Seeing as there are no actual jobs available any more, New Yorkers have turned to the tried and true method of enriching themselves using the sheer brilliance of the city: real estate. Specifically, renting out their apartments as illegal hotels to tourists. "I'm an entrepreneur, and I saw this as another opportunity," a woman who rents out her Brooklyn apartment for $100/night tells the Post. "I've been booked for the past month and a half, save for a few nights." We'd like to take this opportunity to announce that a lovely broom closet in the Lower East Side that is available for $30/hour. more ›

Grab some continental breakfast and wake the Germans in the next bunk: the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement has begun cracking down on a law that went into effect on May 1 that bars apartment rentals for less than 30 days and prevents building owners from renting a single unit for temporary use. more ›

Last month, a bill to prevent building owners from illegally converting apartments into hotel rooms passed the state Senate, seemingly paving the way to put seedy landlords and hustlers out of business. But more than a dozen out-of-towners looking for a dream summer in NYC fell victim to two scam artists in Williamsburg, and exactly what that bill was meant to curtail. more ›

New Yorkers have been subletting on the sly since way before Craigslist started matching them with tenants. You go on vacation for a few weeks, you find someone to rent your place for those weeks you're gone, and everybody's happy except your freaked-out cat. But the state Legislature is considering a new bill that would make that practice illegal. (Don't worry, there's a "cat-sitting situation" subsection.) more ›

Illegally renting subleased apartments as hotel rooms is nothing new, but Raziel Ofer, who "controlled hundreds of units at swanky uptown addresses" (at Woogo.com), was caught by Manhattan prosecutors because he never paid over $1 million in sales tax to the city and state. D'oh! He also apparently "evaded up to $2 million in other fees"; Ofer pleaded guilty and now faces between 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison. Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau groused, "Illegal hotels are getting to be a major problem." more ›