Construction Work

Have a an issue at present with some construction work that is going on right next door to my house, that I Airbnb. A brand new house is being built in a lot with a 10 foot easement between the houses. Not much room, but is perfectly legal, so that’s no issue.

We have included in our messages to guests, that there is construction going on, etc.

I spoke with the owner/builder prior to work starting & we introduced ourselves from day 1 in person. Explained that this is an Airbnb rental, etc. He was accommodating & let me know that he would work with us on any issue.

Now, I know that this is noisy work, especially during the start of building, earth moving equip. etc. But, we have had 2 guests so far since this has begin, which was 1 month ago.

1st guest, we had to offer discount as the builder had accidently, taken down our internet line to the house, with his backhoe. Ok, this can happen, it took a couple days to take care of. AS we needed the cable co. to come out to replace it. Builder didn’t seem too concerned about it & I explained that it was a problem, that he needs to tell me when issue, like this happen immediately. He was beginning to show his true colors with this small incident.

2nd guest, currently hosting, arrived 3 days ago, got a call about all the noise next door with building, so bad that they said " it sounded like they were going through the wall. Ugh!! The outside wall, is literally our living room wall, on the other side is the new construction. Also, they started at 7 am & didn’t stop until 5:30pm with constant drilling & banging all day.

I asked her some questions, prior to calling the owner/builder & went over to the house to see all the work. By this time builders were gone for the day. When I went to the house, one of my guests, whom I didn’t know, what a teenage boy in a special travel chair, who had just come to our city for an operation. I had no idea, not my business to know, however because he is convalescing & sleeps in his chair in the living room, this noise is awful for him.

When I saw this, I explained to the builder the situation via text, to please consider this & to please start at 8 am not 7 am & asked building, what the noise level would be going forward, which, unfortunately was going to be the same :frowning: Builder agreed to start later at 8 am, but that would mean working until 6pm, an house later, which was the lesser of two evils. So, that was at least helpful.

Naturally, this would be the week that the builder is making all this noise & I understand that this sort of work is noisy & I’ve tried my best to be on top of this for guests & making arrangements with builder to know, what sort of work to expect on dates I have guests. However, the owner is a bit of a jerk & doesn’t really care about my Airbnb, which is not shock, however, I am trying to run a business & just be amicable yet firm with him.

I’ve offered the guest a discount. Ran out to get them a few things at the store, a basket of yummies, for which the guests were grateful.

I just don’t know what else to do & feel that this just going to be problem on going.

Any suggestions??? So frustration !!!

First of all, I would contact the city bylaw dept. to find out if there are bylaws concerning hours when noisy construction can take place. Starting at 7am or working until 6pm may be illegal.

Aside from that, there isn’t much you can do aside from what you seem to be doing. Message all upcoming guests and those who request a booking to let them know about the construction noise and offer discounts. Don’t wait to offer a discount when the guest complains, be proactive. (Of course the internet connection getting ripped out wasn’t something you could anticipate as far as a discount) Give guests the option of cancelling with full refund and make it clear that if they choose to keep or make the booking anyway, they are accepting that it may be quite noisy during daylight hours and can’t complain about it after the fact.

If you use IB, turn it off so you can have this convo with guests before they book.

You might also want to add something in your listing write-up about the construction, discouraging guests who will be home most of the day, who would be most bothered, i.e. digital nomads- guests who plan to be out and about all day may not find it particularly disruptive.

I actually have the same scenario right now, although it’s not a huge project and many days it isn’t noisy at all. And they don’t start until 8:30 and knock off work at 4. I haven’t offered any discounts, as my place is already budget-priced, but I warn guests about the possible noise when they send an inquiry or request, and they have all said it’s okay and there have been no complaints. But it isn’t as extremely noisy, nor consistent, as what you are describing.

Does your city have a construction noise bylaw? The contractor doesn’t care one bit about your business and has likely dealt with all kinds of disgruntled neighbors. I’d start by checking out what the legal restrictions are, which will also give you information to pass along to your current and upcoming guests.

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I agree with Muddy. You might want to get an estimate of how long the exterior work will be going on. The construction leader “doesn’t care” because he is juggling worker consideration and his customer’s needs. You are low on the totem pole. I think you did well to get the start time moved up. If the exterior work will be a matter of weeks, I would consider just not doing business until loud work is a little more sporadic.

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I’m sorry that you’re going through this.

I agree with others to check what city ‘noise law’ ordinance you have, and make sure that the contractor is in compliance. If not, I’d discuss that with the contractor and consider making a complaint if the contractor is in violation AFTER your discussion.

I also strongly suggest that you put somewhere prominent and near the beginning of your listing something that puts guests on notice of this construction and the hours and days (probably M-F only) of the construction. I think it’s important that it be in the listing, not only in subsequent messages on the platform.

If you accurately put this information in the listing I might decide to reduce my nightly rate but I wouldn’t feel obligated to give any additional one-off discounts to an individual guest. Of course, when internet is lost or something happens beyond the noise you’ve provided notice for, that’s a different issue.

I’d keep friendly relations with the contractor sofar as possible. I might even do them a favor if you see an opportunity just to keep good relations. The noise is unavoidable. The good news here is that I’m not reading that they’re leaving debris, blocking driveways or any of the many things that can happen at a construction site.

