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IT HAD ALL the tell-tale signs of an Airbnb: the number-coded key lock by the door, groups of strangers coming and going at odd hours, the cleaning staff making their regular visits.
A search confirmed Siobhán Geoghegan’s suspicions: the recently renovated apartment in her historic building at Rialto in Dublin had been turned into a quasi-hotel, pulling in as much in a week from tourist as it would in nearly a month with a long-term tenant.
“I was really disappointed because the rents have already increased so much that people just can’t afford to live here – and it’s a small, one-bedroom apartment, so four people sharing that space doesn’t seem appropriate,” she said.
Geoghegan, like many others living in Ireland’s tourist hotspots, is waiting on the introduction of new laws next month, which will effectively ban year-round short-term lets in private properties in areas where the housing crisis is at its most acute.
But councils face an uphill battle in enforcing the expected avalanche of fresh cases under the incoming rules, with many local authorities already locked in years-long investigations and planning disputes to close down just a handful of unauthorised rentals.
A landmark decision
Under existing regulations, property owners are already in most cases barred from turning homes into year-round tourist accommodation without council approval.
That fact was confirmed in late 2016 when An Bord Pleanála delivered a landmark decision to block a Temple Bar apartment – advertised as delivering around €6,000 per month on Airbnb when it was put on sale – being used exclusively as a short-term let.
The decision was backed up by the Department of Housing, which later urged councils to investigate any cases of suspected year-round short-term lets and, where necessary, take action to shut them down.
Since then, councils have fielded hundreds of complaints, with some leading to enforcement actions being launched against the operators. Dublin City Council has been the nexus of issues surrounding unauthorised short-term letting.
Between 2016 and the end of 2018, the council received 247 complaints about short-term lets that resulted in warning letters. Fewer than two-fifths of the cases had been resolved as of March this year.
Some 104 of those complaints were fielded last year, compared to just 16 for Galway City Council and seven for Fingal. The other Dublin councils, as well as Limerick, Cork city, Meath and Wicklow’s local authorities, all received either one or zero complaints last year.
Policing problems
However enforcement case files obtained by Noteworthy, the investigative journalism platform from TheJournal.ie, show the challenges even the most diligent council investigations face in policing illegal short-term lets.
Many cases are hampered by problems tracking down who is responsible for a rental, while others are stymied by owners’ claims that their homes are only intermittently being used as tourist accommodation.
One complaint to Dublin City Council in November 2017 said that one-fifth of the apartments in their Temple Bar apartment complex were being used as short-term lets.
Many were listed individually on Airbnb, while others were being advertised by a large ‘aparthotel’ operator.
It has come to the point where I had to keep their number on speed dial due to the noise from those apartments in the middle of the night,” the complaint said.
The council opened several investigations, but in one case warning letters to the individual apartment were simply ignored.
The property’s former owner, who was eventually contacted after registry searches, said the apartment had been sold in 2016. Nearly two years later the case is still open.
Meanwhile, in a complaint from early 2018, Galway City Council was told that a four-bedroom house near the city’s historic centre was being advertised on Airbnb and Booking.com for ‘luxury’ short-term lets for groups of up to 12 people.
The complainant raised noise and other issues, adding: “Why is this not regulated like bed and breakfasts?”
After writing to the property owner, the council received a response from her lawyers to say the house was rented to a tenant, who advised that it was only “occasionally” let and was mainly used as their home.
However listing searches showed it was available virtually all summer. The council recommended a follow-up letter in September to advise the owner that planning permission was needed.
In late October, nine months after the complaint was lodged, the council received a response from the legal firm to say they no longer acted for the owner. The house is still available for rent, now for up to 14 people, at a rate of €710 per night in summer.
A major shake-up
The introduction next month of new short-term letting laws will deliver a major shake-up to the industry as the government attempts to drive more homes onto the market for long-term rentals amid the ever-snowballing housing crisis.
In designated rent-pressure zones, which cover Dublin and major commuter towns as well as Galway and Cork cities and part of Limerick, councils will need to grant planning approval for any short-term letting of investment properties.
The Department of Housing said in a recent letter to all local authorities that it was unlikely any of these applications would be approved due to the housing shortages.
People renting out their main homes on a short-term basis will also be barred for doing so for more than 90 days each year without planning permission, while those offering stays under this threshold would have to register with their local authorities.
