How dare-dare bnb he!?
City hits 'mattress-dorm slumlord'
The city is clamping down on an illegal-sublet “slumlord” who was recently caught stuffing more than 20 mattresses into a pair of twobedroom Manhattan apartments and charging each guest $ 35 a night for the cramped quarters.
Former club promoter and banker David Jaffee, 31, represents the worst of short-term-rental hosts at Web sites like Airbnb — and may soon be facing criminal charges, a source said.
“It’s clear that Airbnb is the drug of choice for slumlords peddling illegal hotels,” said James Freedland, a rep for Share Better, a coalition of residents, elected officials and hotel-industry insiders. “We are pleased the city is taking action against Airbnb slumlords, who are robbing everyday New Yorkers of affordable housing.”
A spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement said the agency obtained search warrants for three rental apartments Jaffee was subletting daily around Manhattan, and evicted him from all three over the past few months.
One of the most egregious was a twobedroom duplex at 341 E. 62nd St., where city inspectors found 26 beds with flimsy foam mattresses crammed in. Last week, the agency won a vacate order from the court for two more illegal apartment-hotels, at 116 John St. and 448W. 19th St.
Three landlords have also sued Jaffee, and Airbnb permanently banned him after learning about a 22bed rental at 215 E. 27th St., where he allegedly had put eight beds in one room, eight in the second room and six more in the hallways. A Gawker article noted that, at full capacity, Jaffee could pull in $ 250,000 a year from it.
But Jaffee, once listed in the “Top 10 Most Hated People in New York Nightlife” by the Club Planet blog, got around the ban and posted on Airbnb a listing for a luxury, twobedroom pad at 301 E. 47th St., according to a January 2015 lawsuit by the landlord, Embassy House.
Embassy House attorney Kevin Cullen said Jaffee simply finds a new apartment once he’s evicted.
“That’s his business model,” Cullen said.
And it looks like Jaffee has moved on to a new Web site — Booking. com. He listed a “Financial District Hostel” at 116 John St. in December at $ 42 a night for a bed in a “fourbed dormitory.”
One tourist said in a review the illicit hostel was “the worst . . . I have stayed ever,” with six beds in one room and a dirty bathroom that “smells very bad.”
The city has received 12 complaints that the unit was being used as an illegal hotel.
In all, Jaffee is linked to eight illegal sublets, according to city officials. He did not return phone, email and text messages.