Why would the builder care about your Airbnb business?
As long as the noise affecting times are legal, he is doing his business.
I can’t see the later starting time remaining in place, if it inconveniences him or his employees.
I like all the suggestions above, but even if you warn guests and offer discounts - I can see poor reviews on the horizon.

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If I were in your situation I would close down my Airbnb until the next door construction was no longer an issue. This is just one of the many, many risks a host can face when entering this business.

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You are in a no-win situation. If I could afford it, I would just close down until they are done. I can’t believe the builder even adjusted the time…that’s pretty amazing. They have a job to do and you are not the client. If you can’t afford it, then your reviews are gonna be terrible unless you practically give away the space and then you’ll get people who won’t take care of it. That’s what I mean by no-win. I wish you the best.

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It’s kind of unfair to say the construction guy “doesn’t care”. He doesn’t have to care about your business, and you’ve asked him to change his business, for you. Do you care about his business at all? (and nope, you don’t have to). Asking them to start at 8am was a win for you, they don’t have to do anything provided they are operating legally, and you might not want to do anything that would interrupt and therefore extend the construction time. You probably could have tried to get the owner to compensate you for the internet thing, but you might not want to start upsetting your future neighbour, who could easily make your future hosting a problem.

Get ahead of it, tell the guests what’s happening, offer a discount upfront and make it clear that if they agree they cannot ask for further discounts. I’d still be bending over backwards to help them out.

You might want to consult with the builder and find out how long the truly noisy stuff is going on for, close your place and use the time to do any repairs, deep cleaning or give yourself a short holiday. It’s a bummer, for sure.

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While I agree that the easiest thing would be to just close to bookings as long as there is noisy construction, I don’t agree that it will for sure result in bad reviews or complaints as long as the host is upfront with guests and offers them an opportunity to cancel with full refund if they choose not to come.

When I warned my prospective or upcoming guests about the construction next door, none said it was an issue for them. Some had plans to be out all day and my current guest said as long as it was quiet at night for sleeping, it wasn’t a problem.

Same thing happened with a friend who had heavy construction on her street, digging up sewer and water lines to replace them- all the guests said they were okay with it and didn’t want to cancel and there were no bad reviews.

Not a guarantee, as YMMV, and if one is super concerned about a bad review, closing down to future bookings and offering confirmed guests full refunds and cancellations would certainly eliminate that stress.

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You’ve done a wonderful job of handling this problem so far. The builder sounds like a good guy but there is only so much they can do about the noise. And BTW noise does NOT diminish greatly until the very end stages of the build. Been There Done That.

The legal start time in your location is probably 7 AM. If weather heats up don’t expect them to wait until 8 AM, they can’t do so comfortably.

When is this house supposed to be completed? Working long days is a good sign!

In the meantime I’d either shut the rental down or discount it 50% immediately and disclose why in the listing and in messages (which you are already doing).

For reference I’ve stayed at a couple hotels over the decades where there was construction happening. Unfortunately those hotels stays are quite memorable! :frowning: There’s always a discount though.

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I don’t have time right now to read all the comments, but 1st thing, noise MUST Be MENTIONED in the 1st few lines of your listing. Also check the box and add comments for Additional noises. If you choose to keep it on Airbnb, add a photo of the tractors near your wall.

I would offer to rehome them with a full refund. A child convalescing needs a peaceful environment, as do his parents or any vacationing guests. That noise is just too close and I wish I could say that construction projects don’t get drawn out in time.

I would try to rent it long term for now, with full disclosure, and only showing it during working hours.

Wishing you luck on this construction timing, and hopefully the new neighbors on that lot will be nice!

We have had an issue with chickens and roosters. The same neighbor is also doing pool and landscape construction, but they are 200 yards away.

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My neighbor had chickens and roosters and me and the other neighbors were complaining about the roosters. (They started out with just chickens, for eggs, but a rooster showed up (I live in Mexico, they are everywhere) and before they knew it, there were a bunch of new roosters running around from the fertilized eggs.

He had read a trick online to stop roosters from crowing- you make velcro collars for them- not tight enough to choke them, but tight enough that they can’t get get a full-on crow out. So he had me make all these little collars, and they worked!

That’s called banding the roosters. The bands are available on line and need to fit correctly, + they are humane. I politely asked the neighbor to band the roosters, they did not, they ended up with 60 roosters only 2 of which crowed , and then a bobcat or something bigger came to get the idiot rooster that wouldn’t go into the pen at night and there were feathers all over the yard! So, after that, the owner had someone cart the extra roosters away.

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Close down for awhile during construction.

RR

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If it were me I wouldn’t shut down during construction because some guests might not care or care very little if they’re gone for most of the weekdays. I’m assuming that the local noise ordinance prohibits such work on weekends.

I would think you could have your cake and eat it too if you prominently and accurately disclosed the construction work at the top of your listing, repeated that in confirming reservations.

That way the guests can decide whether it’s an issue or not for them.

Why take your listing off the market if there are some guests who are willing to pay for your listing and don’t care about weekday business hour noise?

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