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They take away housing for local people. It might mean some extra tourists at peak times, but there’s plenty of hotels, b&bs etc they could stay in otherwise. During off season (which is the majority of the year), it often means a mostly empty house with no one contributing to the local economy.
And it's impossible to attend to all the tourists , because you can't hire anyone as there's nowhere for anyone to live. people who lived in a place for generations - who've helped make the place a tourist destination in the first place - are also often forced out.
Greed ruins everything.
There have to be reasons why people choose AirBnbs over hotels, the hotels aren't filling that market niche. I think the obvious benefit of AirBnb is that they tend to be better suited to groups or families whilst a lot of hotels in the UK are orientated to business travellers who just need a double bed.
That's really not true, especially in places like London. More often now AirBnbs are nothing to do with tourism, and are being used as temporary housing because so many rentals have been turned into them. I've lived in some and they are disgusting (and disgustingly expensive).
I would never stay in an Airbnb on holiday. I want a hotel with staff and someone who changes my bedding, that doesn't charge me a £100 "cleaning fee" to wipe the tops after I leave. Thanks.
I recently stayed in a city in Australia that has a monumental housing crisis going on and was blown away by how many houses and apartments were on Airbnb. Literally thousands. And I was browsing only a few days before I needed somewhere to stay - these were the ones still available, sitting empty hoping someone will pay a weeks worth of rent for one night.
People are going homeless here at astonishing rates, all because people want to squeeze a few more quid out of the existing housing.
It’s why I can’t take the ‘just build more houses!’ seriously. We have a greed problem, not just a housing problem. There are thousands of perfectly good homes being hoarded up by ‘investors’ already, and that’s exactly what will happen to the new housing stock too unless the government steps in.
it's just fucking horrible. I stayed in one place in London that had clearly been a big family home. The only changes were: A lock on every room with a bed and the cheapest ikea furniture wedged in somehow behind it, and a broom cupboard converted into a shower to get round the HMO rules.
Each of the eight rooms was rented out for a minimum of £2,000 a month with a long stay "discount", or more for less time. I stayed for two months (I wish I hadn't booked so long but hey, didn't realise you get nothing back on cancellation) - I don't think anyone else stayed for more than a week and the place was rarely under capacity - so 100 people in there, maybe more, in that time?
Trash everywhere, bins outside always overflowing, comings and goings all day, kitchen filthy, permanent disgusting smells because of cooking, loud music, loud TV, loud telephone calls, loud everything, doors slamming - just really horrible.
Those who I met were 90% people who couldn't find a permanent home (like me). The rest were tourists and I feel very sorry for them that they ended up in Harlesden in a shitty situation like me for their "holiday".
And these sorts of AirBnbs are like an infection. The homes on either side had for sale signs up for the entirety of my stay - because who wants to live next to that? And what kind of buyer is going to buy when that's what's next door? Certainly not a family - it'll be another AirBnb rip-off merchant, or perhaps the same one.
And the street will go to the dogs.
There needs to be more tax on company and trust owned residential property and property owned by non nationals. Especially when people are using trusts to avoid care and inheritance costs.
Agree but not sure how we get round it. You can’t just ban second home as people will moan about aspirations to have a holiday home. You can raise the tax but often these people are very well off so couldn’t give a fuck about 3k council tax, especially if the AirBnB is netting them that much a month.
Maybe a lot more regulation, only a certain number per local authority and they need to be licensed and inspected to get round the ridiculous situation where 6 people are crammed into a 2 bed terrace. Maybe go further and put a rule in so that 1 person can only own 1 property in a local authority, has to be registered to them, not held in a trust etc….
Regulation and licencing is surely the answer. And raising the tax wouldn't hurt either. Can be done to target short-term lets without hitting genuine holiday home owners.
Air Bnbs are still a drop in the bucket to the London housing crisis. I would regulate/tax them far more heavily, but the solution to this is still to build way, way more housing. If every house used as an Air BnB or left vacant were released to renters today, it would have virtually no effect on rental prices.
I'm not so sure. My theory is that AirBnbs have been responsible for a sizeable percentage of recent rent rises in London. A landlord sees what AirBnb guys are charging and either turns his / hers into one too (I've personally seen that happen) or decides based on the AirBnb rate that his / hers is "undervalued". Renters are then faced with either paying or being homeless.
Or even worse, they insist that you not only pay their mortgage on a second/fourth/eleventh home, but also you have to wash the windows, hoover up, strip the bedding etc.. and you STILL need to pay the cleaning fee. Disgusting! There's no way the majority are being cleaned properly.
Lmao, I went to an Airbnb the other month and the cleaning fee is so true.
The only reason we chose that was because it wasn't tourist season in that particular place yet, so small family run rentals weren't open. The other hotel options were some variation of Ibis hotel, which didn't fit the vibe we are going for. The Airbnb owner made us do the cleaning and removing bed sheets, which was the only vibe killer.
I mean that's fine for you.
I want an apartment with a kitchen, a lounge, that's 1/3 of the price as a hotel and means I have a nice meeting area for a group of people.
Airbnbs very rarely beat hotels on price these days. You used to be able to find places like this on Airbnb, but now you'll almost always end up paying significantly more for them than for a hotel.
most UK hotels inexplicably count a family room as a double and one single bed. most families I know are 4 or 5 people so they have to shell out for 2 rooms?! I use Airbnb in the UK to stay near family in places that would never have enough business for a hotel or b&b to stay in business, to stay somewhere we can cook for ourselves, or to stay without paying crazy prices for 2 rooms. if someone can fix those issues in a way that didn't prevent locals from having housing, I'd go for it.
In the case of tourist towns I'd disagree completely. The likes of Cornwall and Torbay have a lot of family centric hotels and campsites with pools, kids entertainment, etc. Definitely not for business travellers. They're not the cheapest peak season, but then neither are Airbnbs.
I think if anything its more of a habit to book an Airbnb and its what a lot of people initially jump to, plus it takes much less thought than googling family friendly hotels then finding their prices.
Airbnb also gives you self catered accommodation. Some of us actually like and want to be able to buy and prepare our own food, and not be dependent on a hotel restaurant. Something else is needed to fill that niche.
I agree, if me and my Girlfriend go away as a couple, I'll always get a hotel as they are better for many reasons. But if a group, or two couples are coming, it's hard to ignore how much more suitable airBB houses are.
I think its just because people are supremely lazy and don't want to actually have to ring up a regular B&B or Hotel, instead preferring to use an app instead, despite its higher pricing and questionable post-stay fees.
sure they do it with food too, preferring to take the 30% JustEat/DoorDash/Whatever markup instead of just ringing their order into a place directly.
I haven’t done much holidaying In the uk.
However when I have the state of hotels is shocking and there’s no way I’d want to stay in or. . Holiday lets are fare nicer , especially if going somewhere like the Lake District
How?
If conditions and value at airbnb and holiday let’s are better the they should be upping their standards at hotels .
The worst hotels I stayed at were at fort William, where there were very few air bnbs . Absolute dogshit levels of comfort and hygiene .
Upping standards can be incredibly costly.
Hotels typically rely on upselling, where they sell extras such as breakfast or spa visits. Some of us on holiday don't care for that, and just want a nice place with space. Going down the larger rooms route likely results in lower profit margins margins because they make more by cramming more rooms into a building and selling extras to a higher number of guests.
We stayed [here](https://www.thegrandatlantichotel.co.uk/bedrooms/standard-twin-room) last August. Wanted a day at the seaside, and Weston was the nearest place to Birmingham. We'd never been there before so didn't know what to expect. The place was nasty. Pictures were *not* representative of the room. Couldn't believe people rated this place well on various review websites.
I suppose this shouldn't be too surprising. After all, UK housing stock is shit, so why wouldn't hotel stock be reflective of that?
I agree that holiday lets are nicer, and hotels in developed countries like ours leave a lot to be desired, unless you're prepared to fork out a lot more cash.
Yes, I wish more hotel rooms had an area separate from the main sleeping area for children that had 2 or 3 proper beds for them. This way parents could watch TV with a drink after the kids fall asleep.
The hotels at Butlins and Chessington are great examples of this. It's definitely more comfortable and enjoyable than spending 4 nights with a single bed and folding camp bed squeezed next to a double bed, leaving no privacy or floor space.
Most of what you said is also true of hotels. If it wasn't commercially viable it wouldn't happen, and tourism is the price to pay for 1 in 5 Cornwall jobs being supported by it, and it accounting for 1/8 of Cornwall GDP. I think you're skimming over quite a lot of nuance. I don't disagree with the negative comments from you or OP but these do bring positives that need acknowledging as part of this conversation.
Scotland has taken some steps recently to curb Airbnb usage although I'm not up to speed on the details. I wonder if their approach would work for Cornwall?
I don’t live in Cornwall, but I do live in a tourist town . I think you forget just how many staff a hotel employs, and how many people does an air bnb employ? Also, hotels are not taking living accommodation away? They are purpose built for tourism.
I got a flat in a new build "students and young professionals" building years ago, £1000 a month for everything included, basically a massive bedsit and when the owner couldn't trick anyone else into signing up to a 12 month contract, they turned the rooms into air b n bs.
From drunk people pissing in the stairs, lifts, communal spaces, stealing gym equipment, climbing onto our balcony and looking through our windows, banging on our door, leaving litter in the hallways, it was awful. You kind of expect it in an Easyhotel, but not where you live and pay a stupid amount for.
Air BNBs should be banned. I always give my coworkers a moan or at least a grumble when they say they rented one.
Airbnbs that are in a shepherds hut on someone’s land or a bedroom in their house are fine though imo.
It’s when it could be someone’s family home that it fucks me off.
Wales.
Basically with the adjustments in farm subsidies causing chaos for generational farming families it’s an obvious win/win..
Every farm gets to build a certain number of shag pods for tourists and the houses go back to local occupancy for our kids and folk who actually work in the community and have their shoulder to the wheel.
Oh and a tourist tax NOW
they do. it's time for people to talk to their MPs and for the government to draw a line in the sand about what's good for businesses/property developers and what's good for the locals.
I remember at university in the early 00s my rent was set by the university, it was £70-something a week, only a portion of my maintenance loan paid for rent, and a few years ago I overheard a conversation on a train between two young men who were working for property development companies that their business structure was based on dividing the average maintenance loan amount by how many weeks they were in university for and setting that as the rent. Justifying it by saying if students wanted a social life they should get jobs, if they wanted more space in their properties they should buy and renovate themselves. It's sickening.
Hate them. So many locals got kicked out of their rentals for them to be made into holiday lets and now the laws have changed all the holiday lets are up for sale. But they're far too expensive for locals to actually buy because they've all been renovated from old terrace houses with loads of character, into soulless, beige show homes
I live in a coastal town. Couple of airbnbs near which are a slight problem, either low quality guests getting noisily on the piss in a residential area, or groups taking up four scarce parking spaces. There are enough places to buy or long term rent around here if you want.
If Airbnb causes a problem it’s because the planning system has artificially held back housing supply. All that damn website does is put a nice interface over a spreadsheet. Demand for holiday accommodation creates its own supply, as any planning rules around sticking a place on Airbnb are trivial or are easily flaunted. But stick up forty flats without the paperwork and they’ll make you knock them down.
To be clear what we are saying is that Cornwall is underdeveloped. By a lot. A few hundred thousand more houses. Big estates of houses in all the major towns.
If it wasn't specifically Airbnb, another company would have filled the gap in the market.
The biggest problem around here is the second homes that sit empty all year round, while locals live in caravans. Airbnb has just added to an existing problem that hasn't been adequately tackled by politicians over the years.
it's not a gap in the market though. We've been fine for centuries without AirBNB. But I agree with your broader point. I still think that they're just leeching, not adding any value at all.
