Now ITALY fights again in opposition to the Airbnb invaders: ‘Robin Hood’ anti-tourism gangs sabotage rental properties as Europe-wide wave of anger grows

Anti-tourism campaigners in Rome are sabotaging Airbnbs, making the Italian city the latest tourist hotspots where locals hit back at visitors. 

The anonymous protesters calling themselves ‘Robin Hood’ have used glue to sabotage key boxes to Airbnbs in the historic Trastevere district of Rome, which has seen an increase in apartments being rented out to tourists.

The glue left the boxes unable to be opened. On top of the sabotaged locks, campaigners attached stickers with a Robin Hood hat. 

‘We are sabotaging the symptoms of an unjust society. A home is a right, not a goose that lays golden eggs,’ the said. 

‘Rents are rising and the number of people being evicted [from rental properties] is skyrocketing,’ the activists said in a statement shared by local media. 

The rise of companies like Airbnb has seen some landlords move away from renting to residents in favour of letting out rooms or apartments to short-stay visitors. This reduces the overall supply of housing, pushing up the cost of rent.

The activists said rents had risen ‘exponentially’ in recent years. ‘This is only our first action against the Holy Year of the rich,’ their letters previously left in the city read. 

More than 35million tourists visited Rome last year, making it a record year and all-time high in attendance. 

Next year, Rome and Vatican City will also host its jubilee ‘Holy Year’, expected to attract some 30 million visitors from around the world and piling extra pressure onto locals. ‘Let’s sabotage the Jubilee of the rich. Let’s build the Jubilee of the poor together,’ the activists urged locals. 

The ‘Robin Hood’ activists also left instructions for residents on how to sabotage key boxes themselves, either with glue or a wrench, urging them to ‘leave behind a symbol of Robin Hood such as a cap or a feather’.

They previously pulled off several safes from properties in Rome, denying travellers access to their holiday lets.

Letters were attached to lampposts around the city under Robin Hood felt hats, describing the vandalism in October as ‘the first’ attack on ‘the rich’.

‘If you are looking for the key safes and can’t find them, read this. We are rebelling,’ a note read, shared by local media.

‘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.’

Campaigners in Milan have also accused Airbnb of driving up the rent and pricing locals out of tourist hotspots in the city. Their slogan ‘This city is not a hotel’ gained hundreds of likes on social media.

The protest by group Chiediamo Casa saw locals affix stickers reading ‘Less short lets, more houses for all’ to key safes – which allow tourists access to their rented accommodation – outside Airbnbs. 

‘Let’s limit tourist rentals, let’s protest those who want to expel us from the city with unsustainable rents for inaccessible houses,’ the campaigners wrote in a call for action early November.

‘We want a city for all and the right to live in dignified housing,’ their statement said.

‘We really wish tourists well but want them to stay in hotels,’ campaigner Giacomo Negri told the Times. 

He added that the key boxes were a symbol for short lets having changed from residents renting out their spare room to companies running multiple apartments. 

In Florence, where nearly a third of the city’s flats are listed on Airbnb, protesters used stickers with the slogan ‘Let’s save Florence so we can live in it’. 

Earlier this month, Italy announced that it will ban Airbnb metal key boxes in the country’s latest move to clampdown on over-tourism. 

Authorities ruled earlier this month that tourists must now meet the property owner in person to verify their identity. 

The ban, which will come into effect next year, has been introduced for ‘reasons of national security’. 

Vittorio Pisani, the national head of police, said the crackdown will help authorities keep tabs on ‘dangerous people’ or those ‘linked to terrorist organisations’.

Italian authorities are concerned that terrorists have started renting properties online using forged documents that are not being checked. 

‘The need has arisen to implement stringent measures aimed at preventing threats to public order and safety linked to the possible housing of dangerous persons involved in criminal or terrorist organisations,’ Pisani said.

The ban is also understood to be a direct response to the surge in the number of short-term rentals such as Airbnb across Italy. 

This comes after a summer of fierce backlash against tourists in Mediterranean hotspots, with locals decrying what they see as lax regulation on tourist accommodation that has made it more difficult to find affordable housing.

Spain saw the brunt of conflict on the issue this summer, with anti-tourism protesters going so far as to spray visitors with water as they dined out on popular streets.

Under the slogan ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.

Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors.