Residents’ misery over all-night Airbnb parties

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – People in parts of the city are living in misery as a result of out-of-control Airbnb rentals.

Young people looking for an alternative to the closed nightclubs and bars are booking properties on websites such as Airbnb and turning them into all-night party houses, according to city councillor Níall McNelis.

This newspaper has received numerous complaints about such parties in recent weeks.

Cllr McNelis said that while a number of these properties were being taken by staycationers, many more were being booked up by local people not content with the two-hour limit currently in place on pubs that serve food.

“I’m dealing with a family this week, living right in the city centre, who are living next door to a four-bed Airbnb where the landlord has installed a hot tub in the back garden. They’re complaining that the people staying there are out in the garden all night in the hot tub, shouting and roaring.

“There’s another house beside an elderly couple where the landlord doesn’t allow them to smoke in the house so they’re out in the garden making noise where they’re out smoking hash,” said Cllr McNelis.

These were in most cases young adults, he said, who he accused of treating Galway like they were on weekend-long J1 visas.

(File photo)
This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read it in full, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.