June 11, 2015



"The whole concept of this was a fabricated story for him to use his 15 minutes of fame," [David] Carter, of Brooklyn, said. "The only thing I have to say is, good luck and enjoy your karma."

Carter said he's an event planner, but not for sex parties, and claimed a flyer posted online was fake. If there was actual damage to the apartment, Carter said he would have been arrested when police were called to the scene, but he was not. Teman said Carter's claims are "easily disproven." Right after the incident, Teman said the damage cost $67,000. Airbnb paid for some of it, but Teman declined to say how much.
Well, somebody's not telling the truth. Airbnb might want to do more to protect its reputation, but who knows what it's done so far? Why didn't its settlement agreement with Teman require him to stop talking about it?


paminwi said...

Why would police arrest him for an apartment that looked trashed? Doesn't make sense to me. Give him a ticket for excessive noise, disturbing the peace, but for a messy apartment?

Michael K said...

Why were police called ?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I'm going to assume that "18 men in velvet track suits" is code for something I don't want to know about.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

What does the lease say? Is the tenant permitted to rent out the apartment through Air BnB? I understand that most leases prohibit this.

If so, the tenant is in violation of his lease and deserves to be thrown out. Other prospective apt owners have the right to know that this is a person who violates the lease hence the "blacklisting" (oooh, scary, right? Shades of HUAC and the Waldorf Agreement!)

Other residents in the building, having signed leases that prohibit short term rentals like this have the right to not be subjected to this.

Serves the joker right.

Note that none of the above has anything to do with damages, if any, to the apartment. He deserves to be thrown out even if there was no damage whatever.

John Henry

Eric said...

Poor Ari. The jokes on him?

CWJ said...

"Airbnb might want to do more to protect its reputation,"

Reputations generally come in one of two varieties. From the very beginning, I thought this would not end well. Too many moving parts over which Airbnb has no direct control for these sorts of stories not to accumulate, and once out there chip away at public confidence in the service.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

My daughter has a nice condo in San Juan. She owns her condo (with the bank. It is a nice apt in a good location for tourists and she can't rent it out short term.

It is right in the title deed covenants. She can lease the apartment but not for any term shorter than 6 months, IIRC.

I think that is a good thing.

What about elsewhere? Ann, you own a condo, I think. Any restrictions on renting it out short term?

Anyone else? How would you feel about building residents doing short term rentals?

John Henry

Laslo Spatula said...

This makes me think of those Eighties teen comedies where the parents go out of town, the kids throw a party, and the house inevitably gets trashed. The party in this story though probably had a lot more anal sex. Bukkake, too. Maybe.

I am Laslo.

cubanbob said...

Judging from the article they are all liars and Teman is also a fool. Obviously Teman confused himself, thinking he had a right to rent what wasn't his to begin with. Carter rented while misrepresenting that he was renting for someone else and Airbnb seems a bit sketchy.

Michael K said...

"How would you feel about building residents doing short term rentals?"

A few years ago, home exchange arrangements were popular. If you lived in a nice place, like Newport Beach, you could do an exchange with a French family that lived in Paris. The people owned the homes and some friends did it a few times and were happy about it. No one changed hands as far as I know and they were owners.

Airbnb is something I have no experience with.

Ann Althouse said...


I live in a house.

I got very close to buying a condo downtown about 10 years ago. Anyway, I remember what the rule was: You couldn't rent out the place at all, even longterm. I was surprised. Sometimes I've gone away for a semester or two. Would that mean I couldn't rent out my place? Yes, that is what it mean. But I liked that, because I wanted the other people not to be able to do that and because I don't like other people living in my house. When I spent 2 semesters in Brooklyn 7 years ago, I left my big house here in Madison (a mile from campus) empty. I could have made X amount of money on it, but it wasn't worth it to me. I don't want other people in my house.

But I could see owning a place that we could enjoy during winter and summer breaks -- maybe in Colorado -- and then using Airbnb during all those other times to keep it from being empty and to pay for it. Yeah... why don't we do that?

Peter said...

Perhaps he could find a landlord who's not so picky in Hoboken (or Camden)?

Peter said...

Perhaps Airbnb hosts will demand large deposits from customers who have little or no positive feedback from prior hosts? Or aren't they allowed to do that?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

"I didn't follow the rules, took a risk for my own financial gain, that risk didn't pay off, and now I'm suffering the consequences of my actions." Oh, ok, um--sorry, I guess?

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah Laslo--you dog. 18 men in velvet track suits in one apartment for a party sounds like trouble.

Michael said...


Better still, rent a home or condo in Colorado for the summer. Water heater blows up? Not your problem. Air Conditioning dies? Not your problem. Roof springs a leak? Not your problem.

Get tired of Aspen or Basalt or Leadville or Buena Vista? No problem.

Steven said...

Essentially all apartment rental agreements (especially in NYC) have restrictions on sublets that make renting out via AirBnB a contract violation. So of course Teman is going to lose his lease and have a hard time finding another one if someone he AirBnB'd to managed to get the police called on them; he's a known lease-violator whose choices ticked off other tenants.

I note that Teman was, by definition, not there when this stuff happened, so any details he tells of what happened are going to be 1) hearsay 2) magnified by natural human need to paint those who "victimized" him by getting the police called in the harshest possible light 3) from a comedia told for publication. So I would, basically, discount any such details not directly backed by the police reports.

Rae said...

My thoughts, in order as I thought them:
The dude could afford a $2500 luxury apartment in Manhattan! He's not homeless, in any sense of the word, outside of New York.
A comedian? Hmmmm.
He should call AirBNB!

Portlandmermaid said...

Are there issues with long-term rentals, say over 30 days that would allow rentees to claim that they're now tenants and can't be kicked out?

Joe said...

Let's get this straight; a guy can't find an apartment AFTER A YEAR. Sounds like a complete moron. Or a liar. Been a lot of those in the news lately.

David Mathew said...

Who would want complete strangers in their house, much less without being there. I cannot imagine, just handing over the keys and giving someone free range over my house.

Matthews Daniel