Air Bnb has ruined my life

[itsafan]

There is literally no way out of this situation 😢 other than for us to give up our jobs and relocate in the hope that we can find new jobs and a place to live. There are literally no other rentals available in the area even if we could afford the rents. A mortgage is out of the question as we would need at least a hundred grand deposit.
There are at least 1000 properties listed on Airbnb within a 5 mile radius, many of them would be ideal but the rents on them are extortionate and aimed at tourists we are talking at least a grand a week.
We have lived here for years in a residential complex (well before Airbnb and booking even got popular) we have jobs here and friends here and a life here. It is on the whole fine for 9 months of the year mainly local people living around us who all respect that we are living and just trying to survive.
Then the Airbnb people turn up and every week it’s new people above us below us next to us. The noise is horrendous and probably the worst problem. Being woken at all hours with people rolling suitcases along floors, lifts going up and down, shouting in the corridors and doors banging. It just goes on and on like this for months.
My anxiety with it all is now so bad that I’m having to take medication. The noise just feels constant.
Do people even realise when they are booking Airbnb that these are people’s homes that they are disrupting? Why don’t people go to hotels anymore ?
So yeah there is a huge housing crisis due to the airbnb situation and I’m just a small person in a situation that I can’t change other than to leave somewhere I call home. I suppose my AIBU is am I being unreasonable to feel like a company has ruined my life ?

@Flashout we don’t mention eBay since they wouldn’t refund on a camera in about 2001 😆😉 but I take on board what you are saying and you are probably right.

I couldn't agree more. It's all about the personal desires being put above any other consideration. You can get something cheap? Never mind who that impacts.
This really hit home to me when I saw some Spanish people being interviewed and heard about the terrible impact of AB&,B on their life chances.

Conversely a friend of ours booked an Air BNB in a town they didn't know well. Flat was quite well decorated and quite nice. Only thing was it was in a council high rise building with pee smelling lifts.

… and how far is Jen & Bob’s cleaner having to travel to undertake that minimum wage cleaning gig? Because I can almost guarantee you it’s not a hop and a skip from their own front door.

I asked if you were Spanish because if you are an British ex pat you are adding to the problem.

It's not airbnb or the people that use them that are the issue here.. it's your government and how it regulates the usage of property!! If it wasn't airbnb it would be slum landlording.
You need to appeal to the government to do more to prevent landlords buying up multiple properties in one area just to rent out. Especially if they aren't even living in that area or ij fact the same country themselves!!
Airbnb can actually be wonderful and far better than hotels.. when it's regulated properly.
I'm staying in central London this summer with my whole family in a beautiful house that is clearly someone's family home. All their belongings are still there. They just rent it out whilst they go on holiday during the summer to make a bit of extra cash
It's fantastic because we would never be able to afford to stay in central London if it wasn't for airbnbs like this. And also hotels are awful for a large family.. you are either cramped into one large room or have to fork out loads of money for multiple rooms etc..
So airbnb is a wonderful way for us to get to travel. We always use it.
But you need to look for legitimate ones that are people actually renting out parts of a property they clearly use and own. A spare room in someone's house, an annexe, a family home that is vacant for a while, even a clearly well loved holiday home...
Because often you will get slum landlords buying up entire buildings to rent out by the room. This clearly should be illegal but some places don't clamp down on it.
It's to do with what regulations the local government has in place.
Even outside of airbnb it's still an issue.. if airbnb didn't exist they'd still be doing it. It's an issue that has got worse over time as tourism has increased.

Fucks sake, there's always one isn't there?
Get your pencil out and do some sums. Start with the total number of hotels in the UK and go from there. 🙄

Ah, and there’s the rub… a huge, faceless corporation can never be blamed. Well, actually, yes, they can. Airbnb’s business model has absolutely been strategically designed to encourage the buying-up of homes for the express intention of deriving profit.

It seems a shame to disrupt your lives for 25% of the year.
I’d be trying hypnosis or other anxiety techniques to try to change my mindset. It is only for three months of the year.

