Party’s over: Host of trouble over ‘homes for hire’ boom
Stories of wild gatherings with bikies, strippers and all-night noise at notorious “party houses” has caught the State Government’s attention — and now they’re considering a crackdown.
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Stories of wild gatherings – with bikies, strippers and all-night noise – have prompted calls for a crackdown on “party houses” as the popularity of short-term accommodation skyrockets.
Global booking platform Airbnb has acknowledged the problem as the Opposition and the State Government consider ways to address the issue.
The Sunday Mail has spoken to residents from all over Adelaide who have relayed horror stories from living next door to “party houses” that have been hired out for bucks nights, hens nights and even bikie gatherings.
Residents have told of seeing topless women, sex acts on balconies, guests vomiting and motorcycles being confiscated.
Hospitality and tourism sectors are backing calls from Opposition tourism spokeswoman Zoe Bettison for new legislation including penalties for owners of party houses.
Ms Bettison’s proposed new rules would include:
MANDATORY registration of all short-term rentals in SA
AN industry code of conduct
PENALTIES for failure to adhere to the code or register a property.
The Tourism Accomodation Association estimates the number of short-term holiday rentals in SA has grown by more than 120 per cent in the past 14 months – to about 5800 listings.
A State Government spokeswoman said SA was monitoring what other jurisdictions are doing to address the issue of party houses.
“We are actively engaging with industry on how we ensure short term rental accommodation providers across SA continue to enrich the visitor experience while preserving community amenity,” the spokeswoman said.
Australian Hotels Association SA chief executive Ian Horne said short-term accommodation providers should be registered as they were in overseas cities including San Francisco, Chicago, London, Madrid and Barcelona.
“Neighbours and local government need to know the extent that adjoining or nearby properties are operating as commercial enterprises,” Mr Horne said.
“Registration means being able to identify and, as necessary, hold accountable facility operators for the behaviour of their paying guests.”
Mr Horne said without a code of conduct there is “no consumer protection for a bad experience.”
Tourism Industry Council SA chief executive Shaun de Bruyn said some of the properties were set up as unregistered businesses.
“This means that they’re not paying GST and don’t have correct insurance and compliance with council safety regulations,” Mr de Bruyn said.
“Therefore community amenity is subsequently jeopardised.
“Hotels generally have staff and security who deal with such issues as they arise.
“Airbnb hosts are often not present on the property and therefore may have no knowledge of how their guests are conducting themselves,” he said.
Airbnb’s head of public policy for Australia and New Zealand Derek Nolan told the Sunday Mail the company was committed to continuing to work with the SA Government and other stakeholders to ensure tourism continues to grow and that Airbnb supports small businesses and local jobs across the state.
“Safe and responsible hosting also remains a top priority for Airbnb,” Mr Nolan said.
“As part of this, we have banned unauthorised and ‘open invite’ parties and enforce strict policies to help ensure the safety of hosts, guests and the broader community.
“Bad behaviour has no place on Airbnb and we remove wrongdoers from our platform,” Mr Nolan said.
NEIGHBOURS AREN’T HAPPY
By Elizabeth Henson
Residents living near party homes have thrown their support behind a crackdown on dodgy operators.
One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, lives near a party house in Adelaide’s east and said the property regularly hosted loud, all-night parties.
“They bring in escorts… (there’s) topless women everywhere,” she said.
“People across the road, their girls have witnessed guys getting (a sexual act) on their balcony.
“We’ve had incidents where people have steamed out of there … gone into other neighbour’s yards and urinated in their yards.”
The woman said she had called police “so many times” but they could only take action in relation to noise complaints – and even that was ineffective.
“The police do the right thing – they tell these people to (turn down the music but) no sooner do police leave, that it’s back up again,” she said. “Airbnb has a code of conduct but that’s not worth the paper is written on.”
A neighbour of a party house in Adelaide’s west, who also wished to remain anonymous, said there were out-of-control parties at the property every second or third weekend during the peak summer season.
“You get concerned for your own safety,” he said.
“One of the issues we had was we had nowhere to go.
“I welcome something that we can lean on … to stop these sorts of people.”
Philip de Bondi lived near a party house in the city for several years and experienced break-ins, vandalism and “people vomiting over the fence”.
“We had pop-up brothels, some drug arrests,” he told the Sunday Mail.
“We had threats towards my family, I’ve got a couple of young kids.”
Mr de Bondi urged the State Government to do more to regulate the industry.
“It’s not about trying to close down an industry,” he said.
“It’s just more about if there is something that goes wrong … (people) have a pathway to follow and I don’t think that’s unreasonable at all.
PARTY HOUSES TRASH OUR AIM
By Matt Smith
ONE of South Australia’s most successful short-term accommodation property managers has backed calls for registration saying “party houses” can give the industry a bad name.
Australian Luxury Stays owner and founder Tina Villis manages about 70 high-end properties in a number of sought-after locations including Adelaide’s leafy eastern suburbs, and seaside locations including Henley Beach and Brighton.
“We scrutinise our guests quite rigorously and we don’t do instant bookings, it is always through request so that we can actually talk to people before they stay,” Ms Villis said.
“It gives our owners a sense of security as well.
“So we are looking after who is going in there, but we are also looking after a valuable asset.”
Each of the properties have strict terms and conditions that includes restrictions on noise and parties, she said.
Ms Villis said modern travellers were often looking for more than a hotel room, particularly if they were staying for longer than a few days.
“It is not going away and it has been part of Australia’s lifestyle for a long, long time,” she said. “It is like the Uber of the industry – part of the sharing economy – people are sharing their homes.”