Two Queens tenants have transformed their solitary, inhospitable 3-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst into a 10-bedroom, monetized community betterment cultural exchange.
PIX 11's Arnold Diaz (Shame Shame Shaaaaaaaame) reports that Queens landlord Eddie Shiew rented the third floor 3-bedroom of his home in Elmhurst to Burak Firik and Dogan Kimilli for $2,500/month.
Firik and Kimilli promptly put up some walls and began renting the spaces out on Airbnb.
When Shiew tore the walls down and changed the locks, his tenants took him to court, and a judge ordered him to let them back in. Now they charge $35/night to travelers who don't mind being separated from their fellow boarders by red shower curtains.
"We know the laws very well, you'll not be able to evict us ever," Firik allegedly texted Shiew.
Shiew's attorney told Diaz that he'd have the men out in a month or two.
When Airbnb released anonymized data on their hosts last week, they claimed that only two hosts in Queens posted six or more listings. Was this Firik and Kimilli? Or were their listings categorized a different way? We might never know!
Councilmember Helen Rosenthal called Airbnb's anonymized release "a useless disclosure that will do nothing to curb illegal hotels and tenant harassment." As Firik and Kimilli's case proves, it's exceedingly difficult to evict tenants running Airbnb hotels.
We've asked Airbnb to comment on the case and will update if they respond.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Airbnb gave us this statement:
We have suspended listings we believe are associated with this story while we investigate and we will take appropriate action. Situations like these are rare and we strongly oppose illegal hotels.
