for the spot until spring, after he had fixed up and cleaned the building.

Do we really need more transient housing?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Advocates are pushing for the passage of legislation in the City Council that would permit the licensing of residential hostels in the city.

The bill, which is sitting in the Committee on Housing and Buildings, would authorize the construction and regulation of hostels. Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said he predicts that the flourishing of hostels in Queens could bring in more revenue for the borough.

“Countless tourists, who can’t afford luxury hotels in Manhattan, are drawn to Queens when they visit our city and inevitably spend tourism dollars on restaurants and other amenities in our borough,” Friedman said.

Hostels are dwelling units where guests can rent a bed and share the bathroom, kitchen or lounge with other guests. It’s an alternative to hotels and usually cheaper.

The legislation is an effort to correct the damage wrought by the 2010 illegal hotel bill that forced hostels in the five boroughs to close. Friedman said the closings were an unintended consequence of the bill, which was implemented to clamp down on illegal hotels, apartments designated as permanent residences that were improperly rented out on a nightly basis.

Friedman said hostels would contribute to Queens local economy by attracting tourists to the borough and creating jobs. He noted that studies have shown that New York City is losing $150 million annually since hostels were forced to close.

“Millions of dollars, taxable revenue, can be generated in the Queens economy,” he said. “When we welcome [tourists and travelers] to someone’s home they’re going to spend money at local restaurants and retail stores.”

The bill defines a licensed hostel as a “multiple dwelling providing lodging, food and other services to tourists, travelers and others requiring temporary accommodation.” The bill also states hostels may contain private rooms, but not apartments, and should not be occupied by the same individual for more than 29 days in a 12-month period.

“[Hostels ] would mean more to us than any other borough because we have two airports. We can attract more travelers,” Friedman said.
Despite the money hostels are projected to bring to the borough if the bill is passed, some Queens residents are worried that these facilities will attract the wrong people.

“We have enough cheap hotels already,” Ram Garib of the Queens Village Civic Association said. “If you attract the wrong people, you will attract the wrong problems in the area.”
Cynthia Curry of the Wayanda Civic Association in Jamaica said she doesn’t think the additional revenue hostels would bring in is worth risking the safety of Queens residents.

Hostels closing, but illegal hotels thriving

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Just three years ago, Brooklyn appeared to be a hotbed of new hostels — budget hotels popular with hipsters and young Europeans . But lately, it’s gotten hostile for hostels. While never plentiful, the scant number of Brooklyn hostels has dwindled recently.

Several weeks ago Williamsburg’s Zip112 Hostel, on N 6th Street between Wythe Avenue and Berry Street, closed, according to neighbors. The place was beloved. All its reviews on Yelp are five stars, with some travelers calling it the best hostel in New York City.

Zip112 isn’t the only Williamsburg hostel to close. The phone number of the Metropol Hostel — formerly on N. 4th Street between Bedford Ave and Berry Street — now directs to the law offices of Charles D. Naylor. The building where it once was now looks unassuming, devoid of any signage. A photographer for this paper rang all three buzzers at the location recently in the early evening, but no one answered.

As recently as 2010, the hostel was providing towels, lockers and free breakfast for travelers, according to website reviews.

Part of the problem is a city crack-down on illegal hotels. Many hostels fell into this category after a 2011 law made it illegal to rent whole apartments in residential buildings for periods of under 30 days.

At this point, it’s hard to find an open hostel in Brooklyn, particularly one with good access to Manhattan, which most travelers insist on.

Then the paper goes on to recommend AirBnB, where tourists can rent an illegal basement apartment as a hotel room if they can't find a hostel.

From Crains:

Airbnb, the website that allows people to rent their apartments by the night, has over the past few years quietly become an economic leviathan in New York City. About 30,000 New Yorkers are signed up as hosts, and last year hundreds of thousands of visitors paid a fraction of the cost of a hotel to stay in the city an average of six nights. That kind of demand is expected to generate around $1 billion in local economic activity in 2013, outstripping the impact of the city's booming cruise-ship industry five times over, according to figures cited by tech-industry leaders with knowledge of the site.

And with about 87% of listings outside the swath of Manhattan between 14th and 59th streets, where most hotels are bunched, Airbnb directs dollars to neighborhoods that don't usually see the spending spoils of the $55 billion-a-year tourism industry.

But the San Francisco-based company is hardly trumpeting its success here. A long-awaited study expected to back up the bold economic claims has been delayed indefinitely. There are no ads for the site in New York City. And Airbnb declined to comment for this story.

The reason is simple: Airbnb posts listings that are illegal in New York state.

