Maida Vale residents' horror as more than 100 revellers descend for 'all-night rave at flat hired on Airbnb'

Crowded: Revellers spilled out on to the balcony
Mark Chandler11 June 2017

More than 100 revellers descended on a flat hired on Airbnb for an all-night rave, it is claimed, in scenes likened to the Notting Hill Carnival.

The party began on Saturday evening at the plush Maida Vale apartment and did not finish until after 7am on Sunday, residents said.

Photos of the event showed party-goers crowded on to a balcony in Warrington Crescent in the early hours of the morning.

Sleep-deprived neighbours said the flat had been hired out on website Airbnb while the owners were in Portugal but only a couple of people were meant to be staying there.

There so many people they began dancing outside and later ravers even started hurling glass bottles into the street, it is claimed.

Residents on the road, where the average property price is £3.5million, said police were called to the venue at around 4.30am but did not break up the party.

Part of a soundsystem outside the property

One neighbour told the Standard: “At first when we woke up we thought it was an open air concert happening in our road. It was like Notting Hill Carnival.

“It wasn’t just people in the flat, there were people in the street too.”

The resident, who has a young baby that was kept up by a booming soundsystem playing reggae and hip hop, said: “It was like one of those things you see in the movies, like a Facebook party that just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”

She phoned Westminster council every hour throughout the night but officers proved unable to shut the racket down.

“It was just a shock that the police couldn’t do more,” she said. “When they showed up I just thought ‘brilliant, that’s going to put an end to it’. But if anything it just got louder."

The resident said she saw bins full of bottles that had been taken out of the property the following morning while shattered glass and cigarette ends were scattered across the road.

Bill Earner told the Standard: “I’d just got back from a trip to the West Coast in the US so I was pretty jet-lagged but at 2.30am there was this really pounding heavy music and it woke me right up.”

“I soon realised there was no way this was legit. At 4.30am I got up, got changed and went outside.

“I could see it was big party in one of the flats. The noise was echoing off buildings around the street. I didn’t go and say something because it didn’t seem like that was a very smart idea.”

Mr Earner said the party went on until 7.30am and he could hear it all night despite his windows being closed. “It was some kind of rave music," he said. "It sounded just like a club.”

He said when he went out the next morning, a huge soundsystem was standing on the front step.

“It was just sitting there on the stoop,” he said. “There were two guys and they were saying they were trying to find their Uber to take it away.”

The Met said officers were called to the flat at around 3.30am but left after it was concluded no offences had been committed.

A statement said: "Noise pollution is not a matter for the police."

A Westminster City Council spokesman added: “Our noise team responded to a number of complaints in the early hours of Sunday morning at Warrington Crescent.

“Due to the number of people present and nature of activity our officers reported the incident to the police. We will be in contact with the landlord and AirBnB to highlight our concerns. Local residents should not have to put up with this level of disruption.”

A spokesman for AirBnB said: "We have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour. We are supporting the host and have removed the guest from Airbnb.

"There have been over 180 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings and negative incidents like this are incredibly rare."

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