Posting to Mumsnet’s “AIBU (Am I Being Unreasonable) forum?” on August 21, airbnbby said that her neighbor’s decision to rent out their house to vacationers was making her “uncomfortable.” Fellow users struggled to understand her perspective.
Airbnb has this month announced measures to head off any complaints by neighbors of properties that the vacation rental app lists. A spokesperson told Newsweek that more than 6,600 global guests were suspended from the platform last Memorial Day and Fourth of July for attempting to violate the company’s party ban.
In her post, airbnbby explained that she lives in a “6 house culdesac,” with no fences separating their backyards from their neighbors.
“[We] have been living here for years and get along great with our neighbours,” airbnbby wrote.
However, the poster has recently noticed a flurry of visitors staying at the house next door to hers.
“We started seeing different cars and people showing up to this one house for 3-4 days at a time,” airbnbby wrote. “Another neighbour asked what was up and [the] owner said they were just friends visiting.
“Well that’s a lot of very organised friends as they always show up hours after the other one has left!”
Unfortunately, airbnbby “just [doesn’t] like it.” She is unhappy about visitors parking right in front of her house as they can “see directly into [their] kitchen, as well as “sharing [their] outside area with total strangers.”
“It’s just uncomfortable as it’s multiple different people every week,” airbnbby wrote. “They could literally be anyone! I have tried finding the listing on all websites but can’t seem to find it and even if I did there’s no way I could bring it down but it still annoys me.”
Airbnbby has tried to find the listing on various websites, but has so far been unsuccessful.
Since its launch in 2008, Airbnb has allowed homeowners to host travelers for extra cash and let vacationers save money while seeing the world.
According to Statista, Airbnb is the third most-popular travel and tourism website worldwide, with 99.4 million online visitors in May 2022 alone. Despite dropping from $113 billion in 2021 because of the impact of COVID-19, the company’s market value is $74.57 billion.
Rather than offering just room rentals, hosts have expanded their scope to create unique experiences for visitors. An Airbnb dedicated to all things Friends went viral earlier this year for the host’s fantastic attention to detail, while a rental modeled on the Byers’ home recently attracted Stranger Things fans.
Mumsnet users had difficulty seeing the issue with the neighbor’s Airbnb. DancingBeanstalk wrote, “not your property, not your choice,” and Fufflecake agreed, telling the poster to “Move or get a fence.”
“Unless they’re having all night parties this has no impact on you any more than if they had lots of friends visiting,” said MrsPelligrinoPetrichor.
However, a few users did express their own hatred of Airbnb, with DesertOrchi writing: “Airbnb should be banned.”
“I would be totally freaked out by this situation,” posted notsosoftanymore.
“I sympathise with you OP,” wrote miri1985. “I lived next door to an airbnb and it was awful. You didn’t sign up to live next door to a business.”
Newsweek wasn’t able to verify the details of this case.
