Blackpool residents fear ‘spooky £9-a-night party house invasion’ will change resort forever

Airbnbs have changed the way the world travels. Now, for a fraction of the price of a hotel, you can sleep in an apartment, or even someone’s spare room that’s right where you want to be.

However, a recent survey by Blackpool councilors discovered that more than 500 companies are trading in the station. It’s a number of locals who fear they’ll change the city forever.

Hoteliers are concerned about what this number of unmanned vacations means for them and their businesses, with some fear they will end up being used as “party houses”, which means an increase in anti-social behavior and a blow to Blackpool’s reputation.

READ MORE: Blackpool crackdown on Airbnbs after figures reveal 500 exchanges at resort

Others fear they are starving vital business from established bed and breakfasts already battling for the same pound from tourists, and say they can’t compete with the “dumb prices” offered by some Airbnbs. Craig Gilmour owns The Beeches on Hull Road. He has 17 years’ experience running bed and breakfasts in Blackpool, and he says it’s unfair that Airbnbs are popping up and failing to follow regulations.

He said: “I’ve been here for nine years. I had another hotel before this for eight years. Since Airbnbs started to become more popular here, I’ve definitely seen it have a negative impact on my guesthouse in terms of taking business It’s scary to hear how many Airbnb’s are operating in Blackpool, especially as we have to jump through so many hurdles to stay open.

“You see a lot of them on social media, especially in Facebook groups, and they give rooms away at stupid prices, and you just think ‘how can I compete with that,’ you know? Especially now, off season, and in a cost of living crisis, something has to be done.

Craig added: “A lot of these Airbnbs don’t have staff. When I have guests I have to be here 24/7. Why is it different for them? There should be more regulations strict to keep them in line with what the rest of us have been doing.”

Gerard Flynn is the chairman of the Central Blackpool Business Forum. He also runs the Lindum Hotel. He is concerned about the level of disruption these rentals would add to the streets of Blackpool.

He said: “Personally, I’m more concerned with the amount of trouble they bring. There’s planning demand for the property up the street and they’re planning to split a hotel into two separate hotels and having 15 to 20 people on each property.You know what it’s like with alcohol involved.

“I’m worried about what’s going to spill out onto the street. It’s one of the quieter streets, we don’t have a lot of noise, but once it opens up I think we’ll see an increase in problems here.”

This problem does not only concern established bed and breakfast owners, but also local residents. Earlier this year, we reported that Blackpool residents had challenged approved plans for a B&B to turn into a self-catering holiday let’s not fear that it will become an “unmanaged party house”.

One of the residents on the street was Esther Mellor who wrote: ‘All the other businesses on the road are bed and breakfasts so having an unstaffed party house right in the middle of the row of terraces could very well cause “noise and bad behavior issues. Issues like this would have a detrimental effect on surrounding businesses and cause extra work for the police who would have to deal with any issues.”

Gerald, like others on the street, wasn’t interested in the number of Airbnbs operating in Blackpool, but he was also concerned about the number of hotels saturating an already busy market.

He continued: “It’s not ideal… We can’t open a hotel without some sort of waste hauler license, we have to pay for it, when they can open 90 days a year without a licence. They are also making major changes to some of these properties.

“They are at least converting existing beds. I’m more concerned about new hotels appearing adding 150-200 new beds in an already heavily saturated market. Airbnb beds already exist in the market, whereas a new hotel would not do than adding more beds to Blackpool.”

Next door to Gerald is the Winslow Hotel, run by Tony Moran and Sylvia Broadhurst. They have run the hotel for 22 years and had run another for two decades prior. They are now at the point where they haven’t had to advertise their hotel in 15 years, operating purely on word of mouth and repeat customers.

They, too, fear that Airbnbs will bring trouble to the city, especially if not managed properly, and have even had their own experience of having to accommodate stranded tourists when their accommodation was uninhabitable.

Tony said: “Just a week ago we had a couple who had booked into an Airbnb, and they came in and they said it was awful. It stank and it was dirty. They aren’t even Didn’t get to the room before doing so. Get out of there to find somewhere else.

“We are part of stay Blackpool, and to get their accreditation we have to be inspected once a year. The problem with this game is that it relies a lot on word of mouth, and if one person has a bad experience, it becomes All this contributes to ruin the reputation of Blackpool.

“There are too many places that open without being inspected to make sure they are usable. Before a place is allowed to open, it should be inspected by someone to make sure everything is fine.”

23 Grange House has been in the family of Anita Horrobin for 40 years. Like Tony and Sylvia, she and her family have worked hard to build a good reputation. She too is worried about how the Airbnb influx will affect Blackpool.

She said: “We’ve worked hard, we’ve built a good reputation that we have to work hard to keep. We have to keep everyone happy and these Airbnbs get away with all sorts of things.

“That’s not good, is it, why should these Airbnbs be able to operate without a license when we have to have everything to stay open? I mean everyone has to make money, but anyone running some form of guesthouse should follow the same rules.”

Stay Blackpool manager Ian White says he is glad the council is taking active action to clamp down on the number of Airbnbs, but he fears there are bigger, unresolved issues.

He said: “It’s good to see that the council has acknowledged the Airbnb problem after being warned month after month for so long and it’s also appreciated that it’s not just a Blackpool problem. The reality is though. more serious than the council’s mere lack of a quarter of a million pounds from planning applications.

“The loss of residential properties for an already stretched sector is driving up market rates and forcing young families out of the market to buy their first home. Putting real pressure on the rental sector is driving up rates, making it a lot harder for those renting not only the fact that these properties are typically only used about 30% more of the year, some a little more, some less

“With such low usage, the prospect is that these properties attract various criminal activities such as theft and theft of vehicles, the use of these properties for county line activity, etc. There are also the issues related to street parking, a problem that often leads to neighborhood disputes and so many other problems.

‘There is a real irony that for more years than I can remember StayBlackpool and others have been asking the council to introduce a ‘license to trade’ for the short term holiday sector where all these businesses and their owners or managers are regularly checked in the same way as taxis and private hire vehicles, to ensure that corners are not cut and that public safety remains the real priority

“It would also allow the council to take over the B&Bs, guesthouses, hotels and holiday apartments which are significantly letting the city down. Currently with so little regulation there is very dire accommodation with places now marketed at £9.00 per night At such prices, how can these places be, clean, safe or even legal, let alone cozy.

“It is appreciated that the planning team has already taken extremely positive steps in the battle to ensure that occupancy levels are clearly defined, the use of sofa beds is not permitted, tests of between party walls are carried out and a management plan is submitted.

“However, as many have not gone through the planning process, the proper controls are not in place. Instead of people not applying for planning permission because they were unaware, people are avoiding to obtain planning permission, so occupancy levels are not defined.”

An Airbnb spokesperson said: “Airbnb allows local families to share their homes and increase their income. The typical Blackpool host rents out their space for just over one night a month, and around a third of hosts across the UK say they are hosting to afford the rising cost of living.

“We have zero tolerance for anti-social behavior and welcome regulation, having backed plans for a host register across the UK which will help authorities access data and enforce the rules.”

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