ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Short-term rental platform AirBnB is a pox on our delicate society and should be phased out completely – along with similar ones that allow greedy hosts to recklessly abandon their guests at the last minute and leave them in the lurch.
That’s the opinion of Gabrielle Bradley, 25, who arrived in Sydney today to find her accomodation has fallen through.
Ms Bradley and her two friends made their way to the southern hemisphere’s largest open-air sewer for tonight’s Taylor Swift concert in Homebush. They now face the daunting prospect of spending the day trying to find somewhere to leave their belongings and rest their head when the night is over.
“How can they just do that with no repercussions?” she told The Advocate via wired telephone this morning.
“If I cancelled on the host at this point, I’d have to forfeit the entire amount. They can just cancel with the click of a button.”
One of Ms Bradley’s friends then alerted her to the fact their original Airbnb host has relisted their flat for twice the amount in which they paid over a month ago.
“We should’ve just booked a hotel,” she sighed.
“You can just leave your things there wherever. Someone comes in and makes your bed while you’re away. There’s no neighbours, no cunty rules. No cleaning charge. Fuck Airbnb and fuck anyone who uses it. It’s a fucking cancer on this country. It makes everything worse. They don’t pay any tax, they pay lawyers and accountants to make sure they don’t pay tax here and they completely fuck cities. Honestly, when the purge happens, it’ll be real estate agents first against the wall, then Airbnb hosts,”
“What are we going to do?”
Ms Bradley’s friend said she’d found a hotel in Ryde, wherever the fuck that is, and that she was going to book it.
“It sounds like a shithole but book it anyway, I don’t care anymore.”
More to come.
