Noise, nudity, foul language: Airbnb hosts should be fined, says report
Date: April 14, 2016
Nassim Khadem Deputy Editor BusinessDay
Airbnb hosts renting out their apartments in cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, should be slapped with speeding-ticket type fines if their guests engage in "disruptive" behaviour – such as noise, nudity and foul language – that upsets the neighbours.
The Grattan Institute suggests body corporates be allowed to issue fines over ''disruptive behaviour''. Photo: Bloomberg
Those are just some of the recommendations from think-tank Grattan Institute, which has unveiled a new report recommending how state and federal governments can regulate new "sharing economy" or "peer-to-peer" services such as Airbnb and Uber.
The report, Peer-to-peer pressure, How the government should make the most of the sharing economy, says there is a need for reform of competition, consumer and tax policy to allow such services to flourish.
It recommends all governments legalise ride sharing, saying recent such moves by the NSW and the ACT "provide good models for other governments to follow".
The Grattan Institute's Jim Minifie says fines need to be "big enough to make an impact". Photo: Louise Kennerley
Powers to fine Airbnb hosts
In relation to short-term rental accommodation such as Airbnb, it says "any rent increases caused by the rise of short-stay rentals are likely to be localised or small", and governments should "freely permit all occasional short-stay whole-premise letting".
To limit noise and loss of amenity when people rent out their spaces, the report suggests state governments give owners' corporations (also known as body corporates) more powers to control short-stay rentals, "possibly even the power to ban continuous, whole-premise short-stay rentals if agreed to by members".
The report points out that for all the complaints from body corporates that typically deal with physical property issues and other problems when people live close together, disruptive behaviour is relatively low.
Airbnb, which began operating in Australia in 2009, is the biggest global accommodation platform with more than 66,000 listings, mostly in inner Sydney and Melbourne. Stayz has more than 40,000 property listings.
Aggregate data for apartment buildings with short-stay accommodation sites shows that out of a total of 1.2 million stays, just over 1000 complaints were made. These included problems of users of short-term accommodation damaging property, littering in common areas, loud noise and music, and offensive language.
It also included behaviour such as drinking alcohol and/or smoking in common areas, vomiting, urinating or defecating in common areas, visible nudity, dropping items from balconies, and overcrowding. There were also a few occasions where building security, police or other emergency services been called to attend to complaints.
Grattan Institute productivity growth program director Jim Minifie, a co-author of the report, said body corporates could be given powers under existing laws to hit owners renting out homes with fines if there were such disruption. "You would want the fine to be big enough to make an impact," he said. "Per incident it could be a speeding-ticket-fine amount."
Date: April 14, 2016
Nassim Khadem Deputy Editor BusinessDay
Airbnb hosts renting out their apartments in cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, should be slapped with speeding-ticket type fines if their guests engage in "disruptive" behaviour – such as noise, nudity and foul language – that upsets the neighbours.
The Grattan Institute suggests body corporates be allowed to issue fines over ''disruptive behaviour''. Photo: Bloomberg
Those are just some of the recommendations from think-tank Grattan Institute, which has unveiled a new report recommending how state and federal governments can regulate new "sharing economy" or "peer-to-peer" services such as Airbnb and Uber.
The report, Peer-to-peer pressure, How the government should make the most of the sharing economy, says there is a need for reform of competition, consumer and tax policy to allow such services to flourish.
It recommends all governments legalise ride sharing, saying recent such moves by the NSW and the ACT "provide good models for other governments to follow".
The Grattan Institute's Jim Minifie says fines need to be "big enough to make an impact". Photo: Louise Kennerley
Powers to fine Airbnb hosts
In relation to short-term rental accommodation such as Airbnb, it says "any rent increases caused by the rise of short-stay rentals are likely to be localised or small", and governments should "freely permit all occasional short-stay whole-premise letting".
To limit noise and loss of amenity when people rent out their spaces, the report suggests state governments give owners' corporations (also known as body corporates) more powers to control short-stay rentals, "possibly even the power to ban continuous, whole-premise short-stay rentals if agreed to by members".
The report points out that for all the complaints from body corporates that typically deal with physical property issues and other problems when people live close together, disruptive behaviour is relatively low.
Airbnb, which began operating in Australia in 2009, is the biggest global accommodation platform with more than 66,000 listings, mostly in inner Sydney and Melbourne. Stayz has more than 40,000 property listings.
Aggregate data for apartment buildings with short-stay accommodation sites shows that out of a total of 1.2 million stays, just over 1000 complaints were made. These included problems of users of short-term accommodation damaging property, littering in common areas, loud noise and music, and offensive language.
It also included behaviour such as drinking alcohol and/or smoking in common areas, vomiting, urinating or defecating in common areas, visible nudity, dropping items from balconies, and overcrowding. There were also a few occasions where building security, police or other emergency services been called to attend to complaints.
Grattan Institute productivity growth program director Jim Minifie, a co-author of the report, said body corporates could be given powers under existing laws to hit owners renting out homes with fines if there were such disruption. "You would want the fine to be big enough to make an impact," he said. "Per incident it could be a speeding-ticket-fine amount."
- many of the airbnb travellers are groups of girls from Europe and Asia)
