“I’m not getting rich off this.”įor $165 a night, guests can get a “down-home experience” in what he advertises as “Pontchartrain Park Paradise,” with its jazz collection, books and African masks. “This is how we can afford to pay the taxes,” said Amen, an artist and vegan caterer. “Guests vomit on our cars, pee on our cars, throw up in our yard, throw trash in our yard, rip out our flowers,” said Bryant, who lives on Esplanade Avenue, a charming street outside the French Quarter with gabled and balconied 19th-century Creole townhouses and sprawling live oaks hung with Spanish moss.Īcross the city, in predominantly black Pontchartrain Park, Baba Ken Amen says he makes ends meet renting his art-filled, solar-powered home on Airbnb. The state is looking to tax them like motels.īrittanie Bryant is so fed up with bachelor parties at the townhouse-turned-hotel next door that she and her husband are considering moving. Hotel and bed-and-breakfast owners have joined neighborhood groups to press for restrictions. Complaints against the rentals have doubled. RELATED: 5 myths about bed and breakfastsĪnti-Airbnb signs declaring “neighbors, not tourists” are common. Others say the spread of tourism to residential areas hurts the quality of life. Some say the rentals help residents - including artists and young entrepreneurs - bolster income in a city where many still struggle 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. Now tourists - some of whom come to party - are found in neighborhoods around the city, and locals are divided about whether that’s a good thing. They did their drinking there, gawked at raunchy shows on Bourbon Street and gorged themselves at exquisite restaurants.īut that’s changing, partly thanks to a mushrooming of short-term rentals through websites like Airbnb. NEW ORLEANS - For years, tourists in New Orleans mostly stayed in the French Quarter.
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