People Don’t Really Want To Live Next To A Vacation Rental Party House

It’s not that people in residential neighborhoods don’t like tourists, or that they don’t want their neighbors to make money by occasionally renting out their homes on AirBNB or HomeAway. It’s that they didn’t sign up to live next to a party hotel, and services that let people rent out their homes very easily also make it super-easy to buy an ordinary house and turn it into a party rental.

Neighbors are usually not thrilled about their new temporary guests. The New York Times’ Ron Lieber rented out a house in Austin, TX that’s marketed to people visiting that city for a “good time,” and he threw his own very tame party, inviting neighbors over to chat about what it’s like to have a constant rotating cast of new neighbors.

“Sometimes, when they are outside, they’re playing beer pong just wearing their underwear,” one 11-year-old who lives near the house explained to Lieber. She shouldn’t have neighbors like that for at least another seven years.

People in Austin have created grassroots groups to stop the use of residential properties as mini-hotels, which neighbors complain is bad for their own quality of life as well as hurting their property values when they need to sell their homes.

New Worry for Home Buyers: A Party House Next Door [NY Times]
NEIGHBORS FOR SHORT TERM RENTAL REFORM [Official Site]
My neighbor is an Airbnb host. What do I need to know? [AirBNB]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist