Bins ‘Airbnb properties are adding strain to waste collection services’

THE thousands of homes in Bristol that have been converted to holiday lets on Airbnb have an added cost to the city’s taxpayers, a local company has warned - the cost of collecting extra waste.

- Tristan CORK

And many of the people letting their properties out on the website have no idea they are breaking the law when it comes to the rubbish and recycling their guests leave behind.

Some wrongly assume that because their property is in a residential street served by regular domestic waste collections, they can simply put their bins out from an Airbnb alongside their neighbours’ who are permanent residents.

A Bristol waste management firm is urging the local authorities in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset to crack down on this practice of Airbnb owners and the host management companies. According to Business Waste’s Mark Hall, anyone renting out their property as an Airbnb has to hire a commercial waste collection service.

He said the rubbish and recycling their guests leave behind should be classed as business waste. Mr Hall said neglecting to do so is putting an “enormous strain” on local council services, adding to the existing pressure short-lets are causing amid the city’s housing crisis.

Earlier this year, the Post revealed the number of residential homes in Bristol that were being rented out as Airbnbs rather than secured tenancies to regular renters had spiked, rising by almost a third in just the previous 18 months. The number of “entire homes” on Airbnb had risen by 28.4 per cent to almost 2,000.

Last year, letting agencies told the