2023-06-01 16:06:41
Quick rentals of apartments and houses Airbnb excite tourists in France but they alienate homeowners and neighbors.
In Paris, the mayor Anne Hidalgo proposes to regulate them, after entire neighborhoods have been reconfigured with the presence of apartments for temporary rent, which change the spirit, desangelize the buildings, devalue the apartments for sale and destroy the coexistence of the neighbors.
“It’s too much, I can’t take it anymore!” This is the most heard phrase among neighbors who have an Airbnb next to them.
What about Airbnb?
What’s going on? Airbnbs in France are rented by young people who party unauthorized and leave the house or apartment devastated, tourists who place more people than authorized and also destroy the place, or prostitutes, who turn it into its sexual basis.
When France is going to receive the Rugby World Cup in September and the Olympic Games in the next European summer, the subject is on everyone’s lips. Is the great concern of the tourist authorities and the government.
With inflation soaring, a 70 percent increase in the cost of living, and coping with painting, skyrocketing building repairs, and vacations, many families decide to rent their own apartment and they go to their secondary residence or to the house of children or friends to get extra funds.
Faced with the traumatic experience, they debate between the risk of renting it at the tempting prices or preserving it from vandals.
Denise’s case
Denise is retired and has to pay 20.000 euros for structural work on his co-ownership, not far from Roland Garros and PSG. Chic, well decorated, your loft can reach the 1000 euros per night in the World Cup or in the Olympics.
“But I doubt. My neighbors look at me badly if I rent on Airbnb because everyone knows what’s up. At the same time, if it appears on Airbnb, the price of my apartment and that of my neighbors is devalued. it’s a dilemma“, Explain.
Denise’s apartment is rented at 200 euros per night when there are no exceptional occasions. She investigates her tenants as much as possible and prefers single people. But nothing guarantees that they will not bring guests.
The return of the tourists
Tourists have returned to Paris with force Post Covid. Chinese who have returned to travel after years of confinement, Americans, Nordics, Japanese have invaded the city this summer.
The hotels prices have gone up at the rate of the increase in fuel and food. The touristss prefer the apartment option to save in restaurants and distribute the expenses.
In summer, the apartments are rented cheaper. Although the price can quadruple on occasions like Roland Garros, the World Cup or the Olympics.
10,500 euros per night at the Games
In St Germain de Pres, a 100 meter department for the Olympics it can cost 8000 euros per night. In the Marais, a 30-meter loft that is now rented for 250 euros, is marked for the Olympic Games at 10,500 euros per night. Exorbitant prices in the face of incredible short-term demand.
But behind the financial aspect, some remember the behind the scenes. “The offer is tempting. But since the apartment of a relative rented through Airbnb has been ruined, I am not taking any chances”, emphasizes a mother.
The testimonies of very bad experiences of this type are legion. Beyond the individual disappointments, sometimes with serious consequences, and very specific periods such as the Olympic Games, the increase in short-term rentals also worries the municipal officials of each neighborhood and the residents of the areas in question.
The areas are easily recognizable by their numerous key boxes, installed near the doors of buildings, which are collected by tourists. The owners mostly do not come to receive them, which would be a way of knowing who they are.
Noise, prostitutes and dirt
In Paris, Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), in the Basque Country or elsewhere, the answer is the same. First consequences: noise, something that traumatizes the Frenchsuitcases on wheels on the cobblestones, comings and goings in the buildings, repeated parties and impoliteness, especially regarding the Dirt and waste management.
“There is almost no recourse possible: you are dealing with passers-by who don’t care, with janitors who are there to clean up in half an hour, and absent homeowners you don’t know,” laments Brigitte Cottet, president of the Old Town neighborhood association. Annecy.
foreign owners
Many of those who rent apartments are not residents of France but abroad. They do it to pay annual expenses, which are increasingly high in France, and real estate taxes.
The owners of the studio located just above Marielle, who occupies an apartment in a street that leads to the castle of Annecy, they live in mexico. But there are many Brazilian, North American, and British owners who rent when they don’t occupy their house in France. .
Sometimes the discomfort is much more disturbing. They are not tourists who want to see Paris, stroll the Bateau Mouche, visit the latest Rames and Manet exhibitions, but prostitutes.
They are looking for a well-decorated place, where they can practice their trade and be able to leave the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, where they work in vansilluminated by a colored light. Airbnb is safer for them. He has access, together with his clients, to a bathroom and a kitchen and they are protected from inclement weather.
Chloe’s experience
Chloé, a 30-year-old from Bayonne, discovered that the apartment next to hers accommodated families or friends who had come to discover the Basque Country, but also prostitutes.
“The same girls came back several times. And, through the peephole in my door, several times a day I saw lonely men waiting at the break… We didn’t feel safe. We are supposed to be in a quiet residence and we find ourselves in the middle of a web like that!” she recounted.
After having warned the owner, the manager, the trustee and the police in vain, Chloé ended up turning to the Alda association -“change” in Basque-, which supported her in her endeavor. For a month now, the administrative employee has noted with relief that the ballet of the occupants had stopped… but for how long?
there are no more neighbors
In some buildings, the neighbors have disappeared. They are mostly two-room apartments or studios to rent to foreigners. no one knows anyone and social ties have died.
The Airbnb boom has left those looking to rent long-term without a choice. They cannot find an apartment to live in the face of rising prices and the housing shortages in Paris.
“A short-term rental apartment It is one floor less for a family who wants to settle down”, sums up an expert in the field.
In the Facebook group “Rhuys Peninsula”several future inhabitants of this little piece of Morbihan share their difficulties in finding permanent housing.
“Impossible to find a rental for the whole year, there is only seasonal rental,” says, with anguish, a mother forced to settle with her husband and her son with her own parents.
The mayor’s projects
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo wants organize a referendum to define the good conditions of use of Airbnb. But in other cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam and Los Angeles there are already mechanisms in place to curb to this mastodon of the online tourist rental.
In France there are already legal battles against Airbnb. Two landlords and the Paris mayor’s office went to court because they had rented a room without authorization from the mayor’s office. They took the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union to challenge the 40,000 euros of amendment, which is required by the mayor of Paris.
The next step is for the communes to ask Airbnb a list of all houses and apartments for temporary rent.
has even formed a global movement Resist Airbnb to fight against short-term rentals, whom they qualify as with “predatory act”.
This company, born in San Francisco, created a concept 5 years ago that revolutionized the professional travel industry, with 4 million guests. It has signed a partnership with the International Committee of the Olympic Games, while the platform adapts to the new post-Covid habits of tourists.
Paris, correspondent
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