NYC recently banned short term rentals, but prior to that, our immediate neighboring apartment was an AirBnB for about two years and let me tell you it was absolute hell to live next to. The other five apartments in the building all suffered. It literally brought us together.

The host was never there, and the guests very frequently trashed the place, loitered in the hallway, and held parties on work nights. There was SO MUCH indoor smoking. They would constantly keep us up all night since their party room was next to our bedroom. On various occasions drunk guests would try to force their way into our apartment. We once had to call the cops on a bunch of minors who rented it out to throw a rager (I hate doing this because ACAB, but we had work the next day and warned them multiple times, plus they were underage drinking). We also had to call the cops a few times over domestic disputes that got violent. One time, the guest went into the basement and flipped the breakers for the whole building because his power wasn’t working (likely the host wasn’t paying his bills). We CONSTANTLY had strangers follow us into the building, pester us to let them in, or buzz us shitfaced drunk at 3am. This all just scratches the surface of what happened, believe me when I say it was a literal nightmare.

We reported it to the city a million times and they neglected to do anything because they really couldn’t. The Airbnb was bringing in $500/day, enough to pay the $3000/month rent easily, so they had more rights than any actual tenant in the building. This one host also “ran” five other airbnbs in the area.

I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for land leeches. I actively spite Airbnb hosts. And fuck Airbnb for worsening the housing crisis for profit (for a time, there were more airbnbs than apartments for rent).