Airbnb does more than just help make a mess of the already messy housing market. Every once in a while something cool comes across the platform, but for the most part it’s an annoyance for surrounding homeowners who aren’t hosts. Take what one homeowner had to go through with a guest’s vehicle.
First spotted by People Magazine via Reddit, a user by the name of Samshine75 took to the website’s r/AmItheAsshole subreddit to explain the issue. Basically, the homeowner lives next door to someone who hosts their home on Airbnb. However they’ve called the experience a nightmare after things came to a head when there was a shooting at the house one night. Recently, things got a bit worse when one of the recent guests refused to move their car from in front of their house.
So, I’ve had a ton of issues with Airbnbs in my neighborhood in the past. I won’t get into all of it, but just know that it’s been a nightmare, including my house being hit by 20 bullets during a gunfight at a neighbor’s Airbnb party earlier this year.
Fast forward to last night, the guests at the Airbnb next door were blocking our shared driveway. I went out and politely asked them to move their car. They responded rudely, saying, “ain’t got the keys. NO,” and then drove off in another car.
I’ve tried reaching out to the Airbnb owner before, but she hasn’t responded to me since May. Given her track record of ignoring my messages, I assumed she wouldn’t do anything this time either. So, I shot her a quick text and called the non-emergency police line, explained the situation, and they said they would make the guests move it.
The police came but they escalated the situation by towing the car which the homeowner says left the Airbnb owner “furious.” They claim that they didn’t get a chance to let the guest move their car. Were they not aware of the interaction between the homeowner and guest?
This is answered in an update on the post. The homeowner doesn’t seem to want to be bothered playing games anymore, saying that next time something like this happens they’re just going to go straight to the police and not bother texting the Airbnb owner. The homeowner says the Airbnb owner texted them the following morning with the same claim: “After you called the police, only minutes after notifying me, they had it towed. They didn’t have an opportunity to move it.” They gave three tentative responses to the Airbnb owner, one of which acknowledges that they did tell the car’s owner to move, they just didn’t do it:
1.) I did ask them to move. Unfortunately, they responded with, “Ain’t got the key. NO,” and then proceeded to get into another vehicle and drive away.
As many in the comments pointed out, the homeowner was in no way the asshole for this. For one, they didn’t exactly have the car towed; they just called the police who then, for whatever reason, decided to tow the car without saying anything to anyone. The homeowner also gave them a chance to respond when this has happened before, mentioning that they haven’t responded to messages “since May.”
Further complicating things, Airbnb doesn’t seem to have any rules regarding guest parking. For the most part, the platform just lets people hash it out and ask support questions on a community forum. Airbnb only mentions parking on a page with general information about hosting. Under a section called “Helping your guests be good neighbors to your neighbors” it only says:
- Parking. Relay parking rules for your building and neighborhood to your guest.
Some cities have taken things into their own hands by issuing their own parking enforcement rules for Airbnb guests. Encinitas, California for instance prohibits street parking for guests and requires the host to designate “on-site parking spots” for them. Miami has rules that strictly prohibit guests from “parking more than 2 vehicles at any one time on the property or on the street directly in front.”
So remember, if you’re an Airbnb guest, don’t be an asshole and take up parking in front of someone else’s house. You just may end up on the wrong end of a tow truck. And they’ll be completely in the right for getting you towed.