The company is instead maintaining a low profile while lobbying lawmakers for a change in a 2011 law that makes it illegal for New Yorkers to rent an entire apartment for less than 29 days. Though that stricture was intended to curb illegal hotels, it's turned the bulk of Airbnb users — those who rent out primary and secondary residences for short-term stays — into unwitting scofflaws, according to sources describing conversations between the company and legislators.

City cracking down on illegal hotels

From the NY Times:

Armed with a new state law, the city has spent the past year cracking down on the growing industry of short-term rentals; since the law took effect last May, nearly 1,900 notices of violation have been issued at hundreds of residential buildings.

The new law made it illegal to rent out apartments in residential buildings for under 30 days. Owners of an apartment or a town house may still rent out one or two rooms, provided that they live in the home and everyone has access to common areas like the kitchen. Illegal hotels found by the city included small rental buildings, condos and town houses, and many of them were hiding in plain sight.

The Loftstel, a town house on Greene Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, advertised on Web sites, including a New York University site that offers suggestions for short-term housing. (N.Y.U. does not endorse the locations.)

Students and tourists came to the Loftstel from all over the world, said Tommy Walton, 56, who lives a few doors down. They threw “crazy parties,” he said, adding that he was once invited in by a guest and found a refrigerator packed with beer and vodka, but not a scrap of food.

During an inspection last year, the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement found 44 guests in the house, inadequate smoke alarms and other unsafe conditions, problems the city says are common when residences are used for short-term lodging.

The building now stands vacant. The man behind the business, Jeff Pan, said he had “made a clean break from it.”

Illegal Brooklyn hostel shut down by DOB

From BushwickBK:

On Friday, June 24, the Department of Buildings vacated all residents of the New York Empire Hostel, operating in an industrially zoned building at 269 Meserole St. in East Williamsburg. Inspectors evacuated 50-60 guests, claiming the visitors were in “imminent danger” if they continued their stay. Authorities received a tip that some 30 people were housed in one loft where rooms reportedly lacked windows and were subject to poor sprinkler coverage.

The New York Empire Hostel charged visitors $50/night to room with up to 12 people in what the now-defunct website termed the “Heart of Hip Williamsburg.”

The Dept. of Buildings reported full-height walls cutting up units, up to 12 bunks per room, and improper fire-safety systems, in addition to unpermitted bathrooms.

Illegal hostel shut down

From Brownstoner:

Earlier this year a tipster told us the big yellow house at 70 Lefferts was operating as a hostel; they've followed up to tell us it has been since vacated. DOB shows a partial vacate order and full stop work order for "illegally converted rooms into transient hostel without providing required means of egress, fire alarm."

Beautiful house now an illegal hostel

From Brownstoner:

It's been a rough few years for 70 Lefferts Place, or, more precisely, the developer who's owned it for the last four and a half years. To refresh, the house traded for $2,400,000 in May 2006 and soon thereafter plans were announced to tear down the Civil War-era gem. A last-minute effort to landmark the house ended up being successful, with the designation being finalized in December 2006. Within a month, the property was back on the market. It never sold, though, and in April 2009 a Lis Pendens (the first step in the foreclosure process) was filed, revealing that the owner was on the hook for a $2,010,000 loan. We hadn't heard much about the property since then until a few days ago when a neighbor brought this online listing for a hostel to our attention. According to the website, for $25 a night, you can have a spot in one of the many bunkbeds. The only problem is that this place doesn't have a C of O for a hotel or even a rooming house, as far as we can tell. We also bet that the lenders would be curious to know how much the owner is renting out the place to the hostel operators for.

Out-of-town renters duped by scam

From the NY Post:

What seemed like a dream deal of spending the summer living in one of New York's hottest neighborhoods has become a nightmare for more than a dozen out-of-towners.

Many of the victims -- college students and young professionals -- told The Post they were duped out of thousands of dollars by two Brooklyn men posing as leaseholders of a massive loft within a new luxury apartment complex at 175 Powers St. in Williamsburg.

The duo, Desmond Eaddy and Ronnie Barron, allegedly used Craigslist and other ads to reel in the unsuspecting victims, including eight from Ireland, and collect at least $14,000.

Left with empty pockets, many of the victims say they've spent the past month working odd jobs and scrambling just to raise enough cash for food and shelter.

The ads claimed rooms were available for $1,100 monthly "in a brand new, huge, two-floor loft."

But Eaddy and Barron, both 29, never had the legal authority to sublet the space for residential use -- only a handshake agreement with building's owners to use it for film and TV production.

The duo hired contractors to carve up the commercial space and convert it to an eight-bedroom "illegal hostel," according the building's existing tenants.

But construction was halted long before the apartment was complete, although the out-of-towners had paid to move in by mid-June.