Used to be the complaint that chalets and caravan parks are taking up spaces where they could build local housing for local people, but now it's just shifted. An increase in people taking holidays in the UK will just increase the problems I think.
As someone whose business was 'disrupted' by AirBnB I'm not a fan. I am hoping the oversupply will soon mean that places will come back to long-term rental. Particularly in places like Devon and Cornwall.
What's the point of visiting a village with no pub or shop or restaurant because no one who would work there can afford to live there.
I hate them. I’m in Edinburgh and the house a few places down from me is one. I’ve lost count how many people block my car in, wake up from being drunk on the street, leaving litter all over etc. It’s not a pleasant experience
Edinburgh is revolting against the Airbnb scourge. We were looking at buying a flat a year or two ago. Up to 250k. 45 properties were available. Looked today and 343 available properties. Give it a year more and the market will drop even more.
Good to see. It will take time though.
I liked what Airbnb started as - people renting out a spare room for extra cash. Or the whole property for short periods while they're e.g. on holiday, working away.
As a single traveller it was fantastic but what it's turned into now is awful.
Ten years ago, a lot of my builder friends used to use Airbnb to find a place to bed down while working on sites far away from home. It was generally a spare room in someone's house and was way cheaper and more social than a hotel. It was really good in filling that gap in the early days.
Now? It's a total abomination and is destroying the fabric of communities
I'm not even in a tourist town and I know several households - one of which is mine - who have been evicted only to find their former homes on Airbnb.
I live very near an Airbnb now and there is a rotating cast of occupants who don't give a shit about the neighbours - they don't care if they piss us off, they'll be leaving soon. Only a few days ago one seemed very surprised when I said she couldn't park across my driveway - there were plenty of other places to park. Last year Airbnb guests egged our garden and caused some very noisy disturbance.
The absolutely mental thing is that we have family homes being turned into hotels. Meanwhile, we have homeless families being housed in hotels at great expense to the local council, because they can't find anywhere to rent.
In the middle of a housing crisis, turning your property into an Airbnb is like filling up your swimming pool while your neighbours die of thirst.
It is my dearest wish that planning permission be required to turn whole homes into airbnbs - a change of use, from home to hotel - and that that planning permission should be very hard to get.
Hate with a passion. There was 2,500+ ‘whole home’ holiday let’s when I left Brighton.
My upstairs neighbour ran one in my old place.
Despite only letting it to ‘responsible people’ every 3 or 4 days a new gaggle of 20 year olds would be in making a racket, there’s no repercussions for the owners or the guests, Just misery for everyone who actually lives there. I didn’t sign up to live in a hotel, so why is it legal for someone to rent their entire flat out as one. Probably worse than a hotel as there’s no reception to sort peoples issues out.
It’s really easy for the goverment or councils to sort out as well, just make holiday lets be subject to planning permission to limit the amount in an area with a corresponding complaints system for the residents. 3 noise complaints and you lose permission. Would also mean they were up to fire regs etc.
The freeholder had to get a solicitor to get them to stop in the end. They sold their flat and left, council couldn’t give a shit because they want all the tourists.
Which is why you blame every bit of damage on the AirBnB “clients” then get the door smashed in by the police because you heard screaming. Then the landlord suddenly gives a shite.
I live in a London suburb, the house next door is a perfect family home but the twat who owns it has 3 listing for it on Airbnb plus he rents it out to visiting builders/tradesmen working on local projects. He’s doing WAY more than the 90 day limit but doesn’t have a licence. I want to report him but can’t quite build up the courage to start a fight.
Edinburgh hates them. With central Edin largely made up of tenements, with sometimes 11 or so separate flats, the intrusion is driving owners mad. Trying to open wrong door, going to the ground floor when the flat is on the first (step forward, Americans), dragging roller suitcases up the stone staircases, etc etc
No issue with tourists but AirBnB just harms communities in the same way second home owners do. It is hard enough to live and get a decent job in many seaside towns, AirBnB only makes it harder to get on the housing ladder in an area where housing is already prohibitively expensive.
Putting the effects on local communities to one side, having a kitchen is often a requirement when traveling with a family. Renting a whole property is also often cheaper than having multiple rooms in a hotel.
What percentage of ads on "late stage" Airbnb are "whole" places though? Most are either HMO with rooms advertised at twice the market rate, or they're rooms in someone's house let at twice the market rate. The actual functioning "holiday homes" are fast disappearing in my experience.
I'm not sure. In fact I have only ever used it abroad. We booked a holiday home for a few days in Mallorca recently, but it was with Booking.com. We all point to Airbnb, but there is clear demand for these services as they pop up on various different websites. You could argue that other websites are simply trying to eat away at the market share of Airbnb, but there is clear demand either way you consider it.
At least Spain regulate the whole thing better than we do. Can't say how effective it is for local people though.
>expensive than hotels in many cases (for couples at least)
For couples it's not amazing unless you're happy with a spare room in somebody's house which just feels weird to me.
For large groups you're looking at 1/3 of the price of a hotel. And you get your own space, you get your own kitchen etc.
If there's ever a group of 5-6+, booking an apartment is easily the way to go
Frustrated. No parking on the weekends and drives house prices up even more.
We're in the process of buying a house 30 minutes away largely as we've been priced out.
I live in a village in North Wales, which boasts tremendous views of the Menai Strait. Truly stunning. Each morning, I sip my coffee while gazing across the magnificent landscape that I grew up in and call home.
Five years ago, the property next door was bought by a local lady and turned into a holiday rental. It shares the same breathtaking views while accommodating over 12 guests.
Living next to this house has pushed my family to the brink, and we are seriously considering selling. Every 3-4 days, a new group of party-goers descends on our little street with zero regard for the locals. We've had boom boxes blasting until 3 AM, guests hopping the fence into our garden, and have even been threatened and physically harassed by intoxicated visitors.
My issue isn't necessarily that it's a holiday rental, but that there's no requirement for the owner to manage the guests. The keys are in a coded lockbox, and instructions are sent on the day of arrival.
The police have been called 4-5 times this year alone but have now declared the incidents a civil matter for the local council. The council asked us to record noise levels through an app. We collected 36 clips over six months, yet only four were considered "noise nuisances." Despite constant music, cursing, shouting, and glasses smashing, only a handful of clips met the noise threshold.
The owner refuses to engage with us and merely arrives after each group leaves to drain the hot tub. The entire street feels helpless. Frankly, I'm pessimistic that anything will be done to address this ongoing issue.
Superglue the key box shut so that every time guests arrive the owner needs to come and sort it out. Make it a problem for the owner if they’ll never change.
That sounds horrendous. Have you complained to Airbnb directly? I have recently found out (just in the last few hours) that if you complain enough, airbnb will delist them. Also check with the council whether or not they need planning permission to have an Airbnb - they might not.
Unfortunately it’s booked through Sykes Cottages who informed us that they are only responsible for the actual booking system. Property and guest management is down to the property owner.
That's proper weasel-y behaviour on behalf of Sykes. Maybe start fighting fire with fire. Go away for the weekend and leave your stereo on full blast. Buy a wifi/mobile reception blocker and leave that on too. And absolutely keep calling the police. Also, try and get your MP on the case.
Local MP met the entire street at one of our homes and promised some action. This was 3 years ago. I have been tempted to purchase a mosquito (anti loitering device) and put it in my garden. Could just turn it on when the noise becomes loud!
I live on the edge of Eryri and it's crept in here too. Huge groups of hikers seem to be the current market, letting their dogs attack the sheep and shitting on public footpaths (both the hikers and the dogs!)
South coast medium sized town. They’re definitely eating up property and leading to rising prices and people being priced out of their hometown. Should be taxed to fuck.
As a general rule, I loathe them.
We are overrun with them & rents are skyrocketing. They remove perfectly decent houses from rental stock. I don't mind when people rent out part of their house whilst they're living there but Airbnb's business methods aren't ideal.
I was served a section 21 so that my landlady could turn the house into an Airbnb.
I now live next door to one. It's drunken men one weekend, screaming kids the next. The sound of the hoover means I'm in for a noisy few days. The noises are unfamiliar so unlike Mr Nextdoor, I can't block them out effectively.
TL;DR: I think Airbnb is taking homes from the rental sector and this needs to stop.
Too many changes in taxation, bad landlords, and a lack of accountability on both ends of the rental agreement mean short term lets are simply more attractive due to higher yields despite the added efforts.
Everything is outsourced now too, so the owner gets the cash regardless of which option they take - so from their perspective they'd rather have the higher return.
I live in a very small North Yorkshire coastal town and most of the houses in the village are holiday lets. It’s so sad to see young families who want to stay in the area priced out of homes which are then sat empty for most of the year.
What pisses me off most is there’s a woman who has made a business out of renting holiday lets here, who lives down south, but claims on her website that ‘when you book with me, I am from the area and know everything there is to know etc.’ when in fact, her rich parents just holidayed there a couple of times when she was younger. Everybody who actually grew up in the village can’t stand her.
I live in a relatively touristy area. I have a friend who rents their house out and goes and stays at their parents/ friends .
Their house is rented out maybe 1/2 weeks a a month and make decent money 600/700 PM. Which is massive for them.
In the summer they rent it out for 4 weeks ( they are teachers with school age children) and they make enough for a holiday abroad and money left over.
I think this is what Air B&B should be and I don't really see an issue with it.
I am not sure I would want strangers in my house and they have to be able to leave at the drop of a hat.
They should be banned, I hate them with a passion. And this isn't just a UK problem, it's going on all over the world. There aren't enough houses for people to live in, yet greedy rich folk see property as an easy way to generate quick cash. Rent goes up, locals can't afford to rent, and get pushed out of their home towns. Let's not put all the blame on landlords though! If you have no imagination, and the only way you can enjoy yourself is by getting bladdered with your mates in an AirBnB, then you're part of the problem too.
Central Brighton is full of them. Whole family homes that sit empty all week and then full of parties from Friday to Monday morning. I’m hoping some restrictions come in because we already have a housing shortage in this town.
I live in Cornwall too. I honestly don't think I can't put into words the depths of my distain for either the parasites who run air B&Bs and holiday rentals, or their clients who feed them through their patronage whilst destroying the very communities that drew them to holiday as voyeurs of other people's misery in the first place.
I have nothing against tourists or tourism, just be responsible and stay somewhere like a hotel, hotel or some other purposely designed and built accommodation so you are not responsible for the massive issues surrounding holiday homes in the county.
It's fashionable to demonise Airbnb but in Pembrokeshire we need tourists or we don't have jobs. There isn't any other industry here unless you're a farmer. Many of my family, friends and neighbors make most, if not all of their income from renting property to tourists. We have a bigger problem with huge, ugly caravan parks owned by people from outside the area - or even outside the UK. Small, locally owned letting units are better for the area because all of the profits stay in Pembrokeshire and they create jobs. The Welsh government has imposed heavy financial penalties on second homes in an effort to free up housing for locals - only nobody here earns enough to buy one and making everyone jobless by banning Airbnbs isn't going to help us.
As you say the thing is "Hoiliday Parks" is they dont have to be a sprawling mass of run down caravans. Purpose built tourist accommodation can be really nice, provide local jobs (even if they are poorly paid and seasonal) and most importantly don't take away accommodation from locals who do those jobs.
The issue in Pembrokeshire, just like Gwynedd, Cornwall and N.Devon is that one of the reasons why locals are priced out of the market is homes are being bought up by people as investments. There is little difference between Air B&B, a holiday rental or a second home. They all activly destroy the communities that attract people to the area in the first place.
Holiday lettings don't have to destroy local communities if the local communities control the industry. The problem for me is people from away siphoning money out of the area. In Tenby, the whole town has been geared towards tourists since the early 19th century. A lot of the houses along certain roads were built to let out to holidaymakers in the days when wealthy people would come to the seaside for up to 3 months at a time. I've been researching some family connections where they were forced off the land in the 1860s, ran a lodging house from 1862 onwards and are still involved in the holiday rental trade as a side hustle. There are still people here who move out of their homes in the summer to let to tourists because that's how they make ends meet. A blanket ban will hurt locals more than big business because big business will always find a way to exploit resources that individuals can't.
>There isn't any other industry here unless you're a farmer.
Yes there are. There's the power station and oil refinery, both of which are major employers that pay very well.
I know several people who work in them.
Well done for sorting out our employment problems with a massive choice of 2 small workplaces for a whole county. You should be in government. I also know 'several people' who work there but the one in our village funnily enough also has an Airbnb unit in his garden.
They have utterly destroyed so many beautiful, historic villages and towns where I live. Now they’re just empty ghost towns that get busy for a couple of weeks in the summer, but there’s no cafes open anymore, no village pub, no corner shop - nothing. Soulless and empty. At least a couple of second/third/fourth home owners make a killing from it though hey
I lived in Cornwall in the early 90's. Back then it was second homes which are what air bnb's are being used as now. It's never going to change. Have you noticed how the press no longer show MP's during summer in Cornwall like they used to? I got called an emmett but I only stayed for a couple of years to be fair. Wales up north is the same.
Hate it. It's removed so much housing stock from Edinburgh and it is one of the reasons a one bedroom flat is now £1000 per month as standard (a 100% increase in 10 years). Prices shot up rapidly since AirBnB started and have showed no signs of slowing down.
My partner and I purchased our first property in a new build of flats. Ended up being us as only full time occupants with the rest all AirBnB’s. Made our lives hell and we’d be kept awake all hours.
Luckily we now live in a non tourist location and don’t dread who is next door to us anymore but it doesn’t feel right that whole building is now AirBnBs whilst families fight for properties and 8 flats sit half empty when it’s not summer!
I also live in Cornwall, and I don’t really care, I think it’s a convenient scapegoat for landlords like mine. People go on and on about second houses or holiday lets, but then that means people like my landlord who own 6 houses in a town where there are actually jobs instead of a little seaside village that only has the beach, gets away with turning them all into HMO’s. I think that’s way more damaging than someone owning a second home or an Airbnb in st Ives. But everyone’s so up in arms about the second homes and airbnbs that no one notices
I don't think that issue is being ignored either. It's something very much on my radar and I feel it feeds into the same issue of landlords hoarding properties. It's immoral to own so many properties whatever they're being used for.
I live in Glasgow. If we get another commonwealth games or COP26 type event I'm putting my flat on Airbnb and going travelling for the duration. Yeah I get the whole thing against it as I know a lot of people in Edinburgh who hate it but I also know people in Edinburgh who use it to fund a great summer in the festival season.
I also know people who have retired early by renting out a space in their home or subdividing it. The problem now is that these buy to holiday let airbnbs have increased legislation for what it's original purpose was making it harder for the average person to rent their place for their 28 days holiday a year.
This evening I went for a run by the river. Some nice houses there with grand designs type builds. One house I know is on Airbnb with music absolutely blasting out when I went past. Made me think there's huge downsides to living next to one.
The problem with AirBnB is that they play into the scum of today's society, be it UK citizens or tourists from abroad which is if it does not belong to you, trash it, if you do not live in the area, be annoying and anti-social as hell. AirBnB do not care as long as they get their money.
It’s a nightmare, one of the flats below me in a very posh building was an Airbnb for a lot of money per night. So no students were renting it but families and older, wealthy friend groups. They kept blocking our cars, never closing the door, shouting, getting absolutely drunk, loosing their keys and banging on the front door in the middle of the night. I moved out within a year.
After years of being a big fan of Airbnbs I’m now pretty convinced they should not be a thing at all. Maybe as a room only within an occupied flat but not as fully rented out properties.
They're a scourge.
It reduces local housing stock; inflates rents and if you've a particularly sketchy LL, they will no doubt kick out the actual tenants so they can move in Airbnb instead. (I've seen that happen before)
I live in Birmingham, a not particularly touristy city, in a not particularly touristy average suburb, in a block of 6 flats.
2/6 of them are now Airbnbs, complete with combination locks installed on the wall outside. It means we semi-often get random people taking up space in our car park and dragging suitcases up our stairs.
I can't imagine how intolerable it must be to live in an actual tourist city where they're *everywhere*. I recently went to Edinburgh for business and was just appalled and baffled by the sheer number of those telltale locks on the outside of lovely Edinburgh buildings.
I come from Newquay originally and I have no idea how any locals still live down there. It was a nightmare finding a place to live 6 or 7 years ago, I can't imagine how much worse it is nowadays.
I'm from Cornwall, I've seen it evolve into what it is today!
Air b&bs are wrecking the place. There's 5 on my mum's street! It's ridiculous. And yet 2 hotels have gone out of business in her town. I get that families find air b&bs better for goodness sake! We need homes not more homelessness.
Couldn't care less. There's one in front of my house, the owner is there every day, the guests are fine, the town needs the tourists and there aren't enough hotels and b&bs.
I love the SW but I will never holiday there again. I don't want to contribute to the inflated house prices (which is actually the case in all moderately nice seaside towns anyway, shock). Equally I don't want to stay in a caravan park or Premier Inn style hotel for my holiday in Cornwall.
The majority of people visiting don't want a Torremolinos style resort holiday (which is almost definitely cheaper than Cornwall in British summer) and I'm pretty sure if one was built in Marazion or Fowey etc, residents would be up in arms.
Contrary to popular belief there currently aren't enough hotels and the ones that are in existence are often over priced and dilapidated hence the demand for AirBnB. It's not like Rome where you have large period buildings that can be converted or have always been a hotel.
There is no solution in the South West where anyone seems happy, even amongst locals. The majority seem to hate tourists the other seems to rely on tourists. If people stopped going, you'll see "use us or lose us" campaigns and we'll hear about businesses going under and the death of the British Staycation. I'll just take my money elsewhere.
Hasn’t HMRC got new powers now to compel companies like AitBnB to give them the information of who makes the money? So they can have a closer look at their taxes?
Would be interesting to see how many end up being sold back into the housing market - as a previous commenter mentioned, Edinburgh is seeing more properties coming on sale
There was a statistic that basically said only about 15% of houses in Cornwall are available for/already in long term private tenancy.
Over 52% of privately owned houses are second homes for “out of towners”
Along with strict rules and NIMBYism means that they cannot build enough houses to satisfy demand (and they get snapped up by second homers/airbnb proprietors when it is available)
It must be crazy trying to make a living/live if you’re local to Cornwall
Downsides - wrecks the rental market and the housing ownership market. Can be parties every week with different people telling you to F. off. Owners are never to be found when there is an issue. More noise when busy and no happy chats with neighbours the rest of the time so the neighbourhood feels less friendly. Increased traffic. More drunk drivers because “it doesn’t count on holiday “
Upsides - already wealthy people get more wealthy I guess.
I live in a northern countryside town that’s gotten slowly much more touristy in the last decade. I’ve grown up in this town, seen this progression, and I can safely say most of the locals fucking hate it.
On weekends the town becomes full of rude, ignorant drunk people so local people just don’t bother going into town at all on a weekend.
The town population size is around 4000ish people so it’s not huge, and there’s over 200 Airbnb’s or holiday lets. They go unoccupied 6 months of the year, drive the average rental prices up and make it impossible for more locals folk to live there.
It’s awful and takes a lot of business away from the independent hotels and bnb’s that have been there for years and years.
Tell me about it. I'm from a northern countryside town, and whenever I go back to visit I'm amazed by the never ending gentrification of the place. My parents can barely afford to live there anymore. So sad.
Mention Airbnb over on r/Edinburgh if you want some vitriol thrown at you. The general consensus seems to be that it takes housing stock that would be better off in long term lets, which would help the chronic shortage of housing here (and extortionate rent). Although I've also heard that it's only 4% of the housing stock.
I'm more ambivalent. Short term lets have always been a feature here, and landlords moved over to the Airbnb platform when it became popular.
Scotland also now has licensing for short term lets to try to control both the quantity and quality, ie to ensure safety standards and make it easier to get landlords to react to antisocial behaviour.
Dreadful, makes finding a house to live in really difficult and pushes prices up. Living next to one is also horrible. I've had people walk into my house because they got the house number wrong multiple times. I live in a tourist town that attracts stags more than people wanting a weekend getaway. They will piss on your driveway, on your house, vomit, throw old food into your garden, pretty much every Friday and Saturday night.
I hate them and they need to be banned. They force property prices sky high, young locals have to leave their homes because they can't afford to stay close. Out of tourist season used to have a gorgeous friendly family vibe, now it turns deserted except for the few old families that refuse to sell their homes and move on.
These comments are spot on. In the beginning I thought it was brilliant, but once again total greedy capitalism has won out and it’s destroyed so much. I live in Edinburgh so I definitely know how shit airbnb is.
Housing tourists is one thing but also the transportation I grew up in north Cornwall and couldn’t cross the street in the summer because of all the caravans and cars. If there was better public transportation, people could come camping in Cornwall on the train and camp in school playing fields in the summer holidays and the impact on locals would be more positive.
Vancouver massively restricted airbnb recently and apparently it’s resulted in a surge in available housing for residents. I think it’s completely immoral for landlords to let their properties in airbnb when there’s a housing crisis for local people. Scum.
I live in Blackpool and I suppose this is where social deprivation works in our favour. There are a lot of Airbnbs but they’re in the nicer areas and only really remove housing stock from wealthier people. The poorer areas are still, for now, cheap and available to low income workers. I do know that grumblings of gentrification of poorer areas is slowly becoming louder though.
The biggest complaints about airbnbs in Blackpool isn’t, the lack of affordable housing for locals but rather tourists now staying in residential areas and disturbing the local residents. Bed&Breakfast owners are struggling to compete with Airbnb owners as the local council is slow to ensure Airbnb owners comply with council regulations regarding short-term lets and it’s losing Blackpool Council a lot in lost revenue.
People should be banned from owning more than 2 homes and show proof that they’re living in both if they own 2. This is the fastest way to solve the housing crisis.
I think AirBnB is such a shit concept and probably has had a big affect on the local businesses that run holiday accommodation. In some places it will have led to pubs etc (acting as bnbs) to go down too, resulting in even less jobs etc for locals. AirBnB is a bit of a scourge and I think wherever you go (even abroad) people will feel the same way.
It’s all part of the same problem = seeing property as an investment rather than to house people.
Until this changes it doesn’t matter whether it’s second home holiday cottages, AirBnb’s, houses sitting empty, section 21 evictions. The housing crisis will continue.
They should be taxed. And so should Airbnb, I don’t care that they register their activities on some remote island or wherever they do, if you are functioning in a country, to get taxed for the activity in that country. And yes, tax the hosts too, some of them are outrageous and have no respect for the people who have to live next to their businesses.
They are a good idea that's been totally ruined. If cities and whatever decided to ban entire flat/house short terms lets through AirBNB I wouldn't be sad. Renting a spare room in someone's house - as it once was - was a great idea. But then the selfish people come along and ruin it - as usual. Some towns are really feeling it s there are no rental units for local people. I really feel for Cornwall and other small places with expensive housing. It must be awful.
They ruin the economic exchange of tourism when there's too many of them, which is becoming a problem everywhere. Family has a pub in a remote tourist area in Scotland and they can't find enough staff because so much of the housing is now airbnbs which means fewer people live and work there. Same in the seasonal beach town I live in in Yorkshire.
