Tag Archives: airbnb neighbors

Airbnb Guests Destroy Neighbors’ Property

Posted on
blankblankblank

The house next door has been an Airbnb property for about a year. Until last weekend it wasn’t a problem. I arrived home from work on Saturday afternoon to discover that a large section of privacy fence that my husband and I had installed to divide the properties had been destroyed. This damage apparently occurred during the very large, very loud party that went on there over the entire weekend. I have attempted to contact both Airbnb and the property owners but have so far not gotten anywhere. I guess the next step will be to get a lawyer.

Rowdy Guests Results in Police Arresting and Evicting

Posted on

I’d like to share a recent video an incident involving the adjoining condo in my building and a rather unpleasant Airbnb guest. Our building has had numerous issues with Airbnb guests and it’s changed the sense of community we once had now that half the building is used by far-flung owners as income properties. We no longer know who is coming and going; it’s all unfamiliar faces with the very real threat of the unknown. We also share half our building with the Menno Simon College, so there are students actively in the building. I just wanted the share my horror story.

Airbnb Nightmare Scenario: Destroying Communities

Posted on

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have an Airbnb but not have to deal with the hassle hosting? Then follow along, dear reader, for I have much to tell you.

This all started in early September. Our landlord informed us and the two other tenants that he was selling the building. Surely this wouldn’t affect us much because our building wasn’t near anything important and had full, long-term occupancy. We were wrong.

December arrived, and my girlfriend and I had just returned from visiting family for Thanksgiving. Suddenly, our upstairs neighbor appeared at our door with a surprise letter from our new landlord. According to this letter, his lease was not going to be renewed. Our neighbor only received this letter because his lease was up in 45 days. We had to ask our new landlord if the same terms would apply to us come August, and sure enough, there would be no lease renewals under this new landlord.

After some basic Google searches we discovered that our new landlord owed 17 buildings in town. All of those buildings were dedicated Airbnbs. We are the last to leave this building, as well as this block. There used to be multiple apartment buildings up and down the street, but all that’s left is a Thai restaurant and an advertising agency. Every residential building is owned by the same man and each unit is rented out as an Airbnb. No one actually lives here any more.

So far we have had to deal with extremely loud guests in the Airbnbs above us, restrictions on our ability to receive mail, and our new landlord demanding we have cameras in the entryway because “the ATF raided the Thai place across the street” (an obvious lie). Two important packages have been returned to sender because the property manager the landlord hired doesn’t care that we still live here.

If you visit a new place, don’t rent from “Superhosts”. Nearly all of them are big time landlords who use Airbnb to destroy communities and drive up rent. Rent your spare room – that’s fine. Don’t buy property just to evict the current residents and convert to short term rentals. If you rent and don’t want this to happen to you, form a tenant union before it’s too late.

My Airbnb Neighbor Hell Begins Today

Posted on

My Airbnb Hell season begins today. I live in a small 36-home community in Myrtle Beach, SC. We purchased a home here because we didn’t want to live around the tourists, but wanted to be close to the beach.

The short backstory is my neighbor’s wife left him last year around this time. She hastily signed a lease for an apartment and they reconciled in a few days, presenting their family with an issue of having an apartment that was unable to be sublet and a house in a residential only community. Our master deed states our homes are residential use only and the husband requested to rent his home on Airbnb.

Before we were able to have a Board of Directors meeting regarding his request, he had set up the account and had half the summer blocked off. We denied his request and had our attorney give an opinion in our case. Our attorney has sent two cease and desist letters but he has continued to book this year.

Last summer ended with Mustang Week: 22 Mustangs revving all night and day – fun times, right? Our homes are huge, so he fit more than 24 people in his home at times. The summer was full of riffraff in and out every three days that thought all the houses on my street were vacation rentals.

I have a pool so several renters tried telling me that my pool was the community pool and I had to let them use it because they were “paying for it”. A group of frat boys were catcalling at all the old ladies that walk the street for their workout. Several groups were so loud, I couldn’t let my children sleep in their own room.

