Hello,
I am a neighbor of an Air BNB and I share a driveway (private lane/road) with the house. I know both occupancy and definition of house party topics have been beat on this and other forums. But I do have specific question for the group that I have not seen, and you have always been pretty honest, even if I didn't like the answer. HAHA.
The Air BNB house party policy is vague leaving a lot of judgement. I think we are all aware what it states. The specific Queston I have is the occupancy and what is excessive noise, traffic, etc. Excessive compared to normal Air BNB traffic or excessive to what the property would look like if a normal residence? The property next to me is listed as a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with the county. The listing states 5 bedroom. To defend the host there is a basement/lower level that they have converted. To my knowledge however you must walk out the front door into the driveway and back through the garage to enter this area. This area also has no bathrooms or kitchen. So, one would have to walk back outside for those things. Access to the backyard, pool, hot tub, and BBQ is also from the front door via the driveway. Per San Diego County the occupancy would be between 7-11 persons depending on whether you count the basement portion that is not accessible from the main house. The listing is set at 15. The house is larger and does hold several cars. However, the driveway is shared and much over 5 cars people starting using the shared driveway that is supposed to remain clear for transit to shuffle cars, as a loading/unloading area or simply just to park. It also creates issues where people either back all the way out (200 feet or so) or just trespass to use my property to turnaround since their lot is now full. The more people the more foot traffic and noise in the shared driveway or property in general.
The real question is what is baseline of excessive? I understand that 30 people and 20 cars blasting music at 2 am on a Tuesday is a party. But what about 15 people making the noise of 15 people in my driveway. I get it, that is the occupancy set however that is excessive compared to a normal residence. Yes, I have people over and so do others on the street. But not near to the extent of a hospitality business. Plus, the logistics of the houses are unique in that they face each other, share a drive and the Air bnb property must use that drive for basically every movement. It is also very common that 1/3 to 1/2 (usually 2-4 / 5-8 total) of the cars leave between 10 pm and 4 am. When I say common, I mean 15 out of the last 25 nights.
This crowd might be slightly bias towards letting this host run his business as it is legal, however should my baseline of what is excessive be a standard 7–10-person impact of very full residence for my area or give more leeway being they list it at 15?
I have attached a ring link to better understand the lay out. This is from the front of my home looking at the front of the air bnb. The white section of driveway is the shared area which is my easement painting no parking. As you can see a car just parks there which is common. Sometimes I can get around, sometimes not. Behind the tree is the garage where you access the basement. The lower window is the basement. Both homes are raised foundation. Even with a gate/fence across the gap, it is not going to block much since both houses are elevated. The stair on my house is my front door.
Thank you for your time and continued support of knowledge.
https://ring.com/share/502d8d60-4cee-4a1a-9cce-d61eedcf22e8
