DIY B&B: the Internet is enabling more and more Americans to leverage their biggest asset, their home, by renting rooms to travelers. So why are local governments trying to shut them down?

• Author: Fleetwood, Blake
• Position: THE FUTURE OF SUCCESS

Early one Saturday morning last fall, Jonathan Hogan awoke to the sounds of banging on his front door followed by voices shouting, "Open up! Open up! We are the police!" Unaccustomed to trouble with the law, Hogan opened his door, and saw a group of five or six men in suits and uniforms standing on his Greenwich Village stoop.

"There was a policeman, three officials from the city, a fireman, and a couple of others that I didn't recognize," recalled Hogan. Despite their numbers, the authorities had not come to search for drugs or apprehend a fugitive. Instead, they were there because of an advertisement Hogan had posted on the Internet.

Hogan--who requested that we not use his real name--had recently fallen on hard times. He lost his job as an art vendor during the recession, and with five children, two of whom had recently gone off to college, and a hefty mortgage to pay, he had been left scrambling to make ends meet. The one asset he did possess was his house, which had several spare rooms and an apartment sitting unused in one of the most desirable neighborhoods to visit in Manhattan. At first, he rented them out to friends from Ireland who were passing through the city, but soon he converted them into rental apartments and began to post ads online to draw in lodgers from all over the world.

"I worked hard, gave my guests excellent service and value, and it was just starting to catch on," Hogan said. His monthly finances were beginning to stabilize, his visitors were gaining access to a cheaper, cozier alternative to a hotel, and the city was drawing in additional tourists who might otherwise have been unable to afford to visit New York and support the local economy. Many of his guests enjoyed their stay enough to write positive reviews on Web sites like TripAdvisor, but with this enhanced reputation came another kind of attention, one that had brought the NYPD to his door.

For more than a year now, New York City has been enforcing a new state law that makes it illegal for homeowners like Hogan to rent out their house or apartment for less than a month. All across the city, police raids have shut down hundreds of similar informal bed-and-breakfast establishments, with nearly 1,900 different violations issued in under twelve months. Often, the fees associated with the citations stretch into tens of thousands of dollars. Hogan was threatened with a $25,000 fine--all for marketing the empty rooms in his house.

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