Some idiot - I wish I had of said no to him had a MASSIVE party at my flat. The building’s manager has now issued a statement saying no more airbnb.
My place needs re-painting, new granite work top etc etc etc and now I have to cancel £8000 of forward bookings.
Airbnb worked so well for me in so many ways now its time to say good bye.
Hope Airbnb pay the full cost of the damage that’s been done… keep us informed of how it’s going.
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I Hope so too. But they can never repay the cost of no more airbnb ever can they??? Not just for me but for all the residents!!!
And you can blame that on Air since they always seem to side with guests and let them get away with more and more. This is why even with me being an owner I don’t allow parties. I know you know this so I hate to say it, but you not being strong with the rules up from and not vetting properly made this happen. Sorry it did happen, but there’s a reason it’s not a good idea for tenants to do this anyway. It’s too much liability for the owners and they’ll nip it in the bud as soon as they can, especially since they get all the liability without any financial perks.
How can the building manager be so dictatorial? I would seek legal advice on your rights, share the cost with other residents. They cannot simply change a body Corp contract without due legal process.
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Here in the UK they can. And guess where the OP is…I’m going to guess England. We have landed gentry in this country and therefore some very crazy homeownership situations.
Yes I’m London and yes I should have vetted better (I’m too trusting) but this is all in the past now as Airbnb is finished!
And even in the US you sign contracts saying that you’re not allowed to sublet or have room-mates that aren’t on the contract. AirBnB has probably twisted every loop-hole, and violated every contract out there. But as hosts we all know that even though most of the times things go well, there’s a ton of risk. And so most landlords aren’t going to want to take that on, typical renters have enough risk and then you add on their paying “guests”. Many landlords in the US don’t allow any kind of in-home business that brings customers on-site. Some don’t allow any home-business period.
Hi @RyanG
When you say your building manager, I assume you are in a flat.
Is it against your lease to do short term sub lettings?
Ask the building manager to let you know which clause you are breaking.
Although I can understand him and your fellow tenants being upset with your guests holding a party.
Do you ensure your guests have verified ID and find out in advance about their plans rather than accepting instant booking.
Do you not have CCTV to monitor comings and goings (presuming you are an absent host).
Do you have neighbours that notify you of any problems?
If you are a remote host you need to do everything you can to ensure your guests are good neighbours.
Are you in a block of leasehold flats? It seems a bit harsh if this is the first time this has happened. Could you try writing a nice grovelling letter to all the owners apologising profusely and saying you will only rent in future to nice respectable retired couples who are coming to visit the theatres and museums (and stick to it!)? Might be worth a try … unless your landlord is the Duke of Westminster of course.
I’m guessing they’re saying moving forward it can’t be done; and a line saying so will be added to the lease. Worth trying to appeal but I have seen this happen in other London buildings even when nothing has gone wrong.
Is this a local guest? If so, are you going to go after the guest for damages if Air does not pay out?
How did such a huge party happen with other people living in the building? Your neighbors just let it go on?
What happens in case you have a non-paying friend or family member over for a few days. They obviously wouldn’t be in the contract either. Would this cause problems?
Non-paying friends and guests are usually ok (but I imagine in today’s Air world could cause complaints). It’s the business/paying aspect that’s the problem. You’re turning a residence into a business. This is why I can do STR in my guest-house and not LTR. I’m not zoned for two family housing but I am zoned for home businesses so it’s a grandfathered, legal way to use my property that’s legal in my area.
I’m sorry to hear that Ryan 
Airbnb is one of my income streams (I live in SF so I need more than one income stream to keep myself afloat). I would hate to see that taken away from me. One thing that I’ve been advocating and researching on is how to get people in my city to get smart tools so they can detect if there’s a BIGGG party waiting to happen in their Airbnbs.
*Disclaimer: I work for Party Squasher.
I know we are not supposed to allow outside links, but this one is too intriguing. What the heckola is Party Squasher? 
And how does it work? Can you describe it without posting the link?
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Party Squasher is a box that you put inside your Airbnb and this box will detects the number of mobile devices inside your Airbnb.** The number of mobile devices is a good proxy for how many people are inside your home.
How the technology works is this: All our phones are constantly looking for Wi-Fi to connect to and the box will look for that. The beauty of this technology is that the mobile device doesn’t have to be connected to your Airbnb Wi-Fi, and Party Squasher will still pick up that phone.
On your Party Squasher app, it will show you how many mobile devices are in your home at any given time. You can also set a threshold for the number of mobile device allow in your Airbnb. Anytime it pass the threshold, you will get a text alert.
Example: Say that you only have 2 guests check-in and Party Squasher app shows that there are 20 devices at your home - that’s a sign of a BIGGGG party happening.
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That certainly would be some party! 
I have a question though - what exactly counts as a mobile device? When we travel, we both have two phones (one business and one personal each) plus a Kindle and an iPad. If we know were going to have serious work to do we both have a laptop too - all using wifi. Would just the phones count? Or are we just weirdly teckie?
Ha. Having multiple electronic devices is totally normally (I live in the Bay Area, the central hub for techies!)
Personally, if I’m expecting 4 guests, I would set my threshold at 6-10 devices. With WiFi technology, certain non-phones may be counted because of the way MAC addresses are categorized. This is something that happens at the manufacturing level. To adjust out non-phones in the baseline settings, check out the Smart Detect area( found inside the Party Squasher app). In this case, enter 2. For brands like Nest, Sonos, etc - we recognize these as non-phones and take it out of your count, but there are a few brands, like Apple and Samsung (laptops and tablets), where they don’t distinguish their MAC address format between devices.
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