Councillors launch attack on unruly behaviour in Airbnbs

The BBC is reporting that councillors in Manchester have launched a series of attacks on users of Airbnb and other short let platforms.

The Labour-led council in the city has received a report saying about 3,600 properties or spare rooms were listed on Airbnb in the winter, with more expected to be listed as short term lets on rival websites; the peak was summer 2023 when 3,911 were listed - an increase on the pre-pandemic level of 3,429.

One councillor, Marcus Johns, is quoted as saying short term lets in his apartment block are causing "issues every weekend" with unruly behaviour including smashed lifts and kicked doors in.

Another city councillor, Irene Robinson, says tenants in the city centre are letting out properties solely as Airbnbs, and "often [the landlord] does not know".

She continues: "Even where there are clauses in the building [leases] where you are not allowed to sublet, they are just ignored. We need to be able to shut these down."

And Fiona Sharkey, another member of the council, is quoted as saying: "We will work proactively with landlords. In the past, we have issued closure notices. We have worked with Airbnb and Booking.com to provide good neighbour advice. But the lack of a registering regime does hamper us."

The council report calls for a register of short let hosts and urges the introduction of laws to require planning consent before being allowed to short let.