Air BNB Should be Banned

[antelopevalley]

This started off as a lovely idea. A way for people to rent a spare room and show people around their home town.

It has since turned into a way for people to make money without adhering to the minimum legal standards that proper holiday accommodation has to meet. Even basic health and safety standards such as smoke alarms do not have to be met.

And it has created chaos, reducing the amount of accommodation for families to rent, pushing up prices, and hollowing out tourist destinations turning them into a Disneyland where few people live.

A ban would mean that anyone wanting to rent out holiday accommodation would have to do it properly. People doing it well could remain running their business but the amateurs who haven't a clue what they are doing would leave the market.

Except that air bnb should be banned?

Agree to a point. I would LOVE to rent my 3 bed victorian terrace in a well connected village in south east .....and would charge a reasonable rent, would accept dogs/pets and children ( tho Smokers NO)

BUT the costs for me to do this .....registering as a landlord, paying a fee to local authority, changing insurance and using an agent to manage it ( Im abroad) is just so so expensive that any rent in return would be minimal....so easier to leave it empty.

AirBnB is an option for me and I do have a safe home to offer and a neighbour who would arrange inter-tenant cleaning etc....so sadly I hear you but the cost of actually putting a privately owned home up for rent is mad.....and THAT is the problem for a lot of would be 'landlords'. Recent thread here made that clear....

No I u7se bnb much cheaper and better than expensive hotels

YABU. Every Air BnB experience I have had has been wonderful. I wouldn't stay in anyone's spare room, but the apartments and villas are a great alternative to a hotel stay, much more flexible than traditional holiday home and the owners without exception have been lovely both in the UK and Europe.

Airbnb is simply a portal for owners to advertise their properties.

Loads of the properties on Airbnb are advertised on multiple platforms.

Would you only ban people who advertise solely on Airbnb, or would you let their listings on all of the other advertising sites remain?

The property you see on Airbnb and VRBO (for example) is still the same property with the same owners, why shouldn't the owner be able to choose to advertise on Airbnb.

If you find a lovely cottage on, say, Sykes, do you check whether it is also on Airbnb and then not rent it?

It definitely needs to be changed somehow. I live in a beautiful seaside town in Ireland. There are countless houses which are air bnbs empty now for the winter because tourist season has finished . There is currently 1 property for residential letting at a price of 2 grand a month. Friends can't leave home because there is no where to rent, businesses can't get staff because they have nowhere to live, some of the bigger businesses have now gone back to having staff halls like they had in the 70s and 80s. The town will literally kill itself with greed .

I completely agree OP. It is a loophole which needs to be closed. I'd support "change of use" planning permission to control the % of properties which are for holidaymakers, as well as licensing for ALL short-term lets to ensure minimum safety standards are met. Persistent anti-social behaviour from guests (impacting neighbours) should be considered a good enough reason to revoke a licence.

I also support high property taxes on empty properties. It should be tapered to account for people trying to sell or in between tenants, of course. But it is simply appalling that some people have no home at all while other have a spare home they keep empty. Often in the same areas too.

AirBnB ruins communities. A very small village about 12 miles from me has been decimated by this, at least a third of the village is now AIRBnB. The shop makes very little money from the visitors as the arrive already well stocked. No doubt the school will close soon and the church will soon follow.

I stayed in one with no working smoke alarms and the front door (at bottom of stairs) deadlocked. Only way out through the kitchen!

When I complained I was told that I was having ‘a little episode’🙄

Although, I do use Airbnb a lot and it’s very useful for booking odd dates, especially with two dogs. Most of my experiences have been pretty good.

Yanbu. I use airbnb loads but you’re right in the points you make.

Plus it isn’t right that someone should be able to inflict on their neighbours a constant stream of tourists on a residential street with all the noise and parking troubles that brings. It shouod be recognised that short term holiday lets are a change of use that require planning permission.

Agree

No, people should be allowed to do what they want with their own properties. If air bnb is helping them make enough money to get by, good for them.

You don’t though well apart from the butcher, local growing cooperative for veg, pick your own orchard, little local Co-op and the lovely posh crockery shop that also stocks everything you need in a pinch lightbulbs, corkscrew, white spirits. You buy the odd thing to support your friends who own / work in the nice shops. For all the other stuff you go to the next big town to Aldi or Tesco/ Amazon delivers.

It’s the reality of living in little, pretty rural communities who depend heavily on tourist £££s

At the moment some air bnb properties do not even meet basic health and safety standards. There are some very irresponsible landlords out there.
If you are a responsible landlord air bnb being banned would make no difference to you.

I've just moved house after the house next door to me was turned into one at the start of the summer. Nightmare, so much noise. Have closed my AirBNB account and will never use them again. They absolutely ruin communities.

You don't have holiday lets do you? You sound jealous.

This is exactly what I mean about places becoming Disneyfied. Once places are occupied mainly by tourists it stops being a village or town and becomes a Disney pastiche theme-type park.

You sound about 12 years old.

Totally agree. I have a friend with a second house that has sat empty for 4 years. Another friend with a holiday home that is used about 3 weeks a year if you add up all its use during the year. Criminal.

I'm another Edinburgh resident who would love to see Air BnB banned. And second homes but that's another thread! Of the 9 flats in my block, only 5 are occupied full time. It makes me really angry when there's folk struggling to find accommodation.

I'm afraid you have this wrong. No holiday lets are regulated in any way at all. Even a Visit England inspection ( which costs nearly £300) means a visit once a year and there are no safety checks, no checks you have adequate insurance.

You only have to read the reviews of Sykes Cottages to see that some owners of holiday properties are shysters, its not Air BnB it is ALL holiday properties that are not regulated/ inspected.

All on line travel agents are the same- they simply market properties for the owners.

Do I? I'm not. I'm just someone who has invested substantial amounts of income into a property portfolio on the advice of the government years ago. We run luxury air bnb's and are super hosts for every one of them. We make money and pay a lot of tax and employ local
People to manage and maintain them. But it's never enough for some. They see second home owners as rich and that's simply not the case. It's an area of business we chose and run it very successfully but not rich.

Would you feel the same if they were advertised on a different marketing platform?

I suspect that you would (and I absolutely get your point), but why are Airbnb singled out as the only baddies?

Why not Sykes or English Country Cottages or Owners Direct or any of the other hundreds of companies that come up when you google holiday cottages?

I think the whole holiday rental industry needs to be looked at in England and Wales (think Scotland have different rules).

If owners rent out more than x amount and it's a second hone, then there needs to be a register AND double or even triple council tax to pay local councils to manage the register.

Then if residents consistently complain about the renters the council can strike the property off the register.

Holiday lets are not the problem. The problem is with affordable homes won't be solved by banning lets. I think second homes which are barely occupied are a slightly different issue though.
For the sake of the environment we need to stop cheap flights so demand for holidays in the UK are not likely to drop.
Social housing and affordable rental lettings are not going to be addressed by market forces because short term letting is far more profitable in some places and changes to make long term tenants more secure have landlords exiting the rental market.