Airbnb guests constantly rent my place to party. It's been a problem for years, at both of my homes. I block many of them, but can't detect them all. The other day an airbnb guest held a party, and they trashed my neighbor's balcony (below mine).
They need to get partying off the platform. It's terrible for neighbors and hosts, and it's not even much revenue; the partiers usually book for one night. Regular guests on average stay 4-5 nights.
There should be a separate "AirBnB for parties and events" option. If I had a space designed for such activities, being able to rent it out on the same platform would be great.
Many event rooms can be reserved simply by guaranteeing a minimum bar spend - if your attendees spend a few hundred pounds, you needn't pay anything at all.
Of course, if you want to bring your own booze, openly use illegal drugs, invite guests who are under the legal drinking age, or have access to beds, you might choose to rent an apartment anyway.
Seems like most of the complaints about Airbnb that result in new ordinances banning short term rentals probably originate from bad guests (or irresponsible hosts who allow bad behavior and ignore the impact to their neighbor's peace) who are ruining it for everyone else.
What regulations are you referring to that would prevent this?
You can just as easily book a hotel and throw a party there and do all sorts of damage. They don't take much of a deposit either (or they hold a card) because there's a fine line between protecting yourself and a sensible amount for your average guest.
The problem here is that AirBnB takes a good chunk of a booking and doesn't do much to vet guests. They also haven't shown to be friendly and trusting with hosts that make claims even though they market a policy to protect larger losses to make you feel more willing to add your home to the pool.
I've been lucky; only had a few bookings I wouldn't want back and mostly they just destroy the hot tub with spilled drinks and I have to refill it. I try to avoid one-night stays as much as possible. I set a higher deposit too to filter our the partiers and don't do instant book. They'll choose a place with a lower deposit and instant-book instead. I also have 3 outdoor cameras so I can see what's going on at my place and how many people are showing up. I'm legally approved to sleep 16. So if it gets crazy; I'll call the police.
I think it's stupid to rent out a condo unless you vet every guest manually. However, I'd still ban it if I was on their HOA. It's a real security issue. You have to trust the person who books and everyone they bring. AirBnB should enact a sizable fine for exceeding their approved guests. Then we could just submit video/image evidence of how many people came and AirBnB could hit the guest with the fine and not be so stingy with their "insurance" policy for hosts.
don't think regulations will help, but this definitely does: hotels can charge the renters' credit cards for damage done to the property, but airbnb hosts cannot do that to renters. so the risk to the hotel is minimized. i'm sure if someone damages a room so badly that they have to refurnish the whole thing, they'll happily bill the guest for replacement, item delivery, labour, yield loss, the whole thing - mark up the whole repair job the same way they mark up the peanuts in the minibar.
the other thing that helps is that whatever happens in a hotel is not happening to a place of permanent residence- someone's home. if partygoers cause damage that spills into my room, I can get another room. if partygoers next door cause damage that spills into my house, i'm out of luck (not to mention so is the host).
What kind of settings do you have for reservations? Are you doing any kind of screening of guests? Forcing guests to register their passport on Airbnb and/or asking a bit about what they do for a living tends to be a decent signal for whether or not they will trash your place.
It's sad that you abuse your neighbors by treating your home as an unlicensed hotel and allow random people in for short-term rentals without proper vetting or supervision. If I was your neighbor I would certainly complain to the HOA, complex management, or city code enforcement to have you fined or evicted. Hopefully you at least paid for the cleanup and repair, with some additional compensation for their trouble.
Well, aside from your issues above, "It's terrible for my neighbors, but I keep doing it, even though it's not much money" certainly isn't going to win any friends.
My neighbors don't have a problem with me running the airbnb. They do it themselves, too, or at least like having the option to. The balcony was a mess but it wasn't damaged, nor did it cost anything to clean.
They need to get partying off the platform. It's terrible for neighbors and hosts, and it's not even much revenue; the partiers usually book for one night. Regular guests on average stay 4-5 nights.