Today, we have a new group in the house. It’s a small group but my children have school for a few more months and I’m worried about noise levels from vacationers, child molesters, and drunk people roaming my community again.

Airbnb Parasites who come to Asheville

Posted on

Most of Buncombe County is blocked from Airbnb hosting. However, we still have the crooked landlords doing it and racking up daily fees. I’m a native here of western North Carolina and as a neighbor across the street from a home converted to Airbnb use, I’ve had nothing but private property/trespassing related issues. These are the most stupid and disrespectful people.

You get a neighbor once in a while from urban areas that walk their dogs on your property to pee or poop. You deal with these people accordingly to set the tone on the definition of “private property”. I get more traffic off it from the Airbnb guests just walking their dog on my property like they own the place.

Randomly I’d find a fast food cup or bag thrown in my lawn or a take-out container thrown in the bushes. I never had issues with neighbors littering on each other lawns before this. I was changing my spark plugs in my carport one day and saw the Airbnb guest flick their cigarette butt from their car window into my lawn as they pulled in. That guy became very aware I saw him and approached him, stating he should get over here and pick up his trash.

His Airbnb host contacted me and said if I harassed her guest she’d call the police. I stated she’d better get her butt down here and pick it up then if she’s giving her guests the green light to litter on my lawn. If I knew that landlord’s address I’d ship the trash I’ve been picking up straight to her. They don’t mind playing the hotel alternative but they certainly don’t like addressing the housekeeping problem outside their unit. Neighborhoods with even one Airbnb unit should shoot for a tax credit proposal because it’s making basic neighborhoods look like a refugee camp from negligent landlords.

One night when I was coming from work there was this car in my carport. I looked across the street and their Airbnb unit driveway was packed with cars. The distant sound of music and shouting and laughing indicated there was a party and a visitor was using my driveway. I didn’t even bother to knock and say move your car… I just had it towed.

Four hours later, a banging at my door and shouting woke me up. It was the car owner and the guest demanding to know where the car was. I filled them in and gave them the towing company contact information. They said it was inconsiderate and with the driveway being unoccupied why should I mind? I should have just asked them to move it.

My reply was: “You barked up that tree just from thinking you have some kind of right to use my property when it’s mine and I pay taxes on it… you have zero legal rights to use my land. Considering your parasitic behavior and ignorance I think you’ll get the message on what private property is. Asking you doesn’t send a message to your brain regarding your actions; it’s just tolerating your mindset that’s practiced wherever the hell you came from.”

It’s so stupid here in Asheville. They’re putting up more hotels and more housing developments which makes the landlords drool more for Airbnb. There are no big businesses here, so there’s no economic growth to take on the population influx. Airbnb is just so parasitic and nomadic in its nature… it’s just destroying communities. People need to get involved and get Airbnb out of their states and countries and cuff and jail the hosts getting by doing it illegally.

How Long Will Airbnb Allow Communities to be Ruined?

Posted on

My partner and I live in a rural, wooded gated community that must have decided to look the other way as far as regulating short term rental houses. When neighbors complain about short term rentals, the Airbnb hosts (who are homeowners in the gated community) probably just get small fines or warnings, which makes us believe they haven’t got any tickets; the same problems occur over and over with the same rentals: loud music, and other kinds of loud noises (guns, fireworks, parties) all day and night, burning fires without a fire pit (a rule in our community), garbage and littering, speeding, overusing our amenities, like the pool showers.

We think the community management doesn’t want to make waves with these homeowners because the community charges them fees to allow short term rentals. So it’s screw the homeowner who just lives here, because the Airbnb hosts are giving “revenue” to the community. At what expense? If the community doesn’t regulate them, the homeowners who live here will just move out.