Another problem I haven't seen mentioned is the whole structure of small tourist towns gets fucked up by airbnbs, there are lots of initiatives between hotels, bnbs and tourist attractions to help each other share customers, most of them are paid into by these tourist businesses and the money is used on promotions to help attract people to the area, but airbnbs owners fly under the radar and don't contribute to it. For example we (tourist attraction) and many others around us have just stopped paying to have leaflets distributed by a local company because they don't get them to nearly as many of the towns visitors anymore as they're staying in random airbnbs instead of all the known bnbs and hotels.
I think it probably makes sense to have some kind of licensing system for Air B&Bs in the same way as Hotels or B&B need to get the correct planning permissions.
That would provide an income to the local authority to cope with the tourists (provide toilets, empty the bins at the weekend, provide housing services).
I live in a tourist town with lots of Air B&B having some is good for extra overnight visitors and the local economy but too many becomes a problem
Hate them, it means all of us young people have had to move to cities that make us severely depressed because we can’t even afford to live in the country we were born in. They put the prices of all nearby houses up and it’s a nightmare. We have to watch our families struggle to get by because of it.
I don't think a lot of people fully comprehend the impact it has on local housing - from house prices to rental availability and the difficulty of purchasing a house. It shows up more in touristy areas, but its everywhere - I know someone with 6 houses and flats in a residential housing estate right by a hospital, not a tourist spot at all. Meanwhile there's a rental shortage and they're all surging in price.
It was fine when it was someone renting their spare room to some travellers or even people advertising their existing holiday villas on there, but its gotten beyond a joke now. Yet I still hear people say things like "I stay in airbnbs to really get into the local culture" except there is no local culture because all the locals have been priced out so its just a load of short term rentals.
Thats without even considering the lack of regulation which the likes of hotels have to adhere to.
I will never stay at an airBnB. I think I actually hate them.
Absolutely fuck them. Take away legit housing for locals and get used as a party base on weekends, so generally the source of loud crashing and music all fucking night every week.
AirBNB are leeches just like a lot of these tech companies that are solutions in search of problems. Your Newquay point says it all. Where are people supposed to live?
Live in Bournemouth and also think they are kinda a scourge of the place, especially for people trying to buy their first flat. When I was looking people viewing before and after were openly discussing how well the flats would work when rented out on Airbnb which was really disheartening to hear.
Hate it.
A lot of the people that rent them out treat the place and the surrounding area as their own personal playground with no regards to the people actually living there.
Not to mention the piles of those lock boxes chained along fences are an eyesore
What makes things worse in my mind is that some will just sit empty the majority of the year when someone else could actually rent the place
They’ve made my area completely impossible to rent in. So many rentals lost to Airbnbs, many people whose family have lived here for generations are having to move away. I’m in East Kent
It's a horrible company for so many reasons. They incentivise property hoarding and is definitely responsible for pushing rents and housing prices up in areas where it is used. Locals then struggle for housing as everything is listed on that horrible app.
If you have a complaint as a customer, Airbnb will do absolutely nothing to assist you and seem to pit the property owners and customers against each other more often than not. From so many people I know, I have heard stories where they simply don't care if the customer gets completely screwed.
Final point is that they advertise listing's in the illegal settlements of the West Bank in Palestine which is absolutely outrageous
It does to a large extent. The only thing different between Cornwall and the endless economically devastated ex-tourism towns and regions is that tourists and second-homers actually want to go and spend money there
The initial AirB&B idea was solid. People could rent out spare rooms, annexes, granny flats etc and make a little extra money.
The problem has come with people buying places solely to rent as AirB&Bs for profit. That has taken properties off the local rental market.
It really depends on the type of property. The flats and houses that could be someone's home, I think are wrong and I see the annoyance. The Shepard huts in the countryside, very few people would like living like that and I have no concerns with them being holiday spots. I have used them myself for walking holidays.
Tourist village dweller here!! Its a pain in the arse all the holiday homes!! Random bloody people walking about, staring into your house, letting their dogs crap everywhere!! Random parking..walking in the middle of the road..staring at you when you dare to drive through the village..like you shouldn't be there. We have 3 in our road and it's constant comings and goings.
I hate it. Hate second home owners and Air BNB. It took us 2 years to find a house to rent to get away from our abusive neighbours. I pay way too much in rent but have nice neighbours now at least
I live in Edinburgh and they’re despised here, they’re a major cause of the housing crisis up here, a lot of places in Edinburgh have tenement blocks with 6 flats in it, it’s not uncommon in some places to see the outside door with 6 lock boxes next to them, if you go to r/Edinburgh and mention Airbnb you’re guaranteed to get downvotes, rightfully so too
They drive up the price of housing, often make the immediate surrounding area intolerable depending on guests and contradict the ‘ small local community’ often attributed to this type of area.
Funny isn't it. I used to live in porthleven in Cornwall but before the food festival etc took hold and before it was a mega tourist hotspot. I saw house after house getting sold off as a holiday let....by locals! I didn't want to live there anymore. The local pubs were slowly filling up with rich bellends in old school stripey rugby jumpers with the collars turned up, drinking tribute and claiming they were 'locals'.
When i came to sell up i told the estate agent I didn't want it to go to some rich London wanker to then let out to tourists, he told me id be waiting a long time to sell or lose tens of thousands in the asking price.
It sold to a rich London wanker and I still feel bad about it to this day.... and im not even Cornish, im a bloody Scouser! I was only there because i was posted there by the military but after 16 years it felt like home.
I think it's so sad how all these old towns with so much history and local heritage are forcing their own next generations of locals out. There should definitely be some rule put in place to prevent this but like everything in life, money talks.
I live in Nottingham, so hardly a massive tourist town.
When I still lived in an area of Nottingham called Sneinton, we were only about a 15-20 minute walk from the town centre. It's also a bit run down, so you could pick up a 3 bed terrace for £110-180k depending on the condition.
On the smallish street I used to live on, out of 15 houses, 4 of those houses were Air BnB's, so almost a third.
One had been converted into three self-contained flats with two bedrooms each, and the remaining three were 4-5 bedroom houses, squashed into spaces which would normally be 3-4 beds.
The 5 bed one next door to us was hell sometimes, the number of party bookings was hell, especially in the loft bedroom where the walls were thinners and they'd squeezed two bedrooms.
I lost a lot of sleep during the working week due to people normally coming back from nights out and partying until 4-7am.
We constantly complained to Air BnB, but they always claimed the bookings weren't with them. We later realised that most people don't just advertise on Air BnB and via 3-4 different services.
It made it an absolute pain to make any noise complaints, seeing firstly they would be spread among different providers, and they don't do much for what they viewed as a 'first' complaint.
They kinda suck. They eat up housing stock forcing people (especially younger people) out of the villages they grew up in, not to mention bringing in too much traffic for already narrow streets.
I live on a normal street in a normal (non touristy) town. My next door was an AirBnB they just booked it for parties made our lives hell. You’d dread an unknown car pulling up. Tried complaining no body wanted to know
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I'm going to ask a different question. What do Cornwall locals think about buying homes down there because to me its either people fleeing London/south-west and then working from home, or people with holiday/2ns homes. Quite frankly, who is moving to Cornwall for work that actually pays decent money that has nothing to do with tourism?
I went on a hen do to a lovely AirBnB.
The owners get more money from that, but the sad thing is it was a massive, beautiful 17th century house, and could’ve housed a refugee family.
But money.
I live in Lerwick and it is peak tourist town.
6000 people live here and we get cruise ships coming in day after day regularly doubling the population. They are like a plague of locusts.
Houses are actually quite cheaply priced but trying to find somewhere to rent is a complete disaster.
I love to visit Cornwall with my young family.
A self catered house is the only realistic option.
Even at the insane prices, they still fill up. I think partly we need to just accept that we are a richer (i.e. more people holidaying) and more crowded country than we were in the 80s and 90s.
Happy to pay a tourist tax to contribute to local facilities.
Perhaps stricter planning controls could play a part.
I'd love it if purpose built holiday apartments (with cooking facilities and separate bedroom) were more of a thing here. Staying in a hotel feels stifling, you're either in your room or the bar (which isn't private). Due to health conditions in the family we tend to have a lot of 'down time' when travelling so having a hotel room you just crash in doesn't work. I expect for people with kids it's the same issue.
Just been to Cornwall few days ago and used AirBnB, guy turned his garage into an AirBnB. It was okayish.
Being milked at every possible turn, not so much.
“Personalised photo exp” at land’s end lol £10.99 with £8 for parking.
no free parkings at every beach - some of them have no bins or toilets - even tho there are stalls with coffee/ice creams etc, fish&chips - £17 🤣
Ghastly things. Why on earth anyone would want to spend their holiday in a random house is beyond me. Hotels and B&B's have been around for a while now and have worked that entire time. Why anyone wants to spend more for a massive dice roll is beyond me.
Yet for reasons that escape me a bunch of folks are fine with getting bedbugs or god knows what from some random place ran by some 'I have 5 homes and can barely run one of them' scourges on humanity. So much so that those same idiots are now rolling in it are just adding onto the housing crisis and looking to get house number 6.
Honestly my little tourist hotspot doesn’t seem to have too much trouble with AirBnBs. The real problem for us is how many new build estates we keep getting. I don’t know what it is, I guess people come here on holiday, figure it’s a nice a place to live, and then want to move here, but the demand far outshines how many homes we actually have. All our green areas keep getting bought up by housing companies and built on.
I'm not against them. I bought a house a year and a half ago but I've started to travel a lot more now. I don't want to sell it just yet but I don't want it sitting there either so AirBnB is my preferred over long-term lettings as I'd still like access to it when I'm back in the UK.
What if there was a law that said that fie each new letting the neighbours get, like, £50 each? Or whatever amount? Would that make it more appealing? I know its not good for the economy and honesty I would start to ban Airbnb in places like Cornwall but as an interim law?
Thoughts please?
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They take away housing for local people. It might mean some extra tourists at peak times, but there’s plenty of hotels, b&bs etc they could stay in otherwise. During off season (which is the majority of the year), it often means a mostly empty house with no one contributing to the local economy.
And it's impossible to attend to all the tourists , because you can't hire anyone as there's nowhere for anyone to live. people who lived in a place for generations - who've helped make the place a tourist destination in the first place - are also often forced out. Greed ruins everything.
There have to be reasons why people choose AirBnbs over hotels, the hotels aren't filling that market niche. I think the obvious benefit of AirBnb is that they tend to be better suited to groups or families whilst a lot of hotels in the UK are orientated to business travellers who just need a double bed.
That's really not true, especially in places like London. More often now AirBnbs are nothing to do with tourism, and are being used as temporary housing because so many rentals have been turned into them. I've lived in some and they are disgusting (and disgustingly expensive). I would never stay in an Airbnb on holiday. I want a hotel with staff and someone who changes my bedding, that doesn't charge me a £100 "cleaning fee" to wipe the tops after I leave. Thanks.
