Murder and mayhem as Melbourne residents flee holiday rentals

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Security camera captures the crowd in a home that was wrecked and robbed.

It seems Airbnb (and other short-term holiday rental) stories are like buses – you don’t see any for a while then three come along at the same time.

In their monthly roundup of short-term holiday rental horror stories, our friends at Bnbguard have highlighted the worst and the very worst in the world of short-term holiday rentals.

Starting close to home, this article shows how out-of-control STRs in Melbourne are seriously damaging apartment prices and rents as long-term residents flee the mayhem and madness.

Overseas, Bnbguard have found many examples of the worst of the worst, where Airbnb lets have been trashed in parties – and one even led to murder.

First of the worst, there’s an assault and murder in Charlotte, then a guest using a fake name held a party that trashed and robbed an Arizona apartment, and finally a huge rave in an Atlanta home that caused thousands of dollars in damage. There’s video on some of these links too.

It’s not much fun for the neighbours living close to the property listed on Airbnb as “the most fun house in Wisconsin”.

And it turns out that Trump’s jailed campaign manager Paul Manafort was running his dubiously acquired New York loft apartment as an Airbnb while telling his daughter and son-in-law to pretend they were living there.  The apartment is now up for sale under proceeds of crime seizure

There’s also a mixed bag of stories of local and city authorities around the globe finally getting to grips (or not) with the so-called sharing (read “selfish commercial exploitation”) economy.

According to the latest Bnbguard newsletter Noosa Shire looks to ban STRs outside of popular areas and enforce tight rules where they’re allowed. Queenstown chooses just to tax them while Quebec and Cyprus opt for a permit system.

Raleigh and Honolulu also put in permits, with Raleigh banning whole house rentals entirely in most of the city and Honolulu limiting STRs in the city to 1700 max.

New Jersey says no to any STRs in apartment buildings, which Bnbguard say is the strongest stance on this issue they’ve seen yet.

Meanwhile in Australia, despite the damaging effects on the property market, not to mention the distress caused to permanent residents, Victoria asks for two years to evaluate its own weak rules, (oh, that’s our story!) and there’s still no sign of the new NSW rules.

If you’re having problems with short-term lets in your block – or just want to find a way of avoiding them in the future – click your way to the Bnbguard website where they may have the answer you’re looking for.

One Reply to “Murder and mayhem as Melbourne residents flee holiday rentals”

  1. Jimmy-T says:

    This is now being discussed in the Flat Chat Forum

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