Air Bnb has ruined my life

Hotels have to pay staff. They have to have cleaners, change bed linen, provide breakfast, etc etc of course they can't compete with Jen and Bob's flat!

Another side of AirBnB that I see in our seaside town is people who inherit a parent's house and then let it out on AirBnB without doing anything to it to make it appealing. I have to wonder what people think when they arrive for their stay and find the place was last decorated in 1988 and the three piece suite was chosen in the year Chas and Di got married.

Why do people choose airbnb - because it's cheaper and because when you have young kids access to a kitchen is a godsend.

But OP, if I were you I'd move regardless because you have stated that you won't be able to buy a house there, and I'd want to own my own place at some point.

YANBU the air b&b situation has become ridiculous. In Edinburgh it’s incredibly difficult for people who are working in the city to find properties to rent. The communal doors are covered in these stupid key boxes. It’s destroying the city and that’s before you get to the disturbance it causes for permanent residents.

It comes down to what it always does. Money and greed.

We hate hotels. We prefer cooking facilities etc and for families it’s more affordable

Never stayed in an Airbnb though

Really it seems your issue is tourists. Tourism brings a lot of money into the economy
People moved into investing in rentals etc because private pensions are unpredictable and if there’s a crash you lost it completely
If pensions were backed up by the tax payer like Govn pensions are perhaps we’d all feel more secure in our future

I agree having empty properties for most of the year is creating a lot of problems and shouldn’t be allowed though
I don’t agree that tourists are the problem

Yes, that’s it , every single hotel is in that situation. No hotels to book anywhere.

This

The level of disruption that you refer to cannot be acceptable surely?

👏👏👏brilliantly put @Tabitha005.
There seems to be so many more assholes everywhere too. In fact there are 100%.

Some holidaymakers are so inconsiderate. We’ve stayed in Airbnb’s several times and would never dream of causing distress to the other residents. We also own a flat (UK) it’s in the leasehold that we aren’t allowed to use it as a holiday let, it’s in a purpose built block which was built in 1996, very forward thinking of them.

I think it’s time for local authorities to step in and reduce the amount of properties used for Airbnb, tourists can’t book them if they aren’t there.

Some Holiday regions in the UK charge double Council Tax on holiday let properties, that’s deterring a few investor’s and causing some owners to sell up.

I love the freedom of a self catering property. We stayed in a beautiful traditional apartment in Valencia and one of the neighbours had band practice at midnight, we wondered why there were earplugs on the side tables 🤣, then you could hear the guy snoring, still enjoyed the holiday though, revenge on the tourists 😝

I feel your pain, OP. I don't have it so bad, but since our neighbour's elderly mother died she's marketed the annexe the mother lived in as AirBnB and was complaining to me the other day that she can't keep up with all the bookings, cleaning, linen etc. She has had guests most weeks since the start of the year and has been almost fully booked since mid-June. It's a small double bedroom with a small shower room off it and a small seating area with two armchairs, a short run of basic kitchen units. Two burners, an air fryer, a kettle, a toaster.

Because we live in a desirable area near beaches she is able to charge £120 a night, more at weekends, so she's getting £3k+ a month on top of her other earnings and on top of having inherited from her mum. Fortunately she's there much of the time and so the guests are relatively quiet, though they all want to barbecue and use the fire pit, so we have to have our windows shut much of the time. My neighbour is sick of all the smoke too, though, and says she'll remove the BBQ and fire pit at the end of the summer season.

It always seems to be the wealthy people who are raking it in from making others' lives a misery.

Your home should be a sanctuary OP so I do feel for you.

We bucked the trend by buying a house that had for the previous few years been an AirBnB in a seaside town. Our new neighbours were SO grateful when they knew we were going to live there full time, be part of the community and not keep arriving with wheely cases at all hours squealing and getting pissed in the hot tub.

Ironically, the reason we moved from our previous home in a city centre was because the area had become a 24/7 noisy, transient, filthy hell due to the conversion of multiple office blocks into student accommodation.

It seems wherever you live you are at the mercy of people who want to make money at the expense of the quality of life of local people.

We use airbnb for the extra bedrooms, peace and quiet (we only rent houses or top floor apartments) and the laundry facilities. Ideally, we would much prefer to go to a resort where we would be catered for and have access to lots of amenities but they are extortionate and expect a family of four to sleep in one room! How is that a holiday? My husband snores and my twins wake up super early! So airbnb it is! I do think if hotels were more affordable, airbnb would lose some of its appeal.

Become a politician and then ban shorterm lets

Sending sympathy.

I went to a talk on housing a couple of years back and the chap running it said then that Airbnb were causing some of the housing problems in the UK. He also said that some other countries had legislated around Airbnbs because they were causing such issues.

Well, we've been reading for a while what a massive problem it is in Spain. I had thought they were really clamping down on it.

I live in Cornwall and it's a problem here too. Stupidly they have decided to penalise second home owners, but not people who run holiday accommodation as a business.

A friend had a second home near me which she sold several years ago. She was really pleased to sell it to a young local couple to live in. Recently she found out that they converted it into a holiday let, when she found it on Airbnb!

Good, Fabulous news!

And what purpose would that be?

I had this issue in a city centre flat in quite a desirable tourist location. The noise wasn't the issue but I got tired of coming home to find random strangers standing at the entrance with suitcases. I had people trying their key in my door because they'd got muddled with the house number/floor level. It made what should have been lovely residential building feel transient and unsafe. I moved.

I LOATHE what tourism is doing to so many beautiful places and cities all over the world. I love travel as much as the next person but we all act as though it’s some sort of inalienable right.

Corporates like Airbnb and, indeed, holiday and short-term rentals have absolutely decimated so many communities. I believe homes should be first and foremostly for people not profit and there definitely needs to be MUCH more regulation, globally, on preventing over-tourism and the destruction of communities.

Look at what tourism is doing to places such as Venice and some of the Greek islands like Santorini. Hoardes of people jostling for a photo, literally squashing one another for their Instagram moment. It’s hideous.

I watched this film a couple of years ago that puts the subject of the global housing crisis front and centre: make-the-shift.org/push/

Couldn't agree with you more @CosmicScouser. Since SM - TikTok, Influencers, insta and then lockdown has sent people into a frenzy. I hate it. It's the same abroad and I loathe air b and b on principle. Spain and now France are clamping down on it. Good.

I do understand the Airbnb problem. But there’s a lot of regulation now in Europe.

And tourist noise & behaviour and sky high rents in summer, & buildings dominated by holiday lets was always an issue in holiday areas long before Airbnb.That’s the price to be paid for living in a tourist zone. Just ask people in Cornwall or Cote D’Azure etc.

I feel your pain. I stay in central Edinburgh where I have air bnbs everywhere and now it's the festival:(

I’m Spanish and in my city is virtually impossible to get an Airbnb license - specially in flats. This is the rule now, I’m pretty sure it’s going to get to your city sooner rather than later

That's terrible and unfair on you OP.

The ayuntamiento of the town we've owned a flat in since 1978 has recently approved our building management's decision to ban airbnbs. It's taken 3 years to pass. They're continuing to allow them in the new buildings which have gone up in the outskirts of the town but our central location (historic district) is disallowing them building by building.

Can you hold on for a while longer? If the landlords in your building don't vote for a ban, it's possible that your local or regional laws might change.