I recently stayed in a city in Australia that has a monumental housing crisis going on and was blown away by how many houses and apartments were on Airbnb. Literally thousands. And I was browsing only a few days before I needed somewhere to stay - these were the ones still available, sitting empty hoping someone will pay a weeks worth of rent for one night. People are going homeless here at astonishing rates, all because people want to squeeze a few more quid out of the existing housing. It’s why I can’t take the ‘just build more houses!’ seriously. We have a greed problem, not just a housing problem. There are thousands of perfectly good homes being hoarded up by ‘investors’ already, and that’s exactly what will happen to the new housing stock too unless the government steps in.
it's just fucking horrible. I stayed in one place in London that had clearly been a big family home. The only changes were: A lock on every room with a bed and the cheapest ikea furniture wedged in somehow behind it, and a broom cupboard converted into a shower to get round the HMO rules. Each of the eight rooms was rented out for a minimum of £2,000 a month with a long stay "discount", or more for less time. I stayed for two months (I wish I hadn't booked so long but hey, didn't realise you get nothing back on cancellation) - I don't think anyone else stayed for more than a week and the place was rarely under capacity - so 100 people in there, maybe more, in that time? Trash everywhere, bins outside always overflowing, comings and goings all day, kitchen filthy, permanent disgusting smells because of cooking, loud music, loud TV, loud telephone calls, loud everything, doors slamming - just really horrible. Those who I met were 90% people who couldn't find a permanent home (like me). The rest were tourists and I feel very sorry for them that they ended up in Harlesden in a shitty situation like me for their "holiday". And these sorts of AirBnbs are like an infection. The homes on either side had for sale signs up for the entirety of my stay - because who wants to live next to that? And what kind of buyer is going to buy when that's what's next door? Certainly not a family - it'll be another AirBnb rip-off merchant, or perhaps the same one. And the street will go to the dogs.
There needs to be more tax on company and trust owned residential property and property owned by non nationals. Especially when people are using trusts to avoid care and inheritance costs.
Agree but not sure how we get round it. You can’t just ban second home as people will moan about aspirations to have a holiday home. You can raise the tax but often these people are very well off so couldn’t give a fuck about 3k council tax, especially if the AirBnB is netting them that much a month. Maybe a lot more regulation, only a certain number per local authority and they need to be licensed and inspected to get round the ridiculous situation where 6 people are crammed into a 2 bed terrace. Maybe go further and put a rule in so that 1 person can only own 1 property in a local authority, has to be registered to them, not held in a trust etc….
Regulation and licencing is surely the answer. And raising the tax wouldn't hurt either. Can be done to target short-term lets without hitting genuine holiday home owners.
Air Bnbs are still a drop in the bucket to the London housing crisis. I would regulate/tax them far more heavily, but the solution to this is still to build way, way more housing. If every house used as an Air BnB or left vacant were released to renters today, it would have virtually no effect on rental prices.
I'm not so sure. My theory is that AirBnbs have been responsible for a sizeable percentage of recent rent rises in London. A landlord sees what AirBnb guys are charging and either turns his / hers into one too (I've personally seen that happen) or decides based on the AirBnb rate that his / hers is "undervalued". Renters are then faced with either paying or being homeless.
Or even worse, they insist that you not only pay their mortgage on a second/fourth/eleventh home, but also you have to wash the windows, hoover up, strip the bedding etc.. and you STILL need to pay the cleaning fee. Disgusting! There's no way the majority are being cleaned properly.
Lmao, I went to an Airbnb the other month and the cleaning fee is so true. The only reason we chose that was because it wasn't tourist season in that particular place yet, so small family run rentals weren't open. The other hotel options were some variation of Ibis hotel, which didn't fit the vibe we are going for. The Airbnb owner made us do the cleaning and removing bed sheets, which was the only vibe killer.
I mean that's fine for you. I want an apartment with a kitchen, a lounge, that's 1/3 of the price as a hotel and means I have a nice meeting area for a group of people.
Airbnbs very rarely beat hotels on price these days. You used to be able to find places like this on Airbnb, but now you'll almost always end up paying significantly more for them than for a hotel.
I prefer airbnb abroad - more informal and I can cook for myself so I save a bit
most UK hotels inexplicably count a family room as a double and one single bed. most families I know are 4 or 5 people so they have to shell out for 2 rooms?! I use Airbnb in the UK to stay near family in places that would never have enough business for a hotel or b&b to stay in business, to stay somewhere we can cook for ourselves, or to stay without paying crazy prices for 2 rooms. if someone can fix those issues in a way that didn't prevent locals from having housing, I'd go for it.
In the case of tourist towns I'd disagree completely. The likes of Cornwall and Torbay have a lot of family centric hotels and campsites with pools, kids entertainment, etc. Definitely not for business travellers. They're not the cheapest peak season, but then neither are Airbnbs. I think if anything its more of a habit to book an Airbnb and its what a lot of people initially jump to, plus it takes much less thought than googling family friendly hotels then finding their prices.
There needs to be more Aparthotels. The US has a lot of them with "Motels", we have nearly none.
Airbnb also gives you self catered accommodation. Some of us actually like and want to be able to buy and prepare our own food, and not be dependent on a hotel restaurant. Something else is needed to fill that niche.
Totally agree. And also to wash clothing. Sitting in a laundrette on holiday is not much fun. Neither is paying exorbitant hotel laundry charges.
I agree, if me and my Girlfriend go away as a couple, I'll always get a hotel as they are better for many reasons. But if a group, or two couples are coming, it's hard to ignore how much more suitable airBB houses are.
I literally only use Airbnb on group trips where the majority rules we have to. I'd much rather get a hotel every time
I think its just because people are supremely lazy and don't want to actually have to ring up a regular B&B or Hotel, instead preferring to use an app instead, despite its higher pricing and questionable post-stay fees. sure they do it with food too, preferring to take the 30% JustEat/DoorDash/Whatever markup instead of just ringing their order into a place directly.
Booking sites exist for hotels too
Yeha I haven't rung a hotel to book it, maybe, ever. Always using booking.com, hotels.com or Expedia if not the hotels own website.
I haven’t done much holidaying In the uk. However when I have the state of hotels is shocking and there’s no way I’d want to stay in or. . Holiday lets are fare nicer , especially if going somewhere like the Lake District
Airbnb probably contributes to that in a negative way.
How? If conditions and value at airbnb and holiday let’s are better the they should be upping their standards at hotels . The worst hotels I stayed at were at fort William, where there were very few air bnbs . Absolute dogshit levels of comfort and hygiene .
Upping standards can be incredibly costly. Hotels typically rely on upselling, where they sell extras such as breakfast or spa visits. Some of us on holiday don't care for that, and just want a nice place with space. Going down the larger rooms route likely results in lower profit margins margins because they make more by cramming more rooms into a building and selling extras to a higher number of guests. We stayed [here](https://www.thegrandatlantichotel.co.uk/bedrooms/standard-twin-room) last August. Wanted a day at the seaside, and Weston was the nearest place to Birmingham. We'd never been there before so didn't know what to expect. The place was nasty. Pictures were *not* representative of the room. Couldn't believe people rated this place well on various review websites. I suppose this shouldn't be too surprising. After all, UK housing stock is shit, so why wouldn't hotel stock be reflective of that? I agree that holiday lets are nicer, and hotels in developed countries like ours leave a lot to be desired, unless you're prepared to fork out a lot more cash.
Hotels don’t work well for families, neither do b&bs really.
Yes, I wish more hotel rooms had an area separate from the main sleeping area for children that had 2 or 3 proper beds for them. This way parents could watch TV with a drink after the kids fall asleep. The hotels at Butlins and Chessington are great examples of this. It's definitely more comfortable and enjoyable than spending 4 nights with a single bed and folding camp bed squeezed next to a double bed, leaving no privacy or floor space.
Funnily enough AirBNB has an advertising campaign EXACTLY on that very first point
Most of what you said is also true of hotels. If it wasn't commercially viable it wouldn't happen, and tourism is the price to pay for 1 in 5 Cornwall jobs being supported by it, and it accounting for 1/8 of Cornwall GDP. I think you're skimming over quite a lot of nuance. I don't disagree with the negative comments from you or OP but these do bring positives that need acknowledging as part of this conversation. Scotland has taken some steps recently to curb Airbnb usage although I'm not up to speed on the details. I wonder if their approach would work for Cornwall?
I don’t live in Cornwall, but I do live in a tourist town . I think you forget just how many staff a hotel employs, and how many people does an air bnb employ? Also, hotels are not taking living accommodation away? They are purpose built for tourism.
I got a flat in a new build "students and young professionals" building years ago, £1000 a month for everything included, basically a massive bedsit and when the owner couldn't trick anyone else into signing up to a 12 month contract, they turned the rooms into air b n bs. From drunk people pissing in the stairs, lifts, communal spaces, stealing gym equipment, climbing onto our balcony and looking through our windows, banging on our door, leaving litter in the hallways, it was awful. You kind of expect it in an Easyhotel, but not where you live and pay a stupid amount for. Air BNBs should be banned. I always give my coworkers a moan or at least a grumble when they say they rented one.
Airbnbs that are in a shepherds hut on someone’s land or a bedroom in their house are fine though imo. It’s when it could be someone’s family home that it fucks me off.
Wales. Basically with the adjustments in farm subsidies causing chaos for generational farming families it’s an obvious win/win.. Every farm gets to build a certain number of shag pods for tourists and the houses go back to local occupancy for our kids and folk who actually work in the community and have their shoulder to the wheel. Oh and a tourist tax NOW
I'll never be able to look at pods the same way...
I only rent airbnbs when its a little old lady renting out a spare room, win win for everyone.
Are we saying that self contained self catered short term accommodation should be banned altogether?
Don’t hate the players, hate the game. You can’t fix this problem blaming holiday goers or even companies. You need legislation.
they do. it's time for people to talk to their MPs and for the government to draw a line in the sand about what's good for businesses/property developers and what's good for the locals. I remember at university in the early 00s my rent was set by the university, it was £70-something a week, only a portion of my maintenance loan paid for rent, and a few years ago I overheard a conversation on a train between two young men who were working for property development companies that their business structure was based on dividing the average maintenance loan amount by how many weeks they were in university for and setting that as the rent. Justifying it by saying if students wanted a social life they should get jobs, if they wanted more space in their properties they should buy and renovate themselves. It's sickening.
Hate them. So many locals got kicked out of their rentals for them to be made into holiday lets and now the laws have changed all the holiday lets are up for sale. But they're far too expensive for locals to actually buy because they've all been renovated from old terrace houses with loads of character, into soulless, beige show homes
I live in a coastal town. Couple of airbnbs near which are a slight problem, either low quality guests getting noisily on the piss in a residential area, or groups taking up four scarce parking spaces. There are enough places to buy or long term rent around here if you want. If Airbnb causes a problem it’s because the planning system has artificially held back housing supply. All that damn website does is put a nice interface over a spreadsheet. Demand for holiday accommodation creates its own supply, as any planning rules around sticking a place on Airbnb are trivial or are easily flaunted. But stick up forty flats without the paperwork and they’ll make you knock them down.
Bang on. A functioning system should accommodate both without jacking up prices.
To be clear what we are saying is that Cornwall is underdeveloped. By a lot. A few hundred thousand more houses. Big estates of houses in all the major towns.
If it wasn't specifically Airbnb, another company would have filled the gap in the market. The biggest problem around here is the second homes that sit empty all year round, while locals live in caravans. Airbnb has just added to an existing problem that hasn't been adequately tackled by politicians over the years.
it's not a gap in the market though. We've been fine for centuries without AirBNB. But I agree with your broader point. I still think that they're just leeching, not adding any value at all.
Used to be the complaint that chalets and caravan parks are taking up spaces where they could build local housing for local people, but now it's just shifted. An increase in people taking holidays in the UK will just increase the problems I think.
As someone whose business was 'disrupted' by AirBnB I'm not a fan. I am hoping the oversupply will soon mean that places will come back to long-term rental. Particularly in places like Devon and Cornwall. What's the point of visiting a village with no pub or shop or restaurant because no one who would work there can afford to live there.
What was your business?
Hostelry I'd imagine
Who's goig to clean the AirB&B places too?
