Activists from the Take Back The City movement have occupied the Airbnb office in Dublin to protest against what they say is the company's role in the housing crisis and its tax policy.
The group said that around 50 activists took part in the brief occupation which lasted about two hours. They used the opportunity presented by the Open House event to gain access to the building.
Take Back The City has claimed that in August 2018 there were 3,165 entire properties for rent on Airbnb in Dublin, compared to 1,329 properties available for long-term rent on Daft.ie.
They also claimed that Airbnb lobbied the Irish government in 2015 to ensure profits made through the website got a substantial tax break. It is calling for total ban on Airbnb and short-term letting platforms in Dublin.
But Airbnb has responded by saying that properties let through their website represent about 1% of the housing stock in Ireland, and listings on Airbnb where whole properties are available for rent make up just 0.16% of homes.
Take Back The City say they took advantage of the "open-house" and entered the building in small groups, while a talk was being held by an architect on the history of the building.
Members of the group went on to ask the architect a question about the company's role in the homelessness crisis before unfurling a banner, and explaining to the public their reasons for being there.
Conor Reddy from Take Back The City said that the group had been inspired by movements against the company in other cities.
"We were pretty well-received, it was mostly tourists and architecture enthusiasts.
"We got no real response from Airbnb at first, they had two security men, who didn't confront us too much, they told us to leave because we were trespassing, but didn't ring guards," said Mr Reddy.
"After around 90 minutes, the office manager came down and said the open day was cancelled, and we left.
"It's not just a Dublin problem, places like Barcelona have had this issue with Airbnb too. We're calling for a total ban, our rationale is places like Amsterdam, who have had a successful social movement against short term letting.
"We know that regulations haven't worked, they require a massive amount of time and resources and we don't have faith in Dublin City Council to enforce those," he said.
Take Back The City are now calling for a total ban on Airbnb and other short-term letting sites.
According to the group, in August 2018 there were 3,165 entire properties for rent on Airbnb in Dublin, compared to 1,329 properties available for long term rent on Daft.ie.
"Landlords have portfolios of properties and let them out for the whole year on Airbnb, if we could find them and target those empty properties, that would be what we would draw attention to next," Mr Reddy said.
