I live next to an illegal short-term rental Airbnb. In New Orleans you cannot have an Airbnb in a residential neighborhood unless the owner lives on the property permanently. Yet the city of New Orleans does not enforce these laws. Therefore there are many, many illegal Airbnb’s in our residential neighborhoods. I live next to one of these “party houses”. The owner lives in New York and has never lived on the property. He lost his short-term rental permit in 2019, and I have been trying to get the property closed ever since.
The pictures of the property are fake, and the reviews are fake. Attached is a real review of the property which the owner has taken down. When I contacted Airbnb they told me to speak to the owner. He has been very nasty to me. His guests throw beer cans at my house next door, broke my fence trying to climb over it to get a ball, and they have loud parties into the early morning hours.
When a real customer is disgusted with the property and does not want to stay because it is not clean, nor meets any of the description, he does not give them their money back. He has thrown guests out because he has others checking in. He has seven listings on Airbnb when there are only two properties. I live next to one and the other is in the French Quarter, which is totally illegal.
I am currently dealing with similar situation in Virginia Beach VA. No one from here will enforce the illegal short-term property and it is often a threat to my personal safety. I had to discontinue use of my entire home office and move into my dining room because of later night noise. So if anyone decides to file a class action suit against Airbnb I am definitely interested because they have done absolutely nothing. I don’t understand how they can allow illegal businesses the right to operate on their website and not be liable? I am contacting an attorney this week because it is costing me valuable study time and impacting my health! Thank you so much for this website! I feel better knowing I’m not the only one dealing with this!