This article applies to hosts with New York City listings that take direct bookings through Hostaway's Booking Website (BW) or Booking Website Pro (BWP).
Overview
New York City requires every short-term rental listing in NYC to either hold a valid registration with the Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) or qualify for an exemption before it can accept a direct booking. Hostaway verifies each NYC listing's registration status directly with OSE and uses the result to control whether the listing can be booked through your Booking Website (BW) or Booking Website Pro (BWP).
Starting October 1st 2026, Hostaway will block new direct bookings under 30 nights for any NYC listing that does not have a verified registration number on file, or that is not otherwise exempt.
How It Works
- Register with OSE directly (outside Hostaway). Submit your listing details and your Hostaway listing number to OSE.
- OSE reviews your submission and either approves your registration or confirms that your listing qualifies for an exemption (some building or address types don't require a registration number).
- Enter your registration details in Hostaway — your owner/license name and, where applicable, the registration number. See "Entering Your Registration Details" below.
- Hostaway automatically sends your listing's details — address, listing ID, registration number, and license name — to OSE for verification.
- Based on OSE's response:
- Approved (registered or exempt): your listing becomes bookable on your booking website.
- Rejected: your listing stays not bookable until the information is corrected. Once you update it, Hostaway automatically re-checks it with OSE.
- Your Booking Website or Booking Website Pro automatically reflects the result. See "What This Means for Guests" below.
Entering Your Registration Details
What This Means for Guests
This only affects your own Hostaway Booking Website and Booking Website Pro. A listing that hasn't been verified yet:
- Is no longer discoverable — it won't appear in search, city/country filters, listing collections, or the sitemap.
- Still has a page — a guest arriving via a direct link, bookmark, or cached search result won't get a 404; the property page still loads.
- Can't be booked — there's no reservation widget and no path into checkout on that page.
- Still appears on the map — map pins aren't filtered, though clicking one leads to the (non-bookable) page.
Nothing else about the listing changes, and bookable listings are entirely unaffected. Every listing defaults to bookable, so nothing changes for an existing listing until it's explicitly marked otherwise.
What's Covered and What Isn't
- Covered: your Booking Website (BW) and Booking Website Pro (BWP) only.
- Not covered: Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and the public API. A listing that isn't bookable on your Hostaway booking website can remain bookable on those other channels.
Good to Know
- On Booking Website Pro, you can change a listing page's URL from the Site Editor (see screenshot). If you change your booking website's domain or subdomain, you may also need to re-apply for OSE permissions — worth planning for if you're making that kind of change.
- OSE may require re-verification if you make significant changes to your listing after approval (for example, updating its description or photos). Keeping your registration details accurate and up to date in Hostaway helps avoid any interruption to bookings.