By Laura Bly, USA TODAY
For frequent Manhattan visitor Ken Velten there’s no place like (someone else’s) home.
The Southern California retiree and his family of up to five have traveled to the Big Apple five times over the past five years, staying a week or two and trading the expense and anonymity of a hotel room for the space and convenience of a rented apartment in Midtown East. But after May 1, when a ban on most New York City apartment rentals under 30 days is scheduled to take effect, Velten probably won’t be back.
“We really prefer apartments because you can set your own schedule and get a feel for what it’s like to be a New Yorker,” says Velten, who paid about $2,500 a week for two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room in a town in which the average hotel rate runs upward of $210, plus taxes, a night. “We love the city, but not what we’d have to spend at a comparable hotel.”
Others clamp down, too
New York isn’t the only U.S. destination grappling with the booming popularity of short-term apartment and other vacation rentals, which can include anything from a mountain cabin to a high-rise penthouse.
This summer, Chicago lawmakers approved an ordinance restricting rentals under 30 days to existing properties that obtain a special-use permit and have been in business for at least a year. Teri Smith of the Chicago Vacation Rental Owners Association predicts the law could reduce the current number of options — about 700, by one estimate — by 40%-70% when it takes effect Jan. 1.
http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/2010-08-05-vacation-rentals-ban_N.htm
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