Airbnb

Owning an Airbnb is hell

23 August 2025 9:09 am

I know it can be difficult to have sympathy for anybody who owns a holiday let, but for me and…

The Airbnb guest from hell

3 May 2025 9:00 am

‘Is there a secret passageway behind that door?’ said the weirdly difficult Kiwi as she eyed a door marked ‘private’…

I’m more convinced than ever that Ian Bailey was innocent

12 April 2025 9:00 am

Over coffee in a seafood restaurant in the harbour, I talked with the most notorious accused man in Ireland and,…

Tenerife is a soap opera in the sun

7 December 2024 9:00 am

A warm Sahara wind was blowing and by late afternoon the western sky where it met the sea was the…

How I found Love on Airbnb

19 October 2024 9:00 am

‘My name is Love,’ typed the help assistant, ‘and I’m a member of the Airbnb community support team.’ I was…

Real life

22 July 2023 9:00 am

As I sat down to dinner in a lovely old country pub my reservation was cancelled by my iPhone, which…

Low life

27 August 2022 9:00 am

Finally rain. None for months, then a violent tropical storm lasting two days. It marked the end of high summer…

Jeremy Clarke and Baroness Trumpington

From Baroness Trumpington to bad sex: my Christmas party week

5 January 2019 9:00 am

The Airbnb accommodation at Paddington, chez Mohammed, was a fourth-floor room measuring about nine feet by five. As well as…

I rented out my home. The tenants turned it into a brothel

16 June 2018 9:00 am

I had been in Los Angeles for less than a month when I received the call from a concerned neighbour…

Was our Airbnb host a closet toreador?

2 June 2018 9:00 am

We were standing in the tiny hall: me, Catriona, Annette and her toy Yorkshire terrier, Ahmed. It was our first…

Dear Mary

29 July 2017 9:00 am

Q. My children are very lucky in that we have bought them all flats. However, they are now renting out…

Real life

28 May 2016 9:00 am

After a tense two week stand-off, the Balham Airbnb Crisis has been resolved. My upstairs neighbour and I have drawn…

Real life

30 April 2016 9:00 am

The gloves are off in my battle with the two brothers who live in the flat upstairs. They have just…

Real life

16 April 2016 9:00 am

I am becoming the Basil Fawlty of Airbnb. Almost everything that tormented Basil has tormented me since I started taking…

When sharing isn’t fair

5 March 2016 9:00 am

In Silicon Valley, renting out is the new selling —and renting out stuff that belongs to other people can be…

Real life

1 August 2015 9:00 am

‘No, I do not do WhatsApp.’ That’s pretty much all I ever seem to say to people nowadays. They ask…

Unfair shares

28 March 2015 9:00 am

The sinister, manipulative side of Uber and Airbnb