With the world’s media reporting that neighbourhoods and city centres in tourist destinations are being ‘hollowed-out’ by ‘rogue landlords’, the abuse of platforms such Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway and CraigsList is being targeted by Web Sheriff® – www.WebSheriff.com – which has stepped into the fray to police the vacation rentals market on behalf of local residents, Home Owner Associations and City Halls on a worldwide basis.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190906005018/en/
Web Sheriff® Launches Airbnb Auditing Service (Photo: © Bryan Adams)
According to Web Sheriff®, the character of holiday villages, condo complexes and popular city neighbourhoods is being decimated by absentee landlords, who use on-line rental platforms to circumvent minimum stay and maximum occupancy regulations, turning established communities into revolving-door hotels. Announcing the launch of this ‘World First’ service dedicated to removing violating listings from sites such as Airbnb, Web Sheriff® CEO and founder John Giacobbi commented, “Everywhere from Barcelona to Edinburgh and from the US to the UK, rogue landlords are being allowed to put profit before people and cash before communities. They ignore regulations controlling minimum stay and maximum occupancy, by filling their properties with an endless conveyer-belt of stag nights, frat-house parties and weekenders.
Giacobbi added “Not only is this destroying the social-fabric of neighbourhoods, but it’s also driving-up property prices and rental costs, driving-out families and local, long-term residents in the process. These ‘wham-bam’ landlords are only interested in one-night-stands – they make a quick-buck and then move-on to the next Airbnb renter. Shockingly, some tenants themselves are also now abusing the system and with a renter who rented an apartment from Westminster Council in London having recently been caught and evicted for hiring-out the property as a pop-up brothel. As the rental platforms don’t appear to be policing themselves adequately – and indeed have no financial incentive to do so – Web Sheriff® has now stepped-in to help local residents, Home Owner Associations, City Halls and Councils preserve the residential nature of their communities”.
Web Sheriff® – founded in 2000 – earned its reputation as a web enforcer to the stars and their high profile work with the glitterati of showbiz has been featured by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Billboard, the Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Times and the London Times, as well as broadcasters such as the BBC, CNN and Sky News. It also pioneered the notion of ‘Web Rights’ and introduced ground-breaking concepts such as Internet Service Provider Liability and Paparazzi Agency Liability. Web Sheriff’s CEO concluded “The pioneering zeal of Web Sheriff® has always been reflected in the ground-breaking nature of the services that we have introduced over the past two decades – and siding with local residents against rogue landlords who abuse platforms such as Airbnb very much follows the same, evolutionary and revolutionary pattern. We’re saddled-up and ready for action.”
See www.websheriff.com/services/airbnb-auditing
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190906005018/en/