Just a giant (maybe a bit ott) rant about holiday renters

[momager1]

I am just maybe being a grumpy bitch. I live on an island in a hot spot. We live in a gated (small) community. We have 8 buildings each with 6 apartments and two large pools walking distance to an amazing beach. Unfortunately (or not...we have met some amazing 1-2 week holiday people) right now we have over 18 of our apartments being advertised as holiday lets. Right now there are 7 of them occupied. 1 lovely couple (both teachers) from poland i think , with their two small children. 1 more lovely couple that are here because the husband has been sent to oversee a spain based amusement park that just opened and they are here for a year with their two beautiful crazy little girls. The others give me the rage. 3 young women (thank god they leave in a couple days) are the worst. They wear bikini bottoms at the pool that are just strings and go topless (the rules are clearly posted , no topless at pool. ) They party and bring their own speakers to pool and smoke while in pool. Keep in mind that there are at the min 4 children under 6 running around most of the day. uggh. no respect at all. And then this morning, a new couple and their two kids came in to a unit that the owner happens to be a friend of mine. I walk my dogs this morning and the man comes up to me waving his agreement saying NO DOGS.. they must leave the premises. I was like "what the fuck are you talking about??!!!!) he shoved the agreement at me and pointed to "no animals allowed" I pointed out to him that that was a rental agreement for a short term (2 weeks) and my FRIEND that owned the unit made that rule. I own mine and there is no such rule for that. He told me to go fuck myself and my dogs would be removed by tonight. His kids are very afraid of dogs and he booked this place as it had a no pets rule. UGGGHHH . My dogs are POODLES.. yes large standard poodles , but would not hurt a flea and never EVER off leash. I am not worried, and I have texted the actual owner of the apartment but she is in a different time zone , so not expecting anything back for a while. Sorry. This was just a massive rant as I didn't want to tell my husband as he has had enough of a few of the recent renters and I don't want him to go make a scene. Thanks for letting me do this huge mental dump

Hi OP, just popping in to derail slightly (though I do feel your pain and sympathise!). When I left my car for a long time, my neighbors used to move it four inches every month, to stop the weight of the car causing the same pressure to a tiny bit of tyre, and it saved me a fortune. Perhaps that could be useful for Swiss lady? Deep breathing for two more days until the girls leave....

@DinnaeFashYersel point taken. I am sorry if that is how I am coming across. I absolutely love seeing a new family arrive, as sometimes it is very quiet here and I am a total extrovert and my husband is the opposite. I get so excited when a nice family or couple of even singles come in that we can have a laugh with. So I am def not against people visiting. Not that long ago , that was me. I would hope I would have been seen as a respectful vacationer. I was just having a rant over the few that are here right now ruining our quiet and fun (ok not quiet when kids are out but they are a blast) little community

you rant away @momager1 I think I would too in your position, its a total lack of manners , respect and consideration for others

@Lysianthus lol.. you and my husband think alike. He actually went out and got blocks and raised her car so the wheels do not touch the ground. She called him a lune but laughed when I sent her pictures. She said next year she will just leave the key so we can just keep moving it..switching parking spots every few day hahaha

We live right next to several air bnbs in a tourist hot spot and I find the landlord much more annoying than the guests. He always seems cross that we need to coexist so close to his precious money making venture.

The only thing that annoys me is people walking sloooowly in the road.

And people who bring dogs who bark CONSTANTLY with them. There's a man who comes each year with two seriously mardy pugs and they never bloody shut up lol

Annoying but not sure what you can do about it unless there's some kind of management person for the complex who can speak to these offenders. Frankly people on holiday can be very inconsiderate and entitled. If you're on good terms with the owners of the let properties you can communicate with them and see if they want to intervene. As a lot of tourists might only come once I guess they're not too bothered about consequences!

I'd be interested to know if all the Mumsnetters who live in tourist destinations and hate tourists ever go on holiday themselves. Because if you do, you should probably stop making sweeping judgements about tourists.

Also, if it weren't for tourism, the places you live in would wither and die. If you don't like tourists, don't choose to make your home somewhere that relies on tourism for the local economy. You might as well live on top of a mountain and complain about how high up it is.

I live in rural location that is popular with tourists, but not much accommodation for them in the village to stay. In the lane of cottages where I live a woman who used to own a cottage up the road used to let out as air bnb. One day we came home to find a random car on our drive.
About 20 minutes later a lady came and got something out of the car, so i challenged her.

She was staying with her bf & another couple and that meant 2 cars, and air bnb only had space for one, and as we weren't using ours (we were out shopping) she didn't see an issue and said she'd be gone in 2 days.
My husband warned her that leaving the car here might see it being towed to a mystery location, she moved it but not after calling us selfish and saying she paid a lot of money to stay here 🤷

We're further south in Norfolk but rarely go North of the A148 in Summer!

I totally feel your pain ! I live and work a nice place too that wasn't too bad and busy before covid but this year has made me want to sell up and leave.
I live in a residential block a few of them used to be owned mainly long term rentals or owner occupied and tbh on the whole they were ok and respectful. Now the whole place is just over run by Airbnb and booking.com. It's like a mass invasion to the whole area can't park anywhere, massive queues in the tiny supermarket, no point even trying to go to any of the restaurants that the locals keep going all winter because you won't get a seat. The noise is horrendous they slam doors and shout in the corridors until all hours ! It's exhausting trying to work full time and not getting any sleep. Don't even get me started on the furniture constantly scraping on the floors above. The prices of houses has gone through the roof no one local can afford one they can't even afford to rent ! I would love for Airbnb to be banned ! People on holidays and people trying to live their everyday life do not mix ! 😤

I've lived in London most of my life, and a few years in Rye. East Sussex. Both tourist hotspots. Tourists have to be put up with. Part of the joys of living in those areas.😚

@HangingOver lol.. my friend has a pug and she is lovely and not barky at all. She wanted to come for a visit for a month (retired, but she would only use us as a place to return to after a few days here and there) She wanted to bring her pug and I said absolutely not. We are at 35 degrees most days with humidity (right now in my house) at 69 percent. Not a safe destination for a pug.

As for landlords in our complex. The condo corp rules are that if as a landlord you have any complaint from another owner against any of their guests, that guest must be banned from future renting. If you have anyone in your unit that causes anything for police to be called they must be evicted immediately. So far these girls have had 7 owner complaints so I know they will not be allowed back. The dog man, I am reserving a formal complaint for now. We will see if he keeps hassling me about my pups. if not I will let it slide and hope he understands. Maybe a couple weeks here will show his kids that all dogs do not bite or even look at you if they are trained right and on lead

I appreciate you say there are laws around being topless in the country you are in - but I don't think it is an issue for women in general to be topless around children or in skimpy bikinis - have you never been on a beach in the med? People in all sorts of states of undress. I mean the female body shouldn't be hidden - we were all born from it and fed from it. Didn't really understand the comment about wealthy locals not liking it.

Same about the man with the dogs. He's mad at the wrong person and he could have been much calmer in his approach but I can understand why he's mad.

I live on the Isle of Wight it's great to see tourists and visitors having a great time, summer is a brilliant vibe but.....after a few months of it we get fed up with the crowds, noise and mess on our main beaches.
So nice when summer is over and we've got our island home back, plenty of time to recover then look forward to doing it all again the next year! 😀

Am I the only one trying to work out where OP is?! Island, dust from the Sahara (Ibiza, Majorca, Formentero?), but American vocabulary and help for Haitian children (Puerto Rico? But Sahara?!), corrupt govt that’s banned topless women (somewhere in the Gulf?!)? I need to know!!! 😂

Separately, all you need to tell the dog man is that his contract with the unit owner relates to occupancy of that unit. THAT unit-owner doesn’t want pets in HER unit. Nothing to do with what other people do in their units fgs. He sounds ignorant and boorish. Just ignore him.

@sheworemellowyellow lmao. I am not american but from Belfast. I spent the last 20 years in Canada. I am in the Dominican Republic. Punta Cana to be exact!!

DR!! Of course! I was further flummoxed by the humidity (Gulf would be arid). I had no idea Saharan dust would carry across the Atlantic. Wow, I feel for you.

Thanks for putting me out of my misery!

Air Bnb short term holiday let’s have ruined everywhere really let’s be honest.

People rock up for two weeks and know they won’t have to deal with actual neighbours because they don’t live there so behave how the hell they want.

Holidays should be in purpose built accommodation. Hotels, statics, mobile caravans, tents, boats, safari treehouses. Not places that are built to be genuine homes.

I remember the Dominican as a child stayed in a lovely hotel they use to let a group with the local children come in and use their entertainment area for something everyday. Just across from a baseball pitch.

@ManateeFair I didn't chose to live in a family all inclusive hotel though did I ? The place I live survived just fine in covid with zero tourists.

@aintnothinbutagstring I agree with you. laws aside , the female body is nothing to be ashamed of. If these girls were in tiny bikini tops and still gstrings..but not spending HOURS everyday making videos shaking what their momma gave them to loud music and swearing and hooting and screaming for their instagram/tic tok/ you tube whatever. I would not be complaining. being subtle is everything and classy.. this is not classy

I hope they get paid enough to own a place there too.

1/3 of my development are second home owners, I get that holiday makers can annoying but if you move to a complex by the coast it goes with the territory. My biggest annoyance is women complaining loudly in Waitrose that something obscure and expensive isn't available

@YouHaveAnArse sadly. they do not. However they are happier people than I have ever met in my life! They love life to the fullest.

I feel for you OP.

We used to live in a tourist city in flats that were until relatively recently residential.

It's was a small estate of about 12 blocks of flats with either 8 or 6 flats.
A couple of years before we sold a number of the landlords worked out they could make a a killing by doing air b&b rather than six month leases. Three of the six flats in our block were quickly moved to that model.

It made life for the residents hell.

The landlords put key safes up without permission (needed from the other owners under terms of the deeds) and the flats became party flats, rubbish left everywhere (we got rats!) and folk coming and going at all times of the night and making no effort to keep voices down.

As we were ground floor some of them seemed to think we were building management, so we got the worst of it all.

When we sold we actually took a marginally lower offer on principal to sell to a first time buyer (who actually viewed) rather than the air b&b landlord who offered without viewing.