Call us conspiracy theorists, but maybe that’s the management plan: make it so miserable for the full time homeowners that they move out, and turn this place into a rental community, where nobody lives here; it’s just a community of rentals. Another big problem is that they allow more people in the house than is permitted. For example, they have a four-bedroom house, but they advertise that it sleeps 24. Our so-called police safety crew will come if you call them, but they don’t do anything. State police won’t help because we are in a gated community. Bottom line: our serenity and peace and quiet and safety is regularly disturbed and we are stuck here until someone starts to regulate the short term rentals.

Weekend Millionaires in Neighbour’s Airbnb Flat

Posted on

Just another neighbour complaining about living next to an Airbnb, hoping that something might be done one day. If not, maybe it just feels good to rant…

For the last few months now, my partner and I have been living next to what is now some kind of party den for weekend millionaires who appear to have no regard for other human beings who actually live in the area. We’ve had it all: thudding music, screeching girls, boisterous louts, fights, shouting, swearing, glasses being thrown onto the street (from the 8th floor), someone almost being thrown off the balcony (again, from the 8th floor), police turning up, etc.

It’s simply unfathomable to me how people can be so oblivious or simply apathetic to the fact that it’s a Tuesday at 5:00 AM and usually people are asleep or about to get ready for work. The flat in question faces over a large expanse surrounded by several blocks and the acoustics mean that any noise quite literally echoes around the area. God forbid you want to open your windows to let some air in during the summer. Isn’t it lovely having the choice to either sweat to death in (somewhat) peace or be cool but slightly insane from sleep deprivation in your own home?

The host has refused to even acknowledge the problem and has essentially disappeared off the face of the Earth since I managed to contact them, demonstrating complete contempt for the fact they’re disturbing roughly near 200 residents for financial gain. What’s even more hilarious is that with each complaint I submit to Airbnb (regarding separate occurrences), I get a lovely auto response saying they’re not going to do anything because it’s been flagged as a “duplicate” complaint. Their “neighbours” system only permits you to complain once and then that’s that. Despite all this we are in the process of building up a nice, juicy “nuisance diary” hoping that the local authorities can do something… if not then god help us all. I suppose we’re just expected to put up with it. What a day and age we live in.

Airbnb put a $200 Coupon Value on my Personal Safety

Posted on

My husband and I stayed at an Airbnb, where on our very first day within hours of our arrival, the downstairs neighbor shoved a passive aggressive threatening letter under the door stating that the hosts have not fixed the insulation in the apartment, the result of which is the neighbors downstairs hear all of our footsteps in the lounge, kitchen, and bedroom areas. In fact, the letter itself said the neighbors downstairs have made it a habit to serve every single Airbnb guest of this host with the letter, so that the hosts will do something about it.

At around 9:00 PM on our first day, when I was walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water, the neighbor downstairs started shouting at us through the floors to stop walking and hurling insults. As a result, we had to tiptoe through the whole apartment through the most of our stay. To tell you the truth, we felt so unsafe that we were ready to call 999 during our stay if the yelling neighbor ever decided to knock on our door. It was that bad.

We did contact the host as soon as possible on the very first day of our stay stating in detail how the neighbor verbally harassed us and how we have to tiptoe around the apartment now so that he doesn’t start yelling at us again. The host said he would take care of the situation but nothing was done at all. Neither the host nor Airbnb took any steps to protect us from harassment. In fact, both the host’s and Airbnb’s negligence allowed this verbal harassment to occur in the first place.

Despite previous reviews mentioning the insulation issue with the neighbor and the neighbor’s behavior, Airbnb allowed this host to continue to rent this place out to unsuspecting guests like us. When we contacted Airbnb about this they stated that they can only give us a $200 coupon for the verbal harassment and bullying we suffered at one of their properties. I’m sorry but a $200 coupon is unacceptable and frankly offensive.

My as well as my husband’s personal safety and well-being is worth more than a $200 coupon to me. I don’t think it is asking for too much to expect Airbnb to value their customers’ personal safety and well-being more than a $200 coupon, especially when their own negligence in supervising the host’s property allowed this harassment incident to occur. I’m writing this review because I want to highlight Airbnb’s negligence in allowing this verbal harassment to occur despite previous reviews mentioning the insulation issue with the neighbor and the fact that Airbnb, as a company, puts a $200 value on their customers’ personal safety and well-being to warn future customers.

