Airbnb guest let her dogs loose in my garden

[willowwonder]

I live on the same row of houses as an Airbnb. The Airbnb is in the middle of the row. My house and garden is at the end of the row, where there is a dropped kerb, and an open driveway/parking area leading into the garden. So there is no gate, just the driveway opening. Garden has usual garden things, like kids toys, sheds, raised planters, etc.

This morning, the Airbnb guest walked right past us putting kids in the car, she turned into my driveway, and walked into my garden - with 2 dogs. I was strapping the toddler in and honestly took me a few seconds to register what was going on. Once she reached the grass in the garden, she let the 2 dogs off the lead! And then they were running around my garden!! She was sort of wandering about, looking at my raised beds, totally casual.

So DH followed her and called after her "what are you doing??" I couldn't hear her reply but after a few seconds they both appeared back. The dogs were running about. One jumped into my car. I pushed it out and DH got in the car, sort of rolling his eyes. I heard the woman say "I was told it was dog friendly here...". Haha - what, in my garden!??

This is an absolutely wild thing for her to do, right?? The Airbnb isn't even next door. Like, there is no world in which she would have thought my garden was part of her Airbnb property. She just walked down the street, past a few houses, past ME and into my garden, to let her dogs run around it. Presumably to poo.

What on earth could have been going through her head??

AIBU to think this is INSANE behaviour?

😂I hear you!

When I was a kid we had a big garden enclosed by trees and dog walkers regularly had no shame in throwing their dogs in our garden to piss and shit. Also, throwing crisp packets and fag ends in our garden. Some people are just jealous if they see a nice house.

For me, living in a house without a front gate, people just let their dog roam and dogs going in my garden and leaving a massive pile a poo on my footpath.

Also, living near a park, people dumping their dog shit in my wheelie bin stinking it out, is a regular occurrence.

What I’m surprised about is other people surprised of this nasty behavior in 2026. Where have they been living?

Had disabled relatives regularly had randoms block the road outside their house, just because the randoms were too tight to pay for the public car park opposite.

Another relative had a big apple tree in their back garden which neighbours sneaked into the back garden to strip the apple tree bare every autumn.

This scumbag behaviour is the new normal.

I live in London there is a house that has one of the disabled parking in front of it.

i always thought it was a parking spot allocated to that house as there is a very disable person living there. A few years ago, woken in the middle of night to loud honks and screaming. Quite the rukus. Turns out another person visiting also a blue badge holder parked in that spot and the person who ‘owned’ the spot had a right hissy when he couldn’t get into his spot…. There was no way a visitor would have known!

couldn’t it be a case of that

…cool 👍

Sounds like typical dog owner behaviour to me. My neighbours have never trained their dogs to understand that my house and garden are not their territory (detached house not even especially near the neighbours).

I’m sorry but if someone came in my garden/across my drive like that they would get both barrels, no polite Britishness. You shouldn’t have to pay to have a gate on your drive (although I agree a gate, or a Private sign, might help - but some A holes would ignore those too) because of an AirBnB a couple of doors down.
My friend & her neighbours have had loads of issues with one by them, people parking in their clearly marked spaces, litter, noise, entering other peoples houses & gardens, letting their dogs sh1t in the communal front courtyard despite the rental having its own garden & it goes on. Despite complaints to the local council they’ve still allowed another property in the vicinity - tourism is all despite few of the villagers wanting it & being ignored. And no, in rural villages where we don’t lock our doors in daylight hours if we’re in the house because we normally feel safe, why should we have to start now because some entitled moron on holiday thinks they have free rein to trespass?

Actually when you apply for a disabled spot in front of your house it isn’t yours, it’s still a disabled spot but for anyone with the right sticker to use. I don’t really understand that, but that’s how it works.

That's even worse than I was picturing as I lived in a terraced with a shared path at the back but private gardens.

But that, wow, that's is mind boggling imagine thinking a garden next to the end house is anything other than a garden belonging to that house.

You shouldn't need a sign.

My friends SIL had an Airbnb near her lovely tiny holiday cottage she inherited years ago. A large 7 bed house was being used for parties, cars everywhere as it was 1 hour from a city.
The neighbours had enough.
Small potato jammed into the exhaust, vaseline on the windows, flat tires, lipstick on windows....they had had enough.
The local police were supportive because there was a super active WhatsApp group spanning them constantly because of the rave like parties.
The house was put up for sale and sold to a family.
I wouldn't tolerate an Airbnb near me for one mine.

It looks like a misunderstanding rather than a blatant cheek! I guess it is obvious that your property is yours when you have the same neighbours all the time but if people are renting a house in your street then if there isn’t a fence or sign it might appear to be a shared public space as is the case in many neighbourhoods ? 🤷‍♀️

Madness and entitled.

Yep. You need to go down the Fence+PrivatePropertyNotice route. Stupid/entitled people hiring that Airbnb are going to keep on taking advantage.
It's a pity, but you'll be better off for it.

What power do you think Parish Councils have to do that? We can contact the Local Planning Authority if we think it's an unauthorised change of use but we don't set the rules

Send a demand letter for garden reparations and interior car detailing to the owner of the property where the dog owner was staying. Hire a professional gardner and have yoyr vehicle detailed and send the receipts.

I’m pretty sure there’s been a huge misunderstanding here. There’s no way that someone would walk into another persons garden with their dogs to exercise, poo, wee etc, unless they thought it was some sort of common/council owned land. Just doesn’t make sense. At all.

But that’s exactly what happened…

We definitely need a diagram OP.

Not typical.

Yes I think so, the ops garden is 4 times the size of the others and on the end so perhaps she thought ops garden was at the back of property and the side part was communal. It does seem bat shit to do this otherwise.

Notify the Air BnB owner who can maybe say Something to any dog owners about where they are allowed to go. How big is the b & b garden and how big was the dog as maybe dog owner thought the original garden wasn’t big enough. Also makes you wonder if they do that at their own home as well using other peoples gardens as their dogs toilets😠😠😠😠😠

It is not really WILD or INSANE like the things drugged out Hippies did in the 60"s but she is obviously just a total muppet, a lot of people are nowadays.

Maybe so the dog would not pee near or the owners premises. She wants to be thought of as a nice person.

Even if she thought it was some kind of Council owned or communal garden

Was t OK for her dog to pee in it! When other people and children may be using it to play or for other activities.

Filthy and disgusting. Health Hazard!

OP has already done a (very good) diagram

Yes get a gate and sign. Also complain to local council. Many have decent restrictions on short term lets.