However all the onus for policing the regulations will also rest on local authorities, which many say are ill-prepared to handle extra enforcement cases given the difficulties involved in investigating short-term lets and recession-era staff cuts.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said local authorities such as Dublin City Council should focus on a few, high-profile cases that involved large-scale short-term letting “to send out a very clear signal” to other operators that they meant business.
“It’s like a lot of things – you can have very good regulations, but unless there are the staff and the resources in the local authorities to be able to enforce them, their effectiveness is open to question,” he said.
In a memo from November, Dublin City Council’s head of planning and development, Richard Shakespeare, noted that the enforcement of short-term lettings was “logistically very difficult”.
This was because of problems establishing ownership, getting access to properties and proving illegal letting, with the onus on local authorities to provide first-hand proof that properties were being used as tourist rentals.
The production of internet listings of properties from short-term letting platforms will not be sufficient evidence to proceed to issue an enforcement notice or sustain a conviction in court,” he added.
Shakespeare said it could cost €400,000 extra each year to enforce the regulations as more than 5,000 properties were listed on various platforms for short-term rental in the Dublin city region. The estimate has since increased to as much as €750,000.
The Department of Housing’s latest circular, issued last week, noted that enforcing the rules would need extra resources and asked councils to put in their requests for additional funding.
It added that “step-by-step procedures for taking enforcement action based on the experience of local authorities which have already been adopting a proactive approach in this area” would be issued shortly.
A deterrent
Once a council issues a formal enforcement notice in relation to a suspected illegal short-term let, anyone continuing with a relatively minor planning breach can be fined up to €5,000 or, in theory, jailed for up to six months.
If councils take court action, they can also seek to recover their enforcement costs, which would typically amount to several thousand euro, as well as legal expenses, however these cases are extremely rare.
In reality, councils usually hope that warning and enforcement letters will prove enough of a deterrent for anyone looking to capitalise on the huge returns available from short-term lets.
An Oireachtas committee argued in February that the new laws should go further and make it an offence for holiday letting sites to advertise non-compliant hosts following an earlier recommendation that the platforms be required to share data with authorities.
However under the incoming rules there is no requirement that property listing sites hand over any information, and they face no potential penalties.
Dublin councillor Patrick Costello said Airbnb and other platforms should be required to share data on hosts, much as the companies were already required to hand over taxpayer details to Revenue.
A breach of planning regulations is a criminal offence. If these platforms are aware that somebody is breaking the rules, which they should be given how much information they have, they should be sharing this information with the council,” he said.
When contacted by Noteworthy for comment, Airbnb said via a spokesman that it “always reminded hosts to follow local rules” and took action whenever “bad actors” were brought to its attention.
A Booking.com spokeswoman said the site required hosts to comply with all local regulations, and listings could be removed if they were in breach of any laws.
Neither responded directly to questions on whether they would provide information on hosts to authorities on request.
Professional hosts
Nevertheless, even detailed data may not help councils identify those responsible for a large share of the short-term letting market. Many absentee landlords – the ones who would be held liable in the case of any planning breaches – outsource their listings to professional hosts, who handle all aspects of the short-term letting management.
Other major operators own properties outright, making them easier targets for council officials.
The Key Collections, which lists 20 hotels, apartment complexes and guesthouses in Dublin on its website, last year lost an appeal to An Bord Pleanála over its use of eight apartments at Smithfield’s Chancery Hall as short-term lets without planning approval.
The company, which declined to comment when contacted via a spokeswoman, argued it didn’t need to apply for council approval as the apartments were still in residential use. The apartments are no longer listed as available on its website.
TU Dublin lecturer and housing expert Lorcan Sirr said councils risked being out-manoeuvred by short-term letting hosts if they continued to take a “bottom-up approach” by only responding to complaints.
When something is as lucrative as a short-term let, people will do what they can to continue in operation, they will try to thwart the regulations, they will take a chance on it because they know the chance of getting caught is very small,” he said.
However the chilling effect of the new laws may be enough to push many full-time, short-term letting operators out of the industry.
Two professional Airbnb managers told Noteworthy that they planned to stop offering short-term lettings altogether due to the new laws, with one saying they would instead focus on longer-term, corporate rentals.
These fall outside the definition of short-term lets under the new regulations, which only cover stays of 14 or fewer days.
For now, most councils appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to how the new laws will work in practice.
A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council, which will be at the front line of implementing the rules, said the local authority was currently examining the final regulations, which it received last week, and it would be “considering the implications of enforcing them”.
For Geoghegan, her hope is that the new laws will restore some stability to neighbourhoods like her own that have become unwelcome hubs for tourists.
“People want this authentic experience of the city that they’re going to visit, they want this edgy neighbourhood, but it takes away from the social fabric of the area,” she said.
Know more about this story or want to share your experiences? Email the author via peter@thejournal.ie or send a message using the secure Threema app, ID: ESUCBYMK
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The government should just take there thumb out of there bums and stop blaming Airbnb for the house shortages that they are deliberately creating.build more homes and build up the way is the answer…so get on it.
@Robert Phelan: they HAVE to blame someone else. Typical.
@Robert Phelan: exactly. They take up less than 5% of available rental properties, and yet are seen as the cause of problems. These regulation hint of either nimby apartment dwellers or other vested interests (I e. Hotels) removing competition.
@Robert Phelan: yes build more new home then snapped up by air b/b and other short stay holiday platforms. Stop them in their tracks by strong laws higher fines and the more properties on their books the heavier the fine and the fine used to cover the cost prosecutions so their is no cost to the councils.
@Renton Burke: nimby apartment dwellers?? Do you mean people that have bought a place to live and raise a family?? That now have to live beside a hotel, a hotel that has no one working in it that you can go to when problems arise in the middle of the night with drunken stag and hens parties,, if you want to get into the hotel business fair enough, go buy a place in a commercial building and adhere to the proper rules and regulations like all other hotels and B&Bs have to, all short term let’s should be illegal in residential buildings, it’s nothing but greed and a two fingered I don’t give a fu@& about anyone else who lives in the building,, I hope they all get hammered in the pocket by the government, only place that the greedy ba$ta£ds care about….
@Devilsavocado: Have you any idea how crass a statement that is? Crawl back under your stone.
@Devilsavocado: I agree. Airbnb is definitely a huge part of the problem. At the moment it’s a free for all. And the new laws are making matters worse by the sounds of it.
There should be a strict certification process. Airbnb letters should be required to hold a license. That license should come with a tax. Just like any other license. Granting of license in each region would be assessed based on public housing needs in that region. Airbnb should be required by law to only allow those holding a valid license to avail of their service. Anyone else found in breach of the law would be fined and risk never owning a license in future.
@Robert Phelan: govt should tax air BnB company at point of sale just as OECD plans to do with big tech.
If only there was a website you could visit and see people breaking the rules…..
If every single Airbnb in the country stopped tomorrow there would still be a housing crisis.
This is big noise & no result & is solving nothing but making it sound feel like they’re doing something, catching someone, clamping down.
It’s farcical
I’m sorry for anyone who’s area is being brought down by constant coming & going of Airbnb guests. Or rents gone up. I am.
But this isn’t the solution.
I no longer rent out my spare room. 1 guests are a pain in my hoop 2 Airbnb don’t help when something goes wrong & most importantly 3 the state introduced a retrospective tax where they changed the laws regarding what you could earn from renting & implemented a retrospective penalty
So just to clarify, when I earned the money it was legal but now it isn’t & they want 3 yrs back tax from me.
@Abbie Cranky: jesus that’s a bit harsh. I got out of renting as soon as the prtb shared my details with revenue. It became uneconomical over night.
@Adolf Galland:
If you couldn’t afford to run your business while paying the same tax as (the ridiculous tax situation with REITS excepted) your competition the market is better off without you in it.
@Patrick Nolan: My tenants probably would disagree with you. They had a good rent in a nice property.
Councils should adopt the approach taken by Miami Beach where it is illegal to rent on AirbnB or any other short term sites. They fine the owners $20,000 for a first offense. Ownership is transparent, as it should be in Ireland.
It is my house and I will do what I like with it. Last time I checked, private property was protected by the Consititution.This is not North Korea, China or the USSR
@Peter Buchanan: and to hell with anyone that is affected by your business??? Honest question, would you buy an apartment or house that was next door to a place that had strangers coming and going every few days with no way of telling if you or your family would be awoken by in house parties on a regular basis?? If your answer is no,, like it would be for any sane individual, then why the hell do you think it’s acceptable for someone to be able to buy a property next door to where someone is already living and turn it into a short term let property??
@Peter Buchanan: So you can do what you like with it eh? may be turn it into a brothel eh? a craic house eh? maybe launder a bit of diesel? Grow up!
@Peter Buchanan: DH – any idea what those two letters stand for?
@Devilsavocado: the council do it on private estates my neighbors have had years of grief from council tenants and the rest see their lifestyle is similar to their if not better all the while they pay top rates for their mortgages to have their night sleep broken by TVs on all night
@Adolf Galland: that’s a little silly ,that’s not what he meant
@Peter Buchanan: The constitution recognises property rights, but allows the Government to legislate for the common good. This is why we have planning law. You can’t do what you like with your property. Hence planning permission for extensions etc.
The vast majority of commercial Airbnbs do not have planning permission. ABP have ruled that airbnb style letting is a material change of use. So even without the new rules there is a widespread breach of planning law going on. The problem (as ever in Ireland) is one of enforcement.
@Gerard Heery: and your neighbour hates it and it makes his life a misery yes?? But the council does it so it’s ok for everyone else to do it and make the problem worse?? Is that really your response to me “the council does it” Jesus wept…..
@FlopFlipU: Yeah but it’s funny.
Heavy handed attempts by the Government to tax and regulate the long term rental sector were the direct cause of the homeless crisis. Rental supply dried up as existing landlords left the sector. The assault on AirBnB is simply a desperate attempt to drive more properties to long term rental. It is highly unlikely this will happen. Most property owners would sell up before getting back in that game. It is worth remembering also that AirBnB lets increase tourist spend in a region so banning these will have a knock on effect on local businesses and the economy.
@Sean: “Heavy handed” means that the property is registered, maintained to a certain standard and the landlord pays tax in their income. Hardly heavy handed in what was a largely deregulated sector.
No imagination
Use the tax system. Normal rates up to your designated time limit, then 100% thereafter.
No more dealing with toothless councils and planning authorities. Go ahead, AirBnB to your hearts content, and make false declarations if you want, but remember the implications are far more serious if caught, and it’s hard to hide these transactions.
This seems to show there’s huge shortage in both residential and tourist accommodation, so Dublin needs to sprawl out further.
However, a lot of property seems to stay empty so that the Vulture rentals can keep demand high so rental prices can go higher too. Its not AirB&B to police but the Vulture Renters, some of them being TDs.
@WoodlandBard:
Ridiculous statement.
If you have 10 properties and you intentionally keep 1 empty you may raise the rent by 10% but you are 10% down on your overall rent all income,
How does that make sense?
For the record. I’m Geoghegan mentioned in the article and the apartment is one of 61 properties owned by the host *Paul * who has 61 properties listed on Airbnb all in high rent pressure zones. That’s 61 flats & cottages off the rental market. It’s not about nimbus it’s about who is Dublin for? Who can afford 2k rent for a two bedroom house in Rialto? Not local people.
AirBnB was originally introduced as way of offering people a way of making some money from their living space and a way for travellers to have a more authentic stay type experience while on a trip. It was not legislated for because no one predicted it’s success or it’s mutation into one of the most damaging disruptive industries with IT at it’s heart. Due to its abilities in global distribution of services, it has created unfulfillable demands and as any economics student knows, this drove the prices of rental accommodation up and out of the reach of ordinary people. Tourists staying in AirBnB and homeless people staying in hotels. If you can’t see what’s wrong with that, you’re part of the problem. It’s about time it was regulated.
If the council are short of manpower why not employ unemployed people they could find the air b/b platform host property owners and each one they find be paid commission + expenses and their heavy fines would cover this cost. in Florida they are fined €50,000 and up words for repeat offenders.
A very good piece of journalism. Make short term let’s sign up with PTRB who automatically share info with revenue. The leasors will then get hit with 55% tax and “bosh” problem solved.
It’s easy to find out who owns any asset – temporarily sieze it and see who turns up to complain.
@Conall:
I like your style.
Anyone I know doing airbnb is actually a tenant. They’re subletting using airbnb.
So can we stop blaming “landlords”. Like 18th century Lords rather than just some lad that inherited an ex council house from his bachelor uncle.
@Cathal Byrne: That is correct. As a tenant, because they are able to make such a profit from their tenure (which is supposed to be for their own domestic purposes), they can afford to pay enormous rent which prices the property out of reach of someone on an average salary who just wants to live there.
@Cathal Byrne: ahh, well that solves it so,, the government can stand down with there new plans,,, everyone Cathal knows is just sub letting,, problem solved, the chances property’s are being purchased just for short term letting is how nonexistent thanks to Cathals vast knowledge of everyone in the business….
@Devilsavocado: Less of the sarcasm please. I’m just making the point that the owner of the property is not always to blame. Many tenants are subletting via Airbnb. I didn’t see that point being made.
If the owner is told that a tenant is subletting via Airbnb should they be able to terminate the tenancy? The reality is that all these measures tend to be directed at the owner as the “bad guy”, who may have no idea that the long term tenant they think they have is actually an airbnb landlord.
@Cathal Byrne: so new rules and regulations need to be set up to stop these problems that airb&b has brought in,, do you agree Cathal?
Absolutely astonishing, the amount of people siding with the government on this issue. No wonder the country is in such a mess and the same two parties are continually voted into power.
@This Guy: absolutely astonishing the amount of people that don’t see the problems this creates for so many other people,(residents in buildings, people that work in the hotel and B&B sector, people trying to purchase their own property, people looking for affordable rent in cities, the tax payer, tourists) the list goes on,, but hey, I’m making a few quid the hell with everyone else,, FFG have thought us well…..
@Devilsavocado: “taught”
@Devilsavocado: The irony of your comment. People renting through Airbnb are themselves in the B&B sector. Why isn’t the same ire directed at pre-existing Hotels and B&Bs? People coming and going at all hours, hoarding property which could potentially house people, dodging tax etc. What exactly is your issue that doesn’t also apply to Hotels and B&Bs?
@Paraic: google how to set up a B&B in Ireland, everything from changing you status with water company’s to fire safety certification to food safety etc etc,,also I’d like to see you have a rave in your hotel room and not have security hammer down your door after other residents complain about the noise, do it again and any decent hotel will have you out on your ear in a heartbeat,, who do you get in touch with when this happens next door to your apartment??
@Devilsavocado: You go to the property owner running the let of course. Even if they haven’t given you their contact details, they can easily be contacted through the Airbnb platform. It isn’t in the interests of a property owner to have raves in their property. Why do you think that a German couple on holidays are more likely to organise a rave in your property than college students renting? It doesn’t make any sense. No, this is a phantom issue that is just a detraction from the real problem. Government failure and unwillingness to build.
@Devilsavocado: You keep bringing up this party/race argument as if it’s exclusive to Airbnb. It isn’t.
@This Guy: Race?? What are you on about??And I’ve brought up other things like people trying to rent properties to live in cities at reasonable rates, people who want to buy and live in their own properties but are being priced out of the market, B&B owners and hotels that employ millions that have to adhere to rules, regulations and tax issues that short term letters don’t have to, and if you think that the party house issue isn’t a big deal, google airb&b neighbours from hell to see how it has effected so many people that bought our rented in residential buildings only to have their families lives turned upside down by short term renters that couldn’t give a f about the damage they cause on their drunken weekend breaks. Rules need to be applied because this is getting out of control…
@Devilsavocado: He meant raves. There is plenty of media out there sensationalising Airbnb guests from hell. This is one of the issues when you sell an Irish TV station to Virgin media for example. You give a multinational hotelier (among other things) a platform to produce and air their own self serving propaganda. (“Airbnb Dream it Nightmare?”). Ask a person who is actually letting their property through Airbnb. They will be much more bland and benign stories of grateful and respectful couples, families etc. trying to save a few euro, leaving the place pristine. With respect to “coming and going at all hours” that is at odds with the reality. Take a look at some Airbnb listings. They specify check in or check out times between late morning (11-12 am or so and early evening 4-6pm).
@Paraic: is that right Paraic, problems with unmonitored guests are just a conspiracy made up by big hotel chains,, do us a favour and just scroll down there to Lauren and tell her she is making it up and her first hand experience of living next door to an apartment that has brought unpleasant living conditions and angry responses from guests when asked to be respectful to neighbours is all just a figment of her imagination….
@Devilsavocado: Should we ban Taxis too. Because y’know, just Google “taxi drivers from hell”. There will always be rogue operators. At least with Airbnb if you get a bad egg, they won’t be there for years, unlike bad tenants.