Couple Comes and Destroys Serenity with Airbnb Rentals

Posted on

We bought our land two years ago. We built and moved in last year. This is (was) our dream home: quiet and secluded on a pristine lake. Not a big lake, a very small one that is non-navigable.

A few months after we moved in, a few chalets started popping up. I turns out it’s all the same couple that built them… for the sole purpose of short-term rentals. They have turned our nice, quiet neighbourhood into a constant stream of loud strangers who disrespect the surroundings and the nature.

I’ve had to call the police numerous times. I’ve even had a renter call the cops on me accusing me of making death threats with a shovel (which is BS). I am in the process of taking this up with the city to get their rental permit revoked. In our HOA it states that the lots are for residential habitations only and cannot be used as a commerce or business, even liberally.

These people don’t live here and I, along with the other owners, have had enough. Quite frankly, f$#& Airbnb. Airbnb, and other short-term rental companies like them need to be outlawed entirely. This is unfair to people who just want peace and quiet.

Creepy Airbnb Neighbor Spies on my Daughter

Posted on

I couldn’t make this up if I tried. My daughter had used Airbnb in Paris the year before and she knew how to navigate the site, so we asked her to make our reservation. We made our reservation in September 2017 for July 2018. We flew into Paris after a week’s stay in London (also an Airbnb stay). We called our host once we landed as requested in writing by the host. We took a taxi and were about 20 minutes late due to traffic.

Our host then proceeded to chastise my daughter for our tardiness because she was late getting back to work (her ad stated the check-in time was flexible) and she was informed while we were in the taxi of our arrival time to her flat. Our host gave us keys at the bottom of the stairs to the flat and a magnetic key to work the entrance door. She asked my daughter to follow her upstairs to explain the air conditioning, electrical and door lock. We were told to stay downstairs.

Our host then came racing back downstairs with a large bag full of trash and then proceeded to explain to us where to take the rubbish when we left. When I entered the unit, I saw dirty footprints on the bathroom floor and black hair in the sink. The bathroom mirror and tiny sink had crusty residue from previous guests. I ended up cleaning the shower, sink, mirror and floors before we could use. The shower was gross and in desperate need of re-caulking due to mold stains.

The flat was four flights up (not the two stated) with steep and narrow steps. There was a hot plate and two sets of dishes (for three guests). Not a kitchen as stated in the Airbnb ad. There was no air conditioning. There were two small electrical upright fans. The mini fridge didn’t stay cold enough to keep perishables fresh for more than half a day at best and was next to the far wall. We had to open the windows of the studio flat to get air into the tiny unit.

The neighbor one floor up would sit in a chair and stare into our flat while his cigarette smoke had no where else to go but from his window into out flat. The walls between the atrium were about 12 feet apart and our only two windows faced the apartment directly across from us. It was disgustingly humid and we ended up opening the windows in an attempt to cool down the room.

My oldest daughter woke up from her futon “bed” to find the neighbor staring at her from his open window while she slept. When my daughter caught him, he laughed and made a disgusting gesture which I witnessed and pulled the curtains closed over the two windows. He followed this behavior up with us having to listen to him and his partner have sex. I ended up closing the windows and hurried my girls out the door to find breakfast somewhere. It was close to 6:30 in the morning. This jerk pulled the same thing the very next morning. No lie. At least this time I didn’t let my daughter sleep in her underwear.

We thankfully had a flight to catch and needed to be out of the unit by 6:30. So, my best advice to you is do your homework when booking an Airbnb. Read all reviews from all sites that your unit may be posted on. My daughter told me the next day that the owner had taken her ad off the website. Looks like she made enough money off of us to make some repairs. Paris was beautiful but this Airbnb was disgusting in every way.