HARI SREENIVASAN:

What sounds like a win-win situation for Jennifer and her guests is not so simple. What Jennifer is doing may be illegal in New York City, where city and state laws restrict short-term rentals.

The short-term home rental industry is booming. Platforms like Homeaway, Flipkey, VRBO are popular. And Airbnb has emerged as the giant in this space, especially in cities. Airbnb now lists over one million rooms available in 192 countries. And New York City, with more than 25,000 listings a night, is the platform's largest U.S. market.

New York is also where the debate over how to regulate short term home rentals like Airbnb is perhaps most contentious. According to a report by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last year, nearly three-quarters of Airbnb's listings between 2010 and 2014 were essentially 'illegal hotels'– short term rentals that violate state and city laws against renting out an apartment for less than 30 days unless the occupants are also present.

Schneiderman found 94 percent of Airbnb hosts are like Jennifer and her husband. They have only one or possibly two listings.