Buy the by-law and say bye-bye to Airbnb

Have a look at this Fair Trading web page and you will find this:

If the host is not present, that residence can be used for short-term holiday letting up to 180 days per year in Greater Sydney, with 365 days allowed in all other areas of New South Wales. Councils outside Greater Sydney will have the power to decrease the 365 day limit to no less than 180 days per year.

As for how to monitor this, it’s fair to say that neither the state government nor the short-term letting intruders think you have much hope of doing so, which is one of the reasons the law was passed.

However, with some diligent checking of the properties letting calendars for excessive letting, allied to correlation with your block’s internal security, you might be able to prove misuse.

Much easier would be to contact out old friends at Bnbguard who have an established and proven record of  hunting these people down and exposing them.

What happens after that, your guess is as good as mine.  Given that the proposed Code of Conduct has been delayed, presumably because, among other things, that the fire safety requirements have proved too onerous for the poor illegal short-term hosts, don’t hold out for any kind of meaningful crackdown on the “parasites and predators” who overbook their properties.