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.

[Michael2239]

I am also experiencing the pain of an Air BnB next door all the issues yourself and others have pointed out on this thread. The other point to make is for those who want to sell their homes and move on. How do you rate your chances? If I were viewing a home and the agent informed me there was an air BnB next door I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. I also understand that by law you are obliged to report this to any potential buyer too so as Cormac points out, we as neighbours are getting all of the downside to this.

Some things you can do-

if you live on a new build check your contract as your neighbours will be the same. It’s possible that this is a breach of contract. If so then the managing agents of the estate should then take this up as they have for me, contacting Air BnB and the owners.

You can also contact your Council’s Environmental Protection Dept with any noise issues.

if all else fails then you can find the details of the “hosts” mortgage provider by carrying out a search of the land registry for £3. Most providers don’t allow or highly restrict the use of Air BnB. It’s a shame if it has to come to this but ask yourself, have you been shown the same courtesy by your greedy and inconsiderate neighbours 

[Wendy633]

I love this idea. I'm going to put a similar sign up in my front yard for the noisy homeaway next door. So tired of being bothered by loud guests and uncaring owners

[Maggie241]

yes i think i will get a sign too so sick of our out of town investors putting in large groups that block our driveways ,party on etc ,,,so sick of investors excuses

[Patrick153]

 Based on my years as a landlord, I’d much rather have short term tenants than long term. With short term tenants, we now have the best looking house on the block and we have the cleanest house on the block! We’re able to give the extra care and maintenance to our home that long term tenants could not, and generally would not, do. The profit margin isn’t high, but the overall benefit, less wear and tear, is unmatched. I wish the long term tenants next door to my house were short term, then I wouldn’t have to here all there noise and cigarette smoking on a daily basis! Ugh! Thankful for short term rentals. 

[Pat366]

I live beside an AirBNB, a large high-end detached house that attracts groups. Even though the listing says no parties/events/gatherings there is ALWAYS some sort of gathering making noise day or night.  

We are the only house directly near it and our bedrooms are literally three feet away. So its hard to rally other neighbours when they are directly affected every night except for parking issues.

I have contacted the following for assistance:

The homeowner - non responsive

AirBNB - non responsive

City Council - directs me to police or bylaw - my city has no regulations for AirBNB

Bylaw - directs me to police

Police - directs me to Bylaw

What are neighbours supposed to do? We own our home and it's really not that financially easy to "just move". This is pure hell.

[Sandra126]

@Pat366 , any large accommodation gets groups getting together with much excitement. Any ordinary house will have group gatherings occasionally, but accommodations will have it every single booking. I couldn't stand being next to one, I like peace and quiet. In my area, zoned residential, the max you can host is five without additional permits. Find out what is the case in your area. If they are hosting over capacity unlicensed, you have a case. Other t than t h at, I have no advice except move or wait for neighbours to do so. Which could happen if venture not profitable enough.

[Pat366]

@Sandra126 Thanks for the comment.

Yes there is always lots of excitement with these groups - this weekend there is a group here for a wedding, the fifth one this season - a stretch limo just parked out front to pick up the group of 10 (even though listing says 6 people max). You would think some of these people have never seen a nice house before. I also like my peace and quiet so this has been just awful for us. As I mentioned in my original post, my city has no regulations regarding hosting and moving is not a financially viable option at the moment. 

Besides, even if you do move, what guarantee do you have the next house will not be surrounded by existing or future AirBNBs? Absentee unethical AirBNB property owners are a plague on society. Some of you hosts on this forum sound amazing and would love to have you as neighbours, but unfortunately, am stuck here in hell.

[Sarah977]

@Pat366  I really feel for your situation. There needs to be a way to stop this disrespectful stuff. I host a private room in my home for one guest only and unless I told them, my neighbors would never know I even host- my guests are quiet and most arrive by air and then take the bus to town, so they don't have cars either. Hosts like the one next to you give Airbnb a bad name and they make me mad as well. So greedy and inconsiderate.

It's nice that you can understand the difference between responsible hosts and the ones that only care about the money, and not tar us all with the same brush, thank you.

I have friends who just sold their vacation home in my town because there is a big party house Airbnb next door to them which has been no end of grief. My friends also did Airbnb rentals, but knew how to vet their guests well, only hosted singles or couples, and had a responsible property manager, so never any problems as far as their guests went.

Then i have a neighbor right across the road who not only is loud herself, but built open-air buildings with straw matts and curtains for walls to Airbnb. She complains about my dog barking a total of about 5 minutes in 24 hours, but I can hear everything her guests say, every phone conversation they have, I can even hear them having sex. At least she only hosts singles or couples, and she lives on site, it's not a big party scene, but still it's annoying.

[Sandra126]

Having lived next door to incessantly barking dogs, and shouty shrieking children I think there are both up and downsides to both. At least guests check out! But late night gatherings constantly is definitely a wearing down issue. Get the hosts mobile numbers, and let them know when the boundaries are overstepped. I gave my number to the neighbours, but they only used it once, to tell me that the previous night was a 4 am finish... would have preferred being called on the actual night so I could have sent the guests indoors, to bed preferably. Good luck.

[Andrea4535]

Same situation here in Austin East 3021 78702, where every second weekend, we get tens of young teenagers coming there, to ruin our peace, making it impossible to sleep and work, playing loud music and getting drunk

When someone transforms their house, into short term rental resorts, in the middle of quite Neighborhood, not only should they be ostracized by the community, they should also get a BIG FINE by the city council, for "planned disturbance" to public quiet 

this is no longer renting, this is speculation driven greediness.

[Sarah977]

@Andrea4535  That would infuriate me as well. But to be fair, there are plenty of hosts who have STRs in quiet residential neighborhoods, who have quiet, lovely guests who the neighbors wouldn't even know are there if there wasn't a different car in the driveway.

It's all about the host and how and to what sorts of people they market their listing, and how adept they are at vetting prospective guests and declining those who present red flags.

If a host only cares about how much money they are raking in, then the rental is definitely going to be an issue for the surrounding community. Hosts like that should be delisted from the platform.

[Ute42 · Accepted solution]

.

@Andrea4535  

Go to the airbnb startpage in guest mode and scroll down to the very buttom of the page. You'll find this:

Click onto the link and You'll find this

:

Last year in november, after 5 people had been shot to death in an airbnb Party Listing (google for it) airbnb promised, that they will delist places who are contiuousely disturbing their neighbourhood. I agree with @Sarah977  that such places sould be shut down, as they are ruining airbnb's image and they are ruining all our businesses. I'm writing this as a host.

[Imke22]

So sorry to hear about your neighbors.

Why not install a noise monitoring device like Alertify and let your neighbors know you'll receive instant notifications when any future noise disturbances occur, so you'd be able to quiet future guests down before they disturb the neighborhood?

You can prevent noise, smoking and party incidents in your Airbnb for less than $0,50 per day**[Link removed due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines ]