An interesting airbnb story

I haven't had issues to keep a lid on after around 180 groups of guests, but being next door makes everything easier. I had a go at doing Airbnb with two flats not far from home, but the extra returns weren't worth the effort so they are now permanent rentals. Of course, permanent tenants can sometimes go off the rails, too, and when that happens we all know it can take ages to play out.

 

Agree. But permanent tenants know there will be repercussions, bond at risk, bad references mean problems with future rentals etc. And the inconvenience and expense of moving after eviction.

@Depreciator , your guests know you live next door so will behave accordingly.

But anyone in a short stay with no owner nearby can kick up their heels and cause all sorts of problems with no chance of having to take any responsibility. The Gold Coast “party houses” are notorious and feature regularly in news stories for all the wrong reasons.

As seen in previous posts, even after police attending at 1am, it is suggested that overall positive feedback be given to the guest, with no (or very mild) mention of the trouble caused! And the assumption that this incident is due to a friend?

@jodes, have you visited the neighbour (or strata manager) and actually listened to their complaints? Maybe this incident was only one of many?
Marg

 

@Ted Varrick we are in Vic, and i'm sure there is a similar provision there. But this applies to ALL Guests not just airbnb. As I have written about before, we have had issues with our own neighbours in our PPOR apartment causing disruption- including some owners who live in the building. What can you do about them?

We have had far more troubles with troublesome traditional tenants than we have with airbnb guests. We had a horrendous set of tenants in another property of ours but given they were traditional tenants the issues went on for months and months- and there was very little we could do given the strict tenancy laws in place. This problem guest actually resulted from a personal crisis- no amount of screening would determine this, but they checked out the following day hence the problems were limited. We are actually starting long term tenants in April - hopefully they won't be an issue because regardless of rigorous screening, some people just aren't respectful of their neighbours- whether they be airbnb guests, tenants or owners.

 

I think a genuine apology and a bottle of wine and flowers is appropriate. Having neighbours that point out issues with your investment property are invaluable as hopefully concerns can be nipped in the bud. It seems to me that the neighbours are being reasonable here.

 

Fair enough, but the difference is (and I realise you are talking about Victoria, so it may be different than in NSW), that in NSW the noise by-law breaches relate to the Occupier of the lot, which means than normal tenants can go through Tribunal processes and such, but "holiday" tenants cannot, as they have both moved on and been replaced.

And this is why any strata committee (at least in NSW), with a collective IQ of more than 3, should be considering implementing restrictions in high density living strata blocks, in relation to said "holiday" tenants.

Such action would certainly result in less OC disputes with lot owners and cost a hell of a lot less.

 

@Ted Varrick but that sort of comes down to the crux of the argument:
Bad occupiers (tenants and owners) as occupiers have to go through the tribunal process- this takes month at best and is costly
Airbnb guests- can get kicked out immediately with no repercussions- the problem is gone.

I know I had a bit of a whinge earlier about the PITA guests we've been having lately but between two properties over the past 12 months we have hosted over 100 sets of guests and this is the first actually troublesome guest we have had. Even the ones that lost their keys/ didn't use the parking permit etc were really good about it. I'd much rather one annoying guest for a couple of nights than risk a bad tenant who it's virtually impossible to get rid of.

 

@Marg that's if you can even get to the eviction stage which takes months. Bond is only at risk if damage is done- not if they are loud/ have police come over. As i've mentioned before we had a group of tenants in a traditional rental- we had complaints from neighbours for months about parties, dogs (which were prohibited in the lease), generally being loud and disruptive etc- and despite repeated reminders from the PM, we were stuck with them for months (essentially until their tenancy ended). And then despite their poor reference from our PM, they were let to straight away!

I have rejected guests in the past if they have bad reviews or if they are coming for particular reasons that I don't think would be fair to the neigbours (e.g. we are coming for this festival etc).

We have spoken to the strata manager at length and this is the first complaint

 

I have a friend who runs accommodation, and he uses pin numbers on doors, which he changes regularly. Got tired of people locking themselves out!.

 

The problem may be gone to your good self, as an offsite (or even onsite) owner.

However, the problem might not be viewed as such by the neighbouring lot owners of your residence, due to the probability of reoccurrence, the increased uncertainty due to the use of your lot, and the loss of amenity of their own lot by your actions.

And should those neighbouring lot owners implement a special by-law in relation to the use of a lot in your strata plan, your business plan may become a lot more risky than you anticipated, given that there would only be a very narrow way of rectifying the by-law breach.