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 how to tell me without telling me...

Have you chatted to the other residents?

Some reasonably cheap measures that hotels use to reduce this sort of noise are:
carpet stairwells and corridors
hang curtains, pictures etc In stairwells and corridors
have slow closers on doors
have rubber door stops on doors
have pads on the bottom of any furniture being regularly moved
have signs in the outside the front of the entrance requesting quiet between certain times
have signs requesting people to carry not draf luggage

Indeed.

I really think local laws need to
change to prevent short-term, hotel like rentals in residential areas. There needs to be some provision for people who need legitimate short-term housing so laws need to be crafted carefully, but zoning laws exist for a reason. Tourists don’t belong next door to people trying to work and school.

I would start by making Airbnb like rentals comply with all hotel safety regulations and inspections plus pay all similar taxes. If you rent places out for less than 30 days, you should have to follow the same rules as a hotel.

@NotEnoughKnittingTime ok thank you for your very helpful and kind comment !. I am not Spanish other half is. Would you suggest I leave him and then we can take up two homes ?

You see i don't agree at all. Airbnb started out as a small enterprise to let people make some extra cash by renting out spare rooms to holiday makers..
The issues with people trying to run whole businesses via that platform are caused by local government not regulating the use of buildings well enough.
As I said before airbnb is one of many ways this issue occurs. If it wasn't airbnb it would be something else. It's slum landlording but just via a modern platform. The government needs to crack down on it but it's not a popular move amongst the upper classes is it? Let's be honest this is how a lot of money is made
You can point the finger at airbnb but it's just a smokescreen
The real issue is that it's legal to buy up multiple properties that you have no intention of living in.. no one individual or company should own entire streets of housing. Yet in some places they do!!
Rent control is also important. Zoning.
We need to put more pressure on government to implement these things.

@Secretsquirels hard flooring certainly does not help. Thank you for the suggestion we did think about getting some sort of quote for soundproofing (we did hear it can be hit and miss if it works though) it would be cheaper than relocating our lives I’m sure.
Thanks for the comments really didn’t expect so many. I’m going to step away now might come back and check but like I said I’m under a lot of stress at the moment and I can see me getting into some kind of argument defending my existence 😂 and it’s probably not great for recovery.

She's not going to be able to do that in the other flats, though, is she? The owners don't care.

I didn’t mean in the other flats, I meant in the communal areas.

I think it is only a matter of time before airb&b is restricted in the UK because council's are using ever increasing amounts of their budgets to house homeless families in temporary accommodation, and the rate this is growing will bankrupt some of them in a few short years otherwise.

I hope there is a clampdown on these lettings in Spain OP.

https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/news-and-press-releases/2025/ps330m-homelessness-overspend-housing-crisis-threatens-bankrupt-london

We always go self catering and often use airbnb. My daughter has health needs that mean we can't eat out easily. I do think that local authorities should have better control over this business model though and manage the impact on local communities. They don't need to let it decimate local areas, some cities in europe have this strictly regulated.

I am very aware of how young people are priced out of buying houses in their local areas in places like Devon and Cornwall and we try to holiday in less popular places or use purpose built holiday properties like static caravans or lodges rather than residential homes.

Regardless of how Airbnb started out, they’re not preventing users (businesses) with multiple properties from using their platform. And if the current way Airbnb operates didn’t align with their strategy, then a huge business such as Airbnb wouldn’t be doing it. And actively PREVENTING Airbnb - and other platforms like them - from doing it would go a long way towards curbing the impact.

But, similarly, I completely agree with you that government intervention is required - and we all know that many people in politics own vast amounts of property, so….

Eh?

@Pinkpeanut27 mouse cancelling headphones is the best autocorrect ever 😂😂😂😂

it's not the same as eBay is it? I mean Airbnb affects people very badly. eBay doesn't.

Yes, they could do something with the communal areas, true, although really it needs to be in the actual flats.