“Another cup of tea?” asks Toni Sheehan from her spick and span kitchen at the back of her Killarney B&B.
Sitting alongside her husband Danny, she smiles warmly and tells a story about how one of her guests looked and sounded exactly like Bing Crosby.
“He was fabulous. Ninety-three years old and every morning he sang a song for the two of us,” she said.
“We had to close the door on everyone else and I’d tell them: ‘Listen outside the door, Bing Crosby is at it inside’”.
As they chat about