Neighbours support

[Lana1080]

We have host who is renting out entire villa on Air Bnb platform. He is renting his accommodation to the large group of people 18+ and has no consideration to his neighbours. 

We are so tired of parties, constant flow of strangers who comes and goes at any time during the day and at night, rubbish and so on. We have had prostitutes, fights, drunks, etc. We complained Air Bnb dosen times over the past year and they would not take any actions against the host.  In fact, the response time and the way Air Bnb handles our complaints became worse. Our last complaint from 20th October has been transferred between the teams twice. 5 days already and no actions. Does Air Bnb ignore neighbours complaint on purpose?  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Lana1080 Airbnb cannot see what is happening 'on the ground' as they operate remotely. It could easily be a neighbour complaining because they are jealous of the host or have some other issue with the host. Do you have police reports demonstrating the acts of unlawful behaviour that you allege?

[Lana1080]

Hi Mike-And-Jane0, we are the neighbours and we want to leave peaceful life in our quiet neighborhood. Yes, we do have police reports from the past and we do have lots of videos to support our claims.

The issue with the host is a large number of tourists/guests 18+ in the single house. 

The house split into 2 flats. The top floor takes 10 people and ground level 8. In fact, many more come.  Sometimes we have 5-7 cars parked around and constant noise from slamming car doors becomes unbearable. 

People come and go at nights. Host does not leave on premises and explains noise as early departure or late arrival because tourists have to go on plain that time. Sounds like we care.  The host brings tourists on large buses that can't fit private driveway, so they use public carpark. 

You can imagine you can't call the police for the excessive noise, but we've been calling noise control so many times. 

We want Air Bnb to be accountable and follow their own "no party" policy. This is horrible business if in wrong hands.

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

Why aren't you lodging noise complaints with your local council for every noise complaint and every piece of anti-social behaviour should be logged with them. What action has the council said they are taking?

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/licences-regulations/noise/Pages/complain-about-noise.aspx 

Have you complained to your local councillors and national politicians. @Lana1080 

What house rules does the host have around quiet time at the property inside and out. Does the host have CCTV to monitor the property.

Have you posted publicly on all Airbnb and Brian Chesky's social media asking why they are letting a host wreck the lives of Airbnb neighbours by allowing hosts to operate party houses with constant late night noise, 18 plus guests, parties, fights and prostitution.  Link in your local council on social media.

[Lana1080]

Hi Helen3,

Sorry did not respond straightaway, we were busy dealing with AirBnb customer service giving them a bunch of new evidence. 

We called noise control numerous times, but we did not progress too far. Where was a case when noise control officer arrived but felt unsafe and passed on the matter to police. We don't know what happened after that, perhaps nothing as host operated as usual.

Council is saying keep on logging noise calls.  We complained CFO of Auckland Council. The response was that they don't have rules in place around AirBnb in Auckland and we need to continue to communicate the issue with AirBnb, owner and keep on calling noise control (does not make much sense, we are not getting anywhere. AirBnb is not responsive, owner says we are nuts, noise control is not much help either).

Owner claims he has rules in place and CCTV but guests don't follow the rules and the owner does not know what happens in the house unless we make him aware.

I was considering writing an email to Brian Chesky but never got around it. Seems like a great idea to post on social media to Brian Chesky. How do you do that?

Re posting on AirBnb, this is what I'm doing now. Are there any other places to post?

Here are the links of the host. 

****[Identifiable listing removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines- Please note that is not allowed to post a listing link unless posted by a listing owner]

The host is renting out his accommodation under different options. Entire villa 16+ people (got changed from 18+ after we've complained but still above the cap of 16.). Link 2 &3 would make 18+. We told Airbnb that this is illegal, but they keep on ignoring us.

We've escalated the issue to our mayor. There is a light in the tunnel, they promised to look at this property and escalate with 

AirBnb's executive leadership team for investigation but nothing has happened yet over the past week.

@Helen3 I would really appreciate if you pointed me in the right direction on how to reach out Brian Chesky on social media.

Thank you

[Helen3]

You can look up Airbnb on social media they are definitely on x, formerly Twitter, FB and IG - maybe on others.

Brian Cheskey is definitely on X maybe on others.

best of luck @Lana1080 

[Gwen386]

 Yes, you most definitely can report a host as it relates to a neighborhood problem/concern. 

For some reason I could not copy/paste the link itself but here is the info below. Also, if you Google “Airbnb neighborhood support,” info will populate in the search engine. Here goes and I hope you can get this matter resolved within 24 hours. I am also tagging @Bhumika who can most likely provide the link so you can report this nuisance. 

Neighborhood Support 

You can report a party, noise complaint, or neighborhood concern here.

For help with a reservation, hosting, or your account, contact Airbnb Support—our Neighborhood Support team is only available to help with concerns related...

 

For emergencies: If you feel unsafe or are concerned about your or someone else's well-being, please contact local emergency services immediately.

Urgent neighborhood situations

Reach out to Neighborhood Support if there’s a party or disturbance happening nearby.

Request a call

Other neighborhood concerns

Send us a message using the button below. Our team will investigate and follow up via email.

Report a concern

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@Lana1080

[Bhumika]

Hi @Lana1080! I am sharing the link that our Host member @Gwen386 is referencing here: Airbnb Neighbourhood Support. 

I also wanted to share the link to Community Policy for Hosts in case you wanted to refer to more information related to your concerns: Being a good neighbour while Hosting. I hope it helps!

[Lana1080]

Hi Bhumika,

I started a conversation for hosts, sorry for the confusion, but we are neighnbours to the next-door Air Bnb.  I just could not find where else I can write and draw attention of members about our surging pain that comes from one week to another. 

All we want Air Bnb to deal with this host and it looks like they don't care. First time I called them; they transferred me somewhere else. I was on a phone for half an hour, and no one answered. We sent the complaint on neighbours support link they closed our complaint on the grounds that another team will be looking at it. No answers, no help just transferring us from one team to another over 5 past days. 

[Lana1080]

Hi Bhumika,

Do you know how many times host needs to be in breach of party policy rules before they get permanently suspended from Air Bnb platform.

We have already filled dozens complains (support videos, images, noise control and police reports were provided to Air Bnb over the past year)

Another interesting fact, we complained couple of weeks ago too and Air Bnb found an excuse that that time the house was rented via different short term accommodation provider so they could not do much about it. 

This time they even don't respond. Things apparently are getting worse for neigbours. 

Thanks

[Lana1080]

Hi Gwen386,

Thanks for your response. Yes, we did all these. We called; we sent messages. It's been 5 days and no response from AirBnb. 

I don't know whether it Is the customer service that so bad or Air Bnb has too many complaints they can't handle/resolve?

May be @Bhumika can help us?

[Helen3]

You don't say where you live @Lana1080 

But have you

1. flagged the listing to Airbnb and raised concerns

2. Contacted the host to discuss

3. logged incidents with the police 

4. reported issues to your local government 

[Lana1080]

Hello Helen3,

Yes, we did all these even were sending the article to the local newspaper. We are taking it up with Ombudsman now as our Auckland Council does not want to put the cap on number of nights as other Councils did. 

We've raised our concerns with Air Bnb so many times and the best they did a year ago was they suspended hosts ads for a couple of weeks. That made a huge difference but after that nothing. It looks like they purposely ignore us. Air Bnb charging money on selling nights why would they care about neighbours? Their response time is horrendous - 5 days and yet no answer.