Below is a Facebook post from an Airbnb host that was shared last night after the Community Planners Committee meeting on the issue of short-term rentals. I plan to meet with the commenter to get additional details but see little reason to doubt the story below given the amount of details included and don’t see a reason for that person to lie.
I wanted to share this today because it seems that in the debate in San Diego there is much scorn being placed on those hosting via platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. Few are questioning the validity of complaints about noise, trash, and parties – they are taken at word. The few times I’ve had to call the police or a towing company they have arrived and addressed the issue promptly and completely. I find it hard to believe that in the wealthier parts of town (where many of the complaints and anti-STR groups are centered) this would not be the case.
In the below instance you can see the power that this default trust gives to complainants. I’ve removed specific names from the below post but everything else is verbatim from the host being accused of bad behavior.
I need to know who to write to in order to speak my voice. Three of the speakers lied. I have proof because I’m the big corporation with a water park in my back yard. I’m a mom of 3 whose son has brain cancer so make a wish gave him his wish to have a small waterslide added to the pool already there and I’m called a water park. I rented it out for the summer to pay bills and they knew that but adopted the “not in my neighborhood” signs, harassed me and my family (yes I was the one who broke down in tears talking about it at the PB mtg). All before a single guest arrived. C. harassed every renter and at 2pm in the afternoon when a family came out back and she saw they were not white she left voicemails which I kept with her displeasure. I could go on and on about her C. C. who said he is native and moved here from Texas a few years ago and doesn’t live on the street,etc. Their complaints that they put in writing was a baby cried and one renter dared to have food delivered. I have proof all my renters were families and not parties. I drove by day and night just to make sure. Sorry I had to get that out.
There remains much to be discussed in the STR debate in San Diego but hopefully we can step away from name calling and outright falsities to impugn those we disagree with.
