Noise complaint by neighbour

[Ken79]

Hi

We are new to hosting and unfortunately our first guests broke our house rules about no loud noise or parties after 10 p.m. Our neighbour messaged me on AirBnB complaining about noise and told us to stop hosting.

We apologised for noise and assured them this would not happen again. They will not accept this assurance and insist we stop hosting. They have now put a sign outside their house "You are not welcome AirBnb".

Our house is one of seven townhouses in a quiet neighbourhood.. They refuse to accept our apology and are now trying to intimidate our future guests with this sign. I met our new guests today and explained neighbours are annoyed by previous guests noise. They accepted our explanation and are happy with house.

My concern is my future booked guests will cancel. The police will not interfere as they say its a civil matter for us to resolve.

Any suggestions please. We want to continue hosting.

[David126]

It does not appear you are on site, how did you assure them it will not happen again?

[Ken79]

Well David I can only assure them that I have now met any prospective guests and advised them of my house rules and especially about loud noise after a certain time of the evening. I have assured my neighbours that I will personally meet all new guests thats all I feel I can do !

[Richard841]

But what about when the host is not present to greet the guests?Here in Burradoo, NSW, Australia, we have found there is a certain type of 'guest' who wants to have a good time. They ignore, or don't read House Rules, and are unaware of the time passing as they continue their noise and party on into the night. The simple resolution is to call the police, who have encouraged us to do so, pointing out that noise levels at applicable at ALL times of day and night, and not necessarily between late night and early morning.

[Terra15]

Based on your comment back to david, you can't Assure the neighbors. I would understand that neighbors as well as common sense knows you can't assure them..

possible solution: 

tell neighbors if it happens again, they can call your number at the time of occurrence. You can go check it out. If indeed they are noisy, offer to pay your neighbors the money you received from the quests for that evening stay. They may be open to that arrangement and not run them out. Since you are so sure it won't happen again, then no worries for you to put your money on it. Seems viable solution. 

[Richard841]

The answer to Terra: Being a neighbour who has constantly had his life disrupted, this for me is unacceptable. I just want the quiet life and the same sleeping patterns I had before the next door property became an Airbnb. I'm certainly not going to compromise to permit the host to make money at the expence of my lifestyle. It is not a viable solution, and one that could create further antagonism down the track. Ultimately, every host reading this blog should ask themselves the question: What is more important, making a profit or respecting the neighbourhood? 

[Miranda132]

Richard, as a host on airbnb I can tell you that I don't make this "profit" you speak of from my unit house. If anything, doing this STR simply allows me to keep my first house as an asset by continuing to make the mortgage payments and allows me to avoid full time renters. Let me pose this question to you: Would you rather a new neighbor moved in for a year that was consistently loud and uncaring for the home, the property and yard work because he/she was just renting it for 12 months or longer? And if they threw many parties and were consistently loud how easy would it be for me to evict them? In most states long term renters have many rights and it can be almost impossible to evict them. The other scenario, an airbnb, means that sometimes you will have noise complaints and guests who suck, but then they leave. I just recieved a noise complaint from a neighbor too and I am livid that my guests had a party, were noise and apparently threw beer on the neighbors cat. Who does that!? But most guests on Airbnb are great. You weigh that one out.

[Kenny183]

In the state of NC if the police are called out 3 times in one night on the 3rd visit they are fined $250.  One or two times will keep the long term renter quiet !$!

[Jackie396]

Said very well, but just remember the host could care less no matter what they say. They are only concerned about the money.

[Kenny183]

You Got That Right !!! Exactly what l’ve been saying for tha last year !!! 😱

[Vera206]

if  I  just  want  to  be  involved   in  it -  I  just  want  to  enjoy  my  house  and  sleep  during  the  nights?  Can  I?

The  owner  must  control  the  situation,  if they  are  not  able  to  do  it  forget  about  this  kind  of  business  or  be  ready  to  go  throuh  the  jail.  residential  area  for  residents!

[Phil236]

'Pay your neighbours the money received from the guests'? Really?

And what's stopping the neighbours being 'overly and unduly sensitive' to noise? Are you just going to give your neighbours your hard-earned money every time you have a complaint? I don't think this is a viable solution at all! I have an issue with a neighbour complaining about noise, but she is complaining about the noise from other apartments too. This to me indicates the neighbour is the issue, not the neighbouring apartments !?

[Vera206]

EXACTLY

I  rent  out  rooms  in  my  house and  we  live here  too,

the  siruation  is  under  control.

Our  neighbour  bought  the  house  and  now we  have noisy  parties after  2-3  am.

it  is  written  in  their  house  rules -  no  parties,  no  events,  please  respect  our  neighbours,  but  who  follow  the  rules?

people  sometimes  rent  it  for  1  night   Friday- Saturday. 

last  year I  had  to  call  the  Police,  because  it  was  impjssible  to  sleep  till  3 pm. all the  party  was  out  side.  three  our  bedrooms  faced  to  a  backyard - nobody  coul  sleep.

This  year  with  the  spring  coming  we  become it  again.  it  will  continue all  the  warm  summer   - just  go  to  city  hall  again,  then  to  the  Policeweather  too.  Music, TV, singing  etc. all  the  nights mostly  during  the  weekend

[Vera206]

sorry ,  so  many  misprints

[John-and-Heather0]

@Ken79

This may seem harsh, but I would have house rules and be prepared to evict a guest who generates a neighbor complaint.  AirBNB can cancel a stay during the stay if a guest is actively violating your rules. You post doesn't say that you actually stopped the noise in a timely manner.

BEFORE hosting, we contacted all of our neighbors, so they could immediately contact us directly if a guest was throwing a wild party in violation of our rules.  Did you actually stop the noise? Did you have a way to physically intervene with the guest who broke the rules? Were you prepared to kick them out for the violation?

Here's the problem: YOU have just created the kind of neighbor that leads to towns and counties passing laws and restricting EVERYONE'S right to use AirBNB. So please don't ignore your neighbors or think they need to get over it. On the contrary, you need to approach your neighbors in the spirit of "what can we do to make this right?"  Otherwise, you are 2 ticks away from your neighbor and their friendly politician stopping you entirely, limiting your right to rent to 30 days per year, etc. etc.

As hosts, we have to treat our neighbors as important as our guests, to ensure harmony in the community. In our case, by valuing our neighbors and staying involved with our local regulators, new regulations were a friendly, reasonable compromise to protect both neighbors and hosts.  At the town hall meetings to discuss regulations in our case, there were 4 people like your neighbor, only 2 independent hosts, and 2 mega-rental company reps. Having already established concrete steps in place with neighbors really helped the outcome for us--as these were acceptable to other hosts' "angry neighbors." However, many communities in our state--where hosts haven't cared about neighbors--have eliminated or restricted hosts ability to legally have an AirBNB. 

Get creative--generate an in-person meeting, ask what you can do to ensure that your neighbor will feel safe and protected. Some communities have free neighbor mediation, and these are great programs for problem solving. But ignoring the issue or seeing this as your neighbor's problem is likely to not go your way long term.