@Paraic: so all you can do is bring in problems from other sectors,, but you have no answers to the problems created by short term lettings to the many people I’ve mentioned in previous posts,, it’s people like you with your f u attitude to everyone else that’s the problem with this country,, hotels and certified B&Bs are for tourists, apartments in residential buildings are for people to live in, like it or not our government will bring in laws like Germany, and states in America have to prevent people making money and having little or no respect for the community’s that they set up in and the sooner the better in my opinion….. :)
@Devilsavocado: *rave
@Devilsavocado: I brought up taxis as an example of an industry that has issues with rogues but is not banned outright as a result. It’s a fair point. Lawbreakers are prevalent in every aspect of society. It’s disingenuous to point to the actions of lawbreakers as an excuse to introduce new legislation that is really designed to erode the rights of a service provider. Existing laws to deal with disruption in apartment blocks is already in place. If an Airbnb guest/guests are affecting you because they are having a rave in a residential block of apartments, by all means, take legal action against them. Same thing if they are tenants, guests of tenants, drug dealers etc.
It’s not NIMBYism when your neighbours are breaking the law by inviting a nuisance and safety concern into your locality for profit. A revolving door of strangers with possibly different ideas regarding acceptable noise levels and behaviour coming and going at all hours of the day and night in your neighbourhood into which you have invested literally and otherwise is a problem. That “it’s my house so I can do what I want with it” mentality is not only factually incorrect, but it’s the root of a lot of problems in Irish society,
We have an Air BnB next door to us in Dublin City Centre. While we don’t notice the majority of guests coming and going, it’s certainly not pleasant having a constant parade of strangers walking in and out of the otherwise very secure building.
We’ve also been woken up by parties mid week, who’ve turned nasty when asked to pipe down. Oh, and the mess of fast food litter left in the halls and vomit in the lift.
Landlord is an ***hole who reckons all Irish people are inconsiderate (he’s not Irish himself).
@Lauren Halligan: ye but according to a few people on here Lauren it’s not common so you just have to live with it, tough luck,, now you can always try complaining, if you look it up there are a few things you can do,, and guess what, it should only take a year or two for anything to be done about it, so suck it up and take it like a trooper, people are making money, so to hell with your standard of living….
@Lauren Halligan: Airbnb operators have to advise by the law, like everyone else. I presume you are renting, because if you owned the property, you could group together with other apartment owners in the block to take action. Talk to your landlord, make it clear that excessive noise and filth in the common areas, is a breach of your terms. Complain directly to Airbnb about the lister. Make it clear that you are holding them responsible. Find out if they are the actual property owner, ect. If you feel strongly, take action.
@Paraic: did you not read the bit that she said her landlord is an a$$h0le who is most likely the one that’s renting out other apartments in the building on airb&b, who also doesn’t live in the country,, ah but sure it’s only him right?? There’s no chance that if the government doesn’t take action that more foreign investors will see this as a way to make a killing and to hell with people who need somewhere to live in Dublins fair city….
@Devilsavocado: Thanks for clearing that up. It wasn’t obvious which property she was referring to since the words ‘my’ or ‘their’ was omitted before Landlord.
Well that’s great news then! The root cause is her @$$hole landlord. As a tenant, she has the right to enjoy the use of the apartment uninterrupted by excessive noise and without filth in the common areas. The RTB is there to ensure that the terms of her tenancy are upheld. In the case if she has no satisfaction with her landlord, she can initiate a case with the RTB. No need for new legislation, raise a case under the existing ones.
@Paraic: Actually we own it. The owner I was referring to is the owner of the AirBnB. He’s coining it so doesn’t give a hoot (he doesn’t live there himself). Our management company also couldn’t care less.
@Lauren Halligan: Thanks for clearing it up. Is there not an owner’s/residents committee that can help you put pressure on him though? If not and this is a genuine and regular issue, then you should form one and take group action. Then there’s the legal route if all else fails. I lived in an apartment in Dublin myself for long enough. It’s not ideal living. Always done source of disruption. With me it was my electric guitar playing downstairs neighbor. Should we legislate against guitar playing though?
Don’t do Airbnb.
Nightmare guests
Worst- Americans, South Americans.
Best- French, German, English, Italians.
On topic. Very convenient for a failing gov. to blame Airbnb. Maybe they should go down hard on expensive hotels. Tourists get ripped off, Airbnb offers good value for money.
Smoke and mirrors to try shift the blame off councils NIMBY policies
The revenue commissioners are the best form of enforcement in Ireland. Once they get involved, things get sorted
Could ye not have made that shorter!
Hotels are for touists .Apartments are for making a home. QED.
POINT OF SALE TAX for Air BnB estou as planned by OECD on tech companies should be applied.
have your say