Not necessarily applicable as a precedent in Australia, but the following report on the forum “Frequent Business Traveller” is of interest.
A New York City man was evicted form his apartment after a Manhattan Housing Court judge ruled against him after he listed the apartment on Airbnb.
Henry Ikezi of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood was found guilty of “profiteering” after listing his apartment on Airbnb for $649 per night. Izeki had been paying $6,670 per month for the rent-stabilized apartment.
Izeki said that he had been living in the apartment with his family, only hosting tourists occasionally, although his landlord alleged that Izeki had been renting the apartment like a hotel. In New York, it is illegal to rent an entire home or apartment for fewer than 29 days.
In court, Izeki claimed that he could not remember whether or not he had charged anyone for a night’s stay, nor did he know whether he had slept at the apartment. The judge ordered Izeki to be out of the apartment by the end of the month.
The judge didn’t buy it. “Using a residential apartment as a hotel room and profiteering off of it is ground for eviction . . . as it undermines a purpose of the Rent Stabilization Code,’’ Stoller wrote in his 12-page ruling.