There are lots of different opinions on how you should handle your neighbours if you’re planning to run an Airbnb.

Should you become friends and have them on board with your business, or opt to avoid them and hope for the best?

If you already know your neighbours, this concern probably doesn’t apply.

However, my own experience was buying a home in a fairly cosy mews that I already intended to Airbnb, and I only met the neighbours after I’d already completed the purchase.

My neighbours were initially (overly) friendly, which I found a bit awkward as I wasn’t sure how to proceed, or how they would react when they realised I would be letting lots of different people stay.

While I think it’s good to get to know the names of your neighbours and be civilised, I think being too friendly risks making things sticky.

They feel more at liberty to express any minor grievances to you or your guests, neither of which is ideal.

Many people say the courteous thing to do is to at least let your new neighbours know of your plans and to give them a way to contact you.

It’s fair advice, but personally, I think this just gives them an opportunity to express their opposition, and I’m not sure what that achieves if you’re set on your plans.

Instead, I opted to tell my neighbours the property would be used as a holiday home, but didn’t explicitly say I would be letting it out through Airbnb.

That way, they knew the gist of what it would be used for, and they could raise a complaint if and when they realised what was going on and found it was causing them issues, but I didn’t draw their attention to the negativity around ‘living near an Airbnb’.

I think the best thing to do is be mindful of the type of neighbours you have from the off and set your house rules according to that.

You want to prevent giving them a reason to complain in the first place and show them a nearby Airbnb doesn’t have to impact their life.

For example, if your house is in close proximity to other residential homes, consider having a low maximum number of guests and don’t set the home up to accommodate any more than that.

This minimises the risk of guests throwing parties or otherwise being loud and disruptive.

My home has one double room and one sofa bed and is listed as max four guests. To my knowledge, I’ve never had more people than this stay and I’ve never received a complaint.

You could also set the house up to target guests that are less likely to cause a disturbance, such as small families or couples.

If you generally decorate and furnish the home with a family in mind and highlight your family-friendly amenities, you’re at least somewhat more likely to attract families than other groups.

I put a note in my house rules asking guests to be mindful of families nearby and to keep the noise down after 10pm, and no one has ever complained to me or my guests about their noise levels. I can’t say whether this note helped, but it certaintly hasn’t hurt.

If you do have unfriendly or hostile neighbours, I would advise you don’t give them a direct way to contact you. They may decide to complain about every little thing and that will end up causing you unnecessary stress.

Instead, try to get a local slightly further afield to keep an eye on things. A good way to do this is to hire a local cleaner, which I did, as they can keep tabs on your home and won’t be bothered by guests coming and going.

My neighbours and I are now on a ‘saying hi’ basis without being overly friendly and no one has my phone number, and it’s working fine so far.

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