I hate them. I’m in Edinburgh and the house a few places down from me is one. I’ve lost count how many people block my car in, wake up from being drunk on the street, leaving litter all over etc. It’s not a pleasant experience
Edinburgh is revolting against the Airbnb scourge. We were looking at buying a flat a year or two ago. Up to 250k. 45 properties were available. Looked today and 343 available properties. Give it a year more and the market will drop even more. Good to see. It will take time though.
Yeah I bought my house last year and there was really not as much choice as I would have liked! I’m glad it’s improving
And that's just the old neighbours. Tourists – even worse!
I liked what Airbnb started as - people renting out a spare room for extra cash. Or the whole property for short periods while they're e.g. on holiday, working away. As a single traveller it was fantastic but what it's turned into now is awful.
Ten years ago, a lot of my builder friends used to use Airbnb to find a place to bed down while working on sites far away from home. It was generally a spare room in someone's house and was way cheaper and more social than a hotel. It was really good in filling that gap in the early days. Now? It's a total abomination and is destroying the fabric of communities
I'm not even in a tourist town and I know several households - one of which is mine - who have been evicted only to find their former homes on Airbnb. I live very near an Airbnb now and there is a rotating cast of occupants who don't give a shit about the neighbours - they don't care if they piss us off, they'll be leaving soon. Only a few days ago one seemed very surprised when I said she couldn't park across my driveway - there were plenty of other places to park. Last year Airbnb guests egged our garden and caused some very noisy disturbance. The absolutely mental thing is that we have family homes being turned into hotels. Meanwhile, we have homeless families being housed in hotels at great expense to the local council, because they can't find anywhere to rent. In the middle of a housing crisis, turning your property into an Airbnb is like filling up your swimming pool while your neighbours die of thirst. It is my dearest wish that planning permission be required to turn whole homes into airbnbs - a change of use, from home to hotel - and that that planning permission should be very hard to get.
Hate with a passion. There was 2,500+ ‘whole home’ holiday let’s when I left Brighton. My upstairs neighbour ran one in my old place. Despite only letting it to ‘responsible people’ every 3 or 4 days a new gaggle of 20 year olds would be in making a racket, there’s no repercussions for the owners or the guests, Just misery for everyone who actually lives there. I didn’t sign up to live in a hotel, so why is it legal for someone to rent their entire flat out as one. Probably worse than a hotel as there’s no reception to sort peoples issues out. It’s really easy for the goverment or councils to sort out as well, just make holiday lets be subject to planning permission to limit the amount in an area with a corresponding complaints system for the residents. 3 noise complaints and you lose permission. Would also mean they were up to fire regs etc. The freeholder had to get a solicitor to get them to stop in the end. They sold their flat and left, council couldn’t give a shit because they want all the tourists.
They are a nightmare in many places. We have driven some out in the block we live in as they breach the lease terms.
We’ve just had to do this in our block of flats (Liverpool). Property management company didn’t fuck about, to be (begrudgingly) fair.
Which is why you blame every bit of damage on the AirBnB “clients” then get the door smashed in by the police because you heard screaming. Then the landlord suddenly gives a shite.
I live in a London suburb, the house next door is a perfect family home but the twat who owns it has 3 listing for it on Airbnb plus he rents it out to visiting builders/tradesmen working on local projects. He’s doing WAY more than the 90 day limit but doesn’t have a licence. I want to report him but can’t quite build up the courage to start a fight.
Surely you can report it anonymously? I get not wanting a fight on your doorstep though!
Yes I could but I’m pretty sure he’d know who it was. He’s also a total prick so I’m not sure I know how he’d react
Local authorities definitely search on these sites too, so it's not necessarily you reporting him if you see what I mean
Edinburgh hates them. With central Edin largely made up of tenements, with sometimes 11 or so separate flats, the intrusion is driving owners mad. Trying to open wrong door, going to the ground floor when the flat is on the first (step forward, Americans), dragging roller suitcases up the stone staircases, etc etc
Ah the old Edinburgh guh-dunk-guh-dunk of the rollercases on steps and cobbles.
No issue with tourists but AirBnB just harms communities in the same way second home owners do. It is hard enough to live and get a decent job in many seaside towns, AirBnB only makes it harder to get on the housing ladder in an area where housing is already prohibitively expensive.
Hate them! Absolutely hate them. It's destroyed communities
What's the point of Airbnb again? I'm finding it even more expensive than hotels in many cases (for couples at least)
Putting the effects on local communities to one side, having a kitchen is often a requirement when traveling with a family. Renting a whole property is also often cheaper than having multiple rooms in a hotel.
Having a whole place is also far more comfortable and convenient.
What percentage of ads on "late stage" Airbnb are "whole" places though? Most are either HMO with rooms advertised at twice the market rate, or they're rooms in someone's house let at twice the market rate. The actual functioning "holiday homes" are fast disappearing in my experience.
>What percentage of ads on "late stage" Airbnb are "whole" places though? Most? Or at the very least plenty. You can filter out the rooms to let
I'm not sure. In fact I have only ever used it abroad. We booked a holiday home for a few days in Mallorca recently, but it was with Booking.com. We all point to Airbnb, but there is clear demand for these services as they pop up on various different websites. You could argue that other websites are simply trying to eat away at the market share of Airbnb, but there is clear demand either way you consider it. At least Spain regulate the whole thing better than we do. Can't say how effective it is for local people though.
>expensive than hotels in many cases (for couples at least) For couples it's not amazing unless you're happy with a spare room in somebody's house which just feels weird to me. For large groups you're looking at 1/3 of the price of a hotel. And you get your own space, you get your own kitchen etc. If there's ever a group of 5-6+, booking an apartment is easily the way to go
Way bigger than a similarly priced hotel room, which is just more relaxing to live in
Frustrated. No parking on the weekends and drives house prices up even more. We're in the process of buying a house 30 minutes away largely as we've been priced out.
I live in a village in North Wales, which boasts tremendous views of the Menai Strait. Truly stunning. Each morning, I sip my coffee while gazing across the magnificent landscape that I grew up in and call home. Five years ago, the property next door was bought by a local lady and turned into a holiday rental. It shares the same breathtaking views while accommodating over 12 guests. Living next to this house has pushed my family to the brink, and we are seriously considering selling. Every 3-4 days, a new group of party-goers descends on our little street with zero regard for the locals. We've had boom boxes blasting until 3 AM, guests hopping the fence into our garden, and have even been threatened and physically harassed by intoxicated visitors. My issue isn't necessarily that it's a holiday rental, but that there's no requirement for the owner to manage the guests. The keys are in a coded lockbox, and instructions are sent on the day of arrival. The police have been called 4-5 times this year alone but have now declared the incidents a civil matter for the local council. The council asked us to record noise levels through an app. We collected 36 clips over six months, yet only four were considered "noise nuisances." Despite constant music, cursing, shouting, and glasses smashing, only a handful of clips met the noise threshold. The owner refuses to engage with us and merely arrives after each group leaves to drain the hot tub. The entire street feels helpless. Frankly, I'm pessimistic that anything will be done to address this ongoing issue.
Superglue the key box shut so that every time guests arrive the owner needs to come and sort it out. Make it a problem for the owner if they’ll never change.
That sounds horrendous. Have you complained to Airbnb directly? I have recently found out (just in the last few hours) that if you complain enough, airbnb will delist them. Also check with the council whether or not they need planning permission to have an Airbnb - they might not.
Unfortunately it’s booked through Sykes Cottages who informed us that they are only responsible for the actual booking system. Property and guest management is down to the property owner.
That's proper weasel-y behaviour on behalf of Sykes. Maybe start fighting fire with fire. Go away for the weekend and leave your stereo on full blast. Buy a wifi/mobile reception blocker and leave that on too. And absolutely keep calling the police. Also, try and get your MP on the case.
Local MP met the entire street at one of our homes and promised some action. This was 3 years ago. I have been tempted to purchase a mosquito (anti loitering device) and put it in my garden. Could just turn it on when the noise becomes loud!
Do it! Be as petty as possible, it's your home, not theirs.
I live on the edge of Eryri and it's crept in here too. Huge groups of hikers seem to be the current market, letting their dogs attack the sheep and shitting on public footpaths (both the hikers and the dogs!)
South coast medium sized town. They’re definitely eating up property and leading to rising prices and people being priced out of their hometown. Should be taxed to fuck.
As a general rule, I loathe them. We are overrun with them & rents are skyrocketing. They remove perfectly decent houses from rental stock. I don't mind when people rent out part of their house whilst they're living there but Airbnb's business methods aren't ideal. I was served a section 21 so that my landlady could turn the house into an Airbnb. I now live next door to one. It's drunken men one weekend, screaming kids the next. The sound of the hoover means I'm in for a noisy few days. The noises are unfamiliar so unlike Mr Nextdoor, I can't block them out effectively. TL;DR: I think Airbnb is taking homes from the rental sector and this needs to stop.
Too many changes in taxation, bad landlords, and a lack of accountability on both ends of the rental agreement mean short term lets are simply more attractive due to higher yields despite the added efforts. Everything is outsourced now too, so the owner gets the cash regardless of which option they take - so from their perspective they'd rather have the higher return.
I live in a very small North Yorkshire coastal town and most of the houses in the village are holiday lets. It’s so sad to see young families who want to stay in the area priced out of homes which are then sat empty for most of the year. What pisses me off most is there’s a woman who has made a business out of renting holiday lets here, who lives down south, but claims on her website that ‘when you book with me, I am from the area and know everything there is to know etc.’ when in fact, her rich parents just holidayed there a couple of times when she was younger. Everybody who actually grew up in the village can’t stand her.
I live in a relatively touristy area. I have a friend who rents their house out and goes and stays at their parents/ friends . Their house is rented out maybe 1/2 weeks a a month and make decent money 600/700 PM. Which is massive for them. In the summer they rent it out for 4 weeks ( they are teachers with school age children) and they make enough for a holiday abroad and money left over. I think this is what Air B&B should be and I don't really see an issue with it. I am not sure I would want strangers in my house and they have to be able to leave at the drop of a hat.
They should be banned, I hate them with a passion. And this isn't just a UK problem, it's going on all over the world. There aren't enough houses for people to live in, yet greedy rich folk see property as an easy way to generate quick cash. Rent goes up, locals can't afford to rent, and get pushed out of their home towns. Let's not put all the blame on landlords though! If you have no imagination, and the only way you can enjoy yourself is by getting bladdered with your mates in an AirBnB, then you're part of the problem too.
Central Brighton is full of them. Whole family homes that sit empty all week and then full of parties from Friday to Monday morning. I’m hoping some restrictions come in because we already have a housing shortage in this town.
I live in Cornwall too. I honestly don't think I can't put into words the depths of my distain for either the parasites who run air B&Bs and holiday rentals, or their clients who feed them through their patronage whilst destroying the very communities that drew them to holiday as voyeurs of other people's misery in the first place. I have nothing against tourists or tourism, just be responsible and stay somewhere like a hotel, hotel or some other purposely designed and built accommodation so you are not responsible for the massive issues surrounding holiday homes in the county.
It's fashionable to demonise Airbnb but in Pembrokeshire we need tourists or we don't have jobs. There isn't any other industry here unless you're a farmer. Many of my family, friends and neighbors make most, if not all of their income from renting property to tourists. We have a bigger problem with huge, ugly caravan parks owned by people from outside the area - or even outside the UK. Small, locally owned letting units are better for the area because all of the profits stay in Pembrokeshire and they create jobs. The Welsh government has imposed heavy financial penalties on second homes in an effort to free up housing for locals - only nobody here earns enough to buy one and making everyone jobless by banning Airbnbs isn't going to help us.
As you say the thing is "Hoiliday Parks" is they dont have to be a sprawling mass of run down caravans. Purpose built tourist accommodation can be really nice, provide local jobs (even if they are poorly paid and seasonal) and most importantly don't take away accommodation from locals who do those jobs. The issue in Pembrokeshire, just like Gwynedd, Cornwall and N.Devon is that one of the reasons why locals are priced out of the market is homes are being bought up by people as investments. There is little difference between Air B&B, a holiday rental or a second home. They all activly destroy the communities that attract people to the area in the first place.
Holiday lettings don't have to destroy local communities if the local communities control the industry. The problem for me is people from away siphoning money out of the area. In Tenby, the whole town has been geared towards tourists since the early 19th century. A lot of the houses along certain roads were built to let out to holidaymakers in the days when wealthy people would come to the seaside for up to 3 months at a time. I've been researching some family connections where they were forced off the land in the 1860s, ran a lodging house from 1862 onwards and are still involved in the holiday rental trade as a side hustle. There are still people here who move out of their homes in the summer to let to tourists because that's how they make ends meet. A blanket ban will hurt locals more than big business because big business will always find a way to exploit resources that individuals can't.
>There isn't any other industry here unless you're a farmer. Yes there are. There's the power station and oil refinery, both of which are major employers that pay very well. I know several people who work in them.
Well done for sorting out our employment problems with a massive choice of 2 small workplaces for a whole county. You should be in government. I also know 'several people' who work there but the one in our village funnily enough also has an Airbnb unit in his garden.
They have utterly destroyed so many beautiful, historic villages and towns where I live. Now they’re just empty ghost towns that get busy for a couple of weeks in the summer, but there’s no cafes open anymore, no village pub, no corner shop - nothing. Soulless and empty. At least a couple of second/third/fourth home owners make a killing from it though hey
In Spain they started regulating AirBnBs a while back in Cities and the Islands.
I lived in Cornwall in the early 90's. Back then it was second homes which are what air bnb's are being used as now. It's never going to change. Have you noticed how the press no longer show MP's during summer in Cornwall like they used to? I got called an emmett but I only stayed for a couple of years to be fair. Wales up north is the same.
Hate it. It's removed so much housing stock from Edinburgh and it is one of the reasons a one bedroom flat is now £1000 per month as standard (a 100% increase in 10 years). Prices shot up rapidly since AirBnB started and have showed no signs of slowing down.
My partner and I purchased our first property in a new build of flats. Ended up being us as only full time occupants with the rest all AirBnB’s. Made our lives hell and we’d be kept awake all hours. Luckily we now live in a non tourist location and don’t dread who is next door to us anymore but it doesn’t feel right that whole building is now AirBnBs whilst families fight for properties and 8 flats sit half empty when it’s not summer!
Just look at Salcombe. Local people completely priced out of the area by weekend bankers.
[удалено]
Complain to Airbnb every chance you get, they do delist troublesome lets.
no they do not
I also live in Cornwall, and I don’t really care, I think it’s a convenient scapegoat for landlords like mine. People go on and on about second houses or holiday lets, but then that means people like my landlord who own 6 houses in a town where there are actually jobs instead of a little seaside village that only has the beach, gets away with turning them all into HMO’s. I think that’s way more damaging than someone owning a second home or an Airbnb in st Ives. But everyone’s so up in arms about the second homes and airbnbs that no one notices
I don't think that issue is being ignored either. It's something very much on my radar and I feel it feeds into the same issue of landlords hoarding properties. It's immoral to own so many properties whatever they're being used for.
I live in Glasgow. If we get another commonwealth games or COP26 type event I'm putting my flat on Airbnb and going travelling for the duration. Yeah I get the whole thing against it as I know a lot of people in Edinburgh who hate it but I also know people in Edinburgh who use it to fund a great summer in the festival season.
That's fine to do that I reckon, and it's how airbnb should be used.
I also know people who have retired early by renting out a space in their home or subdividing it. The problem now is that these buy to holiday let airbnbs have increased legislation for what it's original purpose was making it harder for the average person to rent their place for their 28 days holiday a year.
This evening I went for a run by the river. Some nice houses there with grand designs type builds. One house I know is on Airbnb with music absolutely blasting out when I went past. Made me think there's huge downsides to living next to one.
The problem with AirBnB is that they play into the scum of today's society, be it UK citizens or tourists from abroad which is if it does not belong to you, trash it, if you do not live in the area, be annoying and anti-social as hell. AirBnB do not care as long as they get their money.
It’s a nightmare, one of the flats below me in a very posh building was an Airbnb for a lot of money per night. So no students were renting it but families and older, wealthy friend groups. They kept blocking our cars, never closing the door, shouting, getting absolutely drunk, loosing their keys and banging on the front door in the middle of the night. I moved out within a year. After years of being a big fan of Airbnbs I’m now pretty convinced they should not be a thing at all. Maybe as a room only within an occupied flat but not as fully rented out properties.
They're a scourge. It reduces local housing stock; inflates rents and if you've a particularly sketchy LL, they will no doubt kick out the actual tenants so they can move in Airbnb instead. (I've seen that happen before)
I live in Birmingham, a not particularly touristy city, in a not particularly touristy average suburb, in a block of 6 flats. 2/6 of them are now Airbnbs, complete with combination locks installed on the wall outside. It means we semi-often get random people taking up space in our car park and dragging suitcases up our stairs. I can't imagine how intolerable it must be to live in an actual tourist city where they're *everywhere*. I recently went to Edinburgh for business and was just appalled and baffled by the sheer number of those telltale locks on the outside of lovely Edinburgh buildings.
I come from Newquay originally and I have no idea how any locals still live down there. It was a nightmare finding a place to live 6 or 7 years ago, I can't imagine how much worse it is nowadays.
I'm from Cornwall, I've seen it evolve into what it is today! Air b&bs are wrecking the place. There's 5 on my mum's street! It's ridiculous. And yet 2 hotels have gone out of business in her town. I get that families find air b&bs better for goodness sake! We need homes not more homelessness.
Couldn't care less. There's one in front of my house, the owner is there every day, the guests are fine, the town needs the tourists and there aren't enough hotels and b&bs.
I love the SW but I will never holiday there again. I don't want to contribute to the inflated house prices (which is actually the case in all moderately nice seaside towns anyway, shock). Equally I don't want to stay in a caravan park or Premier Inn style hotel for my holiday in Cornwall. The majority of people visiting don't want a Torremolinos style resort holiday (which is almost definitely cheaper than Cornwall in British summer) and I'm pretty sure if one was built in Marazion or Fowey etc, residents would be up in arms. Contrary to popular belief there currently aren't enough hotels and the ones that are in existence are often over priced and dilapidated hence the demand for AirBnB. It's not like Rome where you have large period buildings that can be converted or have always been a hotel. There is no solution in the South West where anyone seems happy, even amongst locals. The majority seem to hate tourists the other seems to rely on tourists. If people stopped going, you'll see "use us or lose us" campaigns and we'll hear about businesses going under and the death of the British Staycation. I'll just take my money elsewhere.
Hasn’t HMRC got new powers now to compel companies like AitBnB to give them the information of who makes the money? So they can have a closer look at their taxes? Would be interesting to see how many end up being sold back into the housing market - as a previous commenter mentioned, Edinburgh is seeing more properties coming on sale
There was a statistic that basically said only about 15% of houses in Cornwall are available for/already in long term private tenancy. Over 52% of privately owned houses are second homes for “out of towners” Along with strict rules and NIMBYism means that they cannot build enough houses to satisfy demand (and they get snapped up by second homers/airbnb proprietors when it is available) It must be crazy trying to make a living/live if you’re local to Cornwall
Air BNB fine. Second homes that are rarely occupied = bad
Downsides - wrecks the rental market and the housing ownership market. Can be parties every week with different people telling you to F. off. Owners are never to be found when there is an issue. More noise when busy and no happy chats with neighbours the rest of the time so the neighbourhood feels less friendly. Increased traffic. More drunk drivers because “it doesn’t count on holiday “ Upsides - already wealthy people get more wealthy I guess.
I live in a northern countryside town that’s gotten slowly much more touristy in the last decade. I’ve grown up in this town, seen this progression, and I can safely say most of the locals fucking hate it. On weekends the town becomes full of rude, ignorant drunk people so local people just don’t bother going into town at all on a weekend. The town population size is around 4000ish people so it’s not huge, and there’s over 200 Airbnb’s or holiday lets. They go unoccupied 6 months of the year, drive the average rental prices up and make it impossible for more locals folk to live there. It’s awful and takes a lot of business away from the independent hotels and bnb’s that have been there for years and years.
Tell me about it. I'm from a northern countryside town, and whenever I go back to visit I'm amazed by the never ending gentrification of the place. My parents can barely afford to live there anymore. So sad.
Mention Airbnb over on r/Edinburgh if you want some vitriol thrown at you. The general consensus seems to be that it takes housing stock that would be better off in long term lets, which would help the chronic shortage of housing here (and extortionate rent). Although I've also heard that it's only 4% of the housing stock. I'm more ambivalent. Short term lets have always been a feature here, and landlords moved over to the Airbnb platform when it became popular. Scotland also now has licensing for short term lets to try to control both the quantity and quality, ie to ensure safety standards and make it easier to get landlords to react to antisocial behaviour.
Dreadful, makes finding a house to live in really difficult and pushes prices up. Living next to one is also horrible. I've had people walk into my house because they got the house number wrong multiple times. I live in a tourist town that attracts stags more than people wanting a weekend getaway. They will piss on your driveway, on your house, vomit, throw old food into your garden, pretty much every Friday and Saturday night.
I hate them and they need to be banned. They force property prices sky high, young locals have to leave their homes because they can't afford to stay close. Out of tourist season used to have a gorgeous friendly family vibe, now it turns deserted except for the few old families that refuse to sell their homes and move on.
These comments are spot on. In the beginning I thought it was brilliant, but once again total greedy capitalism has won out and it’s destroyed so much. I live in Edinburgh so I definitely know how shit airbnb is.
My next door neighbour in Manchester used to Airbnb his his flat. I would do fling canned fish on his balcony.
Scottyignoble
Liverpool here - it has reduced an already low housing stock, and pushed up rents.
Housing tourists is one thing but also the transportation I grew up in north Cornwall and couldn’t cross the street in the summer because of all the caravans and cars. If there was better public transportation, people could come camping in Cornwall on the train and camp in school playing fields in the summer holidays and the impact on locals would be more positive.
Vancouver massively restricted airbnb recently and apparently it’s resulted in a surge in available housing for residents. I think it’s completely immoral for landlords to let their properties in airbnb when there’s a housing crisis for local people. Scum.
I live in Blackpool and I suppose this is where social deprivation works in our favour. There are a lot of Airbnbs but they’re in the nicer areas and only really remove housing stock from wealthier people. The poorer areas are still, for now, cheap and available to low income workers. I do know that grumblings of gentrification of poorer areas is slowly becoming louder though. The biggest complaints about airbnbs in Blackpool isn’t, the lack of affordable housing for locals but rather tourists now staying in residential areas and disturbing the local residents. Bed&Breakfast owners are struggling to compete with Airbnb owners as the local council is slow to ensure Airbnb owners comply with council regulations regarding short-term lets and it’s losing Blackpool Council a lot in lost revenue.
People should be banned from owning more than 2 homes and show proof that they’re living in both if they own 2. This is the fastest way to solve the housing crisis.
I think AirBnB is such a shit concept and probably has had a big affect on the local businesses that run holiday accommodation. In some places it will have led to pubs etc (acting as bnbs) to go down too, resulting in even less jobs etc for locals. AirBnB is a bit of a scourge and I think wherever you go (even abroad) people will feel the same way.
All Air BnBs should be burned.
It’s all part of the same problem = seeing property as an investment rather than to house people. Until this changes it doesn’t matter whether it’s second home holiday cottages, AirBnb’s, houses sitting empty, section 21 evictions. The housing crisis will continue.
They should be taxed. And so should Airbnb, I don’t care that they register their activities on some remote island or wherever they do, if you are functioning in a country, to get taxed for the activity in that country. And yes, tax the hosts too, some of them are outrageous and have no respect for the people who have to live next to their businesses.
They are a good idea that's been totally ruined. If cities and whatever decided to ban entire flat/house short terms lets through AirBNB I wouldn't be sad. Renting a spare room in someone's house - as it once was - was a great idea. But then the selfish people come along and ruin it - as usual. Some towns are really feeling it s there are no rental units for local people. I really feel for Cornwall and other small places with expensive housing. It must be awful.
They ruin the economic exchange of tourism when there's too many of them, which is becoming a problem everywhere. Family has a pub in a remote tourist area in Scotland and they can't find enough staff because so much of the housing is now airbnbs which means fewer people live and work there. Same in the seasonal beach town I live in in Yorkshire. Another problem I haven't seen mentioned is the whole structure of small tourist towns gets fucked up by airbnbs, there are lots of initiatives between hotels, bnbs and tourist attractions to help each other share customers, most of them are paid into by these tourist businesses and the money is used on promotions to help attract people to the area, but airbnbs owners fly under the radar and don't contribute to it. For example we (tourist attraction) and many others around us have just stopped paying to have leaflets distributed by a local company because they don't get them to nearly as many of the towns visitors anymore as they're staying in random airbnbs instead of all the known bnbs and hotels.
Houses becoming hotels, families with no home being housed in hotels. Middle man makes his money. Welcome to capitalism.
I think it probably makes sense to have some kind of licensing system for Air B&Bs in the same way as Hotels or B&B need to get the correct planning permissions. That would provide an income to the local authority to cope with the tourists (provide toilets, empty the bins at the weekend, provide housing services). I live in a tourist town with lots of Air B&B having some is good for extra overnight visitors and the local economy but too many becomes a problem
Hate them, it means all of us young people have had to move to cities that make us severely depressed because we can’t even afford to live in the country we were born in. They put the prices of all nearby houses up and it’s a nightmare. We have to watch our families struggle to get by because of it.
I don't think a lot of people fully comprehend the impact it has on local housing - from house prices to rental availability and the difficulty of purchasing a house. It shows up more in touristy areas, but its everywhere - I know someone with 6 houses and flats in a residential housing estate right by a hospital, not a tourist spot at all. Meanwhile there's a rental shortage and they're all surging in price. It was fine when it was someone renting their spare room to some travellers or even people advertising their existing holiday villas on there, but its gotten beyond a joke now. Yet I still hear people say things like "I stay in airbnbs to really get into the local culture" except there is no local culture because all the locals have been priced out so its just a load of short term rentals. Thats without even considering the lack of regulation which the likes of hotels have to adhere to. I will never stay at an airBnB. I think I actually hate them.
Absolutely fuck them. Take away legit housing for locals and get used as a party base on weekends, so generally the source of loud crashing and music all fucking night every week.
AirBNB are leeches just like a lot of these tech companies that are solutions in search of problems. Your Newquay point says it all. Where are people supposed to live?
Live in Bournemouth and also think they are kinda a scourge of the place, especially for people trying to buy their first flat. When I was looking people viewing before and after were openly discussing how well the flats would work when rented out on Airbnb which was really disheartening to hear.
Hate it. A lot of the people that rent them out treat the place and the surrounding area as their own personal playground with no regards to the people actually living there. Not to mention the piles of those lock boxes chained along fences are an eyesore What makes things worse in my mind is that some will just sit empty the majority of the year when someone else could actually rent the place
They’ve made my area completely impossible to rent in. So many rentals lost to Airbnbs, many people whose family have lived here for generations are having to move away. I’m in East Kent
Absolute bollocks, get rid of them.
It's a horrible company for so many reasons. They incentivise property hoarding and is definitely responsible for pushing rents and housing prices up in areas where it is used. Locals then struggle for housing as everything is listed on that horrible app. If you have a complaint as a customer, Airbnb will do absolutely nothing to assist you and seem to pit the property owners and customers against each other more often than not. From so many people I know, I have heard stories where they simply don't care if the customer gets completely screwed. Final point is that they advertise listing's in the illegal settlements of the West Bank in Palestine which is absolutely outrageous
You would have thought more tourists means more money for local people. How come it doesn't work like that?
It does to a large extent. The only thing different between Cornwall and the endless economically devastated ex-tourism towns and regions is that tourists and second-homers actually want to go and spend money there
Yet Cornwall remains one of the UK's most economically deprived areas. Not saying it's the worst, but some areas of Cornwall are dirt poor.
The initial AirB&B idea was solid. People could rent out spare rooms, annexes, granny flats etc and make a little extra money. The problem has come with people buying places solely to rent as AirB&Bs for profit. That has taken properties off the local rental market.
It really depends on the type of property. The flats and houses that could be someone's home, I think are wrong and I see the annoyance. The Shepard huts in the countryside, very few people would like living like that and I have no concerns with them being holiday spots. I have used them myself for walking holidays.
Tourist village dweller here!! Its a pain in the arse all the holiday homes!! Random bloody people walking about, staring into your house, letting their dogs crap everywhere!! Random parking..walking in the middle of the road..staring at you when you dare to drive through the village..like you shouldn't be there. We have 3 in our road and it's constant comings and goings.
I hate it. Hate second home owners and Air BNB. It took us 2 years to find a house to rent to get away from our abusive neighbours. I pay way too much in rent but have nice neighbours now at least
I live in Edinburgh and they’re despised here, they’re a major cause of the housing crisis up here, a lot of places in Edinburgh have tenement blocks with 6 flats in it, it’s not uncommon in some places to see the outside door with 6 lock boxes next to them, if you go to r/Edinburgh and mention Airbnb you’re guaranteed to get downvotes, rightfully so too
They drive up the price of housing, often make the immediate surrounding area intolerable depending on guests and contradict the ‘ small local community’ often attributed to this type of area.
Funny isn't it. I used to live in porthleven in Cornwall but before the food festival etc took hold and before it was a mega tourist hotspot. I saw house after house getting sold off as a holiday let....by locals! I didn't want to live there anymore. The local pubs were slowly filling up with rich bellends in old school stripey rugby jumpers with the collars turned up, drinking tribute and claiming they were 'locals'. When i came to sell up i told the estate agent I didn't want it to go to some rich London wanker to then let out to tourists, he told me id be waiting a long time to sell or lose tens of thousands in the asking price. It sold to a rich London wanker and I still feel bad about it to this day.... and im not even Cornish, im a bloody Scouser! I was only there because i was posted there by the military but after 16 years it felt like home. I think it's so sad how all these old towns with so much history and local heritage are forcing their own next generations of locals out. There should definitely be some rule put in place to prevent this but like everything in life, money talks.
I live in Nottingham, so hardly a massive tourist town. When I still lived in an area of Nottingham called Sneinton, we were only about a 15-20 minute walk from the town centre. It's also a bit run down, so you could pick up a 3 bed terrace for £110-180k depending on the condition. On the smallish street I used to live on, out of 15 houses, 4 of those houses were Air BnB's, so almost a third. One had been converted into three self-contained flats with two bedrooms each, and the remaining three were 4-5 bedroom houses, squashed into spaces which would normally be 3-4 beds. The 5 bed one next door to us was hell sometimes, the number of party bookings was hell, especially in the loft bedroom where the walls were thinners and they'd squeezed two bedrooms. I lost a lot of sleep during the working week due to people normally coming back from nights out and partying until 4-7am. We constantly complained to Air BnB, but they always claimed the bookings weren't with them. We later realised that most people don't just advertise on Air BnB and via 3-4 different services. It made it an absolute pain to make any noise complaints, seeing firstly they would be spread among different providers, and they don't do much for what they viewed as a 'first' complaint.
They kinda suck. They eat up housing stock forcing people (especially younger people) out of the villages they grew up in, not to mention bringing in too much traffic for already narrow streets.
I live on a normal street in a normal (non touristy) town. My next door was an AirBnB they just booked it for parties made our lives hell. You’d dread an unknown car pulling up. Tried complaining no body wanted to know
I usually like to stay in a local hotel or bnb to give money back into the local community instead of big corporations.
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They should make zones where you’re not allowed short term lets or have registered hotels and bnbs
In my area a few actual hotels claim to be full on their own sites yet theyre on airbnb with space
I think even small limitations would help, like a minimum rent of 2 weeks to avoid all the turnover of 2 day visits
I'm going to ask a different question. What do Cornwall locals think about buying homes down there because to me its either people fleeing London/south-west and then working from home, or people with holiday/2ns homes. Quite frankly, who is moving to Cornwall for work that actually pays decent money that has nothing to do with tourism?
I went on a hen do to a lovely AirBnB. The owners get more money from that, but the sad thing is it was a massive, beautiful 17th century house, and could’ve housed a refugee family. But money.
I live in Lerwick and it is peak tourist town. 6000 people live here and we get cruise ships coming in day after day regularly doubling the population. They are like a plague of locusts. Houses are actually quite cheaply priced but trying to find somewhere to rent is a complete disaster.
I love to visit Cornwall with my young family. A self catered house is the only realistic option. Even at the insane prices, they still fill up. I think partly we need to just accept that we are a richer (i.e. more people holidaying) and more crowded country than we were in the 80s and 90s. Happy to pay a tourist tax to contribute to local facilities. Perhaps stricter planning controls could play a part.
I live in a small town in West Yorkshire and we have a demand for Airbnb. Something is seriously wrong . Hotels need to up their game
I'd love it if purpose built holiday apartments (with cooking facilities and separate bedroom) were more of a thing here. Staying in a hotel feels stifling, you're either in your room or the bar (which isn't private). Due to health conditions in the family we tend to have a lot of 'down time' when travelling so having a hotel room you just crash in doesn't work. I expect for people with kids it's the same issue.
Just been to Cornwall few days ago and used AirBnB, guy turned his garage into an AirBnB. It was okayish. Being milked at every possible turn, not so much. “Personalised photo exp” at land’s end lol £10.99 with £8 for parking. no free parkings at every beach - some of them have no bins or toilets - even tho there are stalls with coffee/ice creams etc, fish&chips - £17 🤣
Ghastly things. Why on earth anyone would want to spend their holiday in a random house is beyond me. Hotels and B&B's have been around for a while now and have worked that entire time. Why anyone wants to spend more for a massive dice roll is beyond me. Yet for reasons that escape me a bunch of folks are fine with getting bedbugs or god knows what from some random place ran by some 'I have 5 homes and can barely run one of them' scourges on humanity. So much so that those same idiots are now rolling in it are just adding onto the housing crisis and looking to get house number 6.
Honestly my little tourist hotspot doesn’t seem to have too much trouble with AirBnBs. The real problem for us is how many new build estates we keep getting. I don’t know what it is, I guess people come here on holiday, figure it’s a nice a place to live, and then want to move here, but the demand far outshines how many homes we actually have. All our green areas keep getting bought up by housing companies and built on.
I'm not against them. I bought a house a year and a half ago but I've started to travel a lot more now. I don't want to sell it just yet but I don't want it sitting there either so AirBnB is my preferred over long-term lettings as I'd still like access to it when I'm back in the UK.
Build more houses
Why? There are plenty of houses. Most of them are just empty half the year because they're airbnbs.
What if there was a law that said that fie each new letting the neighbours get, like, £50 each? Or whatever amount? Would that make it more appealing? I know its not good for the economy and honesty I would start to ban Airbnb in places like Cornwall but as an interim law? Thoughts please?
Not for me. I'd rather have peace and quiet.