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NYC Office of Special Enforcement Announces $152,000 Settlement Resolving Investigation into Kiki Club
- Company Ran Invite-Only Site That Provided Hosts and Guests Access to Unregistered Short-Term Rental Listings
- Fines Related to Kiki’s Failure to Verify Listings’ Legality, as Required by Local Law 18
NEW YORK – The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) today announced a settlement in which Kiki Club, a service that allegedly operated as an illegal short-term rental (STR) “matchmaker” in New York City, agreed to pay more than $152,000 to settle charges that it violated New York City’s short-term rental laws, designed to protect housing stock and ensure neighborhood safety.
OSE’s investigation determined that Kiki Club ran a social-media-invite-only website in NYC since 2023 that facilitated short-term rentals, effectively creating a platform for illegal stays without registration or regulatory oversight.
OSE found that Kiki Club actively advertised and facilitated short-term rentals in the city in violation of key local laws:
- Failure to Report under New York City’s Booking Service data reporting law: Kiki failed to submit quarterly reports of short-term rental transactions for qualifying listings, a requirement under the city’s reporting law.
- Failure to Verify and Report Transactions: Kiki failed to verify and report nearly 400 short-term rental transactions as mandated by the registration law.
Local Law 18, known as the Short-Term Rental Registration Law, isn’t just a powerful tool to protect permanent housing from illegal use; it also helps prevent tech companies from enabling New Yorkers to easily break laws. The law requires booking services to use OSE’s electronic verification system to ensure short-term rental hosts are either legally registered or exempt before processing transactions, and each unverified transaction carries a penalty of the lower of $1,500 or three times the revenue earned.
“This settlement sends a clear message: If you are a company that facilitates short-term rentals, ignoring city laws will be an expensive proposition.” said Christian Klossner, Executive Director of the NYC Office of Special Enforcement. “Kiki Club acted as a clandestine conduit for unregistered and illegal short-term rentals, directly undermining the city’s efforts to protect tenants and preserve permanent housing.”
In March 2025, OSE notified Kiki Club of its non-compliance with NYC law. Following this notification, Kiki Club promptly ceased all short-term rental advertising and occupancy facilitation within NYC and submitted all past-due quarterly reports.
Without admitting or denying the findings of OSE’s investigation, Kiki Club consented to the negotiated resolution, which requires Kiki Club to pay statutory penalties amounting to three times the fees it collected for unverified STR transactions, totaling over $152,000.
The city remains committed to utilizing all available enforcement tools, including Local Law 18, to ensure compliance with city laws governing the short-term rental market and deter those who seek to profit from illegal activity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Can I rent out my entire apartment in New York City for less than 30 days while I’m not there?
A: No. Short-term rentals are only permitted if you are registered with OSE as a short-term rental host and you are staying in the same unit or apartment as your guests, and you have no more than two paying guests at a time. You must also maintain a common household with the guests. The same regulations apply to renters and property owners.
Q: What does it mean to "maintain a common household" with my guests?
A: Maintaining a common household means that your guests have access to all parts of the dwelling unit. External bedroom door locks, for example, would result in a lack of access, meaning that there is no common household.
Q: What do booking services need to do to comply with New York City laws?
A: Booking services, or online platforms that advertise short-term rentals and provide booking services for a fee, must verify the registration status of a short-term rental listing using an application programming interface (API). The verification process will confirm that short-term rental transaction is either for a dwelling unit on the Class B Multiple Dwellings List or is associated with a valid short-term rental registration number.
Additionally, booking services are required to report the public uniform resource locator for the listing or another identifier, and the unique confirmation number obtained from the electronic verification system for such transactions to OSE.
Q: I am visiting New York City and plan to stay in a short-term rental. How do I know if the rental I booked is legal?
A: You can check the Registration and Listings Data page of the OSE website, which contains the addresses of all the current, registered short-term rentals in New York City.
About Local Law 18
Since the late 1960s, New York City’s laws have restricted rentals of less than 30 days in homes to two guests staying with permanent occupants. OSE estimates that by 2018, as many as 18,000 units of permanent housing were being used as illegal short-term rentals. In 2022, Local Law 18 created a new registration and verification program to protect New York City’s housing stock. The law: 1) requires hosts to register with OSE and operate the rentals in compliance with the city’s existing laws; 2) prohibits registration for rent-regulated and NYCHA units; 3) created a mechanism to prevent registrations from being issued in buildings where short-term rentals are prohibited by the owner; and 4) mandates that booking services verify the status of a registration before processing transactions. More than 3,000 host registrations have been granted, and more than 14,000 property owners and managers have placed their buildings on the prohibited list. The full text of Local Law 18 can be found online at https://www.nyc.gov/assets/specialenforcement/downloads/pdfs/LL18-of-2022.pdf and downloaded as a PDF.
About the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement
The Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) is an innovative task force that addresses public safety and quality-of-life issues related to illegal and unregulated industries. The multi-agency team is currently comprised of legal, inspection, and investigation team members from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (which oversees OSE), the Law Department, the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department, and the Sheriff’s Offices. The office’s main focus has been preserving New York City’s housing stock, which has a vacancy rate of 1.4%. OSE also conducts illegal massage parlor inspections, and has handled enforcement of an array of special projects, such as closing counterfeit product bazaars and overseeing programs to ensure compliance with COVID-era health and consumer protections. For more information, visit nyc.gov/ose.