Residents in popular European city deploy trick to stop tourists entering Airbnbs

Protestors in Rome, Italy, have attacked short-term holiday lets by ‘hacking off’ several black key safes often used to stores outside the properties.

The Robin Hood-like attack has occurred amid growing anger towards overtourism in the city. Small safes are often on the exterior of a property and are used by landlords to safely store keys to the property for holidaymakers to pick up without having to arrange an in person meetup.

As a part of the action, a protest note along with a green Robin Hood-esque hat was posted onto lamp post. The incident occurred on a street that runs through Rome’s ancient ruins, between Circus Maximus and Palatine Hill, according to The Telegraph.

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The note read: “If you are looking for the key safes and can’t find them, read this. We are rebelling. We have removed these key storage boxes to denounce the sell-out of the city to short-stay holidays which alienate locals and leave residents out on the streets.”

Protestors also noted how there had been “an exponential growth” in rental costs in recent years. Landlords in the popular tourist city have been getting rid of their long-term tenants to switch to short-term renting. This has been particularly prominent lately as the city builds up to next year’s Jubilee, which will see around 30 million visitors travel to the city for a year of Vatican events.

The noted also expressed how Italian salaries are not rising in line with rent. The anonymous protestors called upon Robert Gualtieri, the mayor of Rome, to impose restrictions on the number of short-term rentals.

Next week, locals will be gathering in Rome to bang pots and pans in one of the city’s most popular piazzas. Campo de’ Fiori, home to a daily market, will become full of protestors planning to dress as ghosts to show that they feel they may as well not exist in a city that is becoming consumed by tourism.

Simonetta Marcellini, one of the organisers, revealed that they are fed up with buskers who play the same tunes repeatedly, late night drinking in bars, and restaurants, according to The Telegraph. Over the past five years short-term holiday lets have doubled in the city to over 30,000. In response, the city has introduced stricter regulations on short-term rentals, including registration and building code requirements.

Recently Alessandro Onorato, Rome’s deputy mayor of tourism, also described how the number of visitors at the Trevi Fountain has become “total chaos”. As a result, one of the changes under consideration in the city is implementing a ticket reservation system for visiting the fountain.

Under this plan, Roman residents would be able to access the fountain for free, but tourists would have to pay €2 (£1.67).

This uprising against overtourism is the latest in many protests across Europe. In Spain, residents dramatically squirted water at tourists sat enjoying food in Barcelona. There have also been several protests across the Canary Islands, including this week when tourists were surrounded by protestors on a beach in Tenerife.

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