Council leader Richard Watts: ‘I am absolutely appalled that Airbnb are being so unresponsive about one of their properties’

TOWN Hall chiefs say they want answers from Airbnb as they claim there had been repeated house parties at a short let property in Clerkenwell, during the coronavirus lockdown.

Council leader Richard Watts said the building had been “consistently used as an illegal party venue” but queries to Airbnb had not been answered.

Cllr Watts said: “I am absolutely appalled that Airbnb are being so unresponsive about one of their properties. It makes a mockery of their claims to care about local communities.

“Islington council has had to issue a statutory notice.”

Housing chief Cllr Diarmaid Ward added: “We need to be able to ban short term letting of entire homes where there is high housing need.”

But he added: “If someone is just letting out a room in a home that they live in anyway, that’s very different.”

A spokesman for Airbnb said there had been “no direct contact” from the council to their “policy team”, but said a message had now been seen on Twitter and the company was “reaching out to understand the issues.”

He added: “We found one listing on this road and it hadn’t had a reservation since February.”