New York Hospitality Market Report

Travel metrics fully recover from pandemic as supply restrictions take effect. This year will mark a milestone for New York’s tourism sector, as 68 million visitors are anticipated to visit the city, surpassing the 2019 total for the first time since the onset of the health crisis and marking a new all-time high for the metric. The surge in tourism comes as citywide legislation has notably constricted available options for lodgings. Local Law 18 came into effect in September of last year, which prohibits all short-term rentals from hosts not living at the property being rented out — effectively a de facto ban on the practice. The law resulted in the number of active Airbnb listings in the city declining by roughly 15,400, or 77 percent, from June to November 2023. This compounds the impact of the 16,000 hotel keys in mostly lower-end chain scales taken off the market by a city initiative to provide housing for incoming migrants. Both these figures combined equate to more than double the amount of hotel rooms brought to market across the city over the past three years, more than warranting the active pipeline of roughly 8,800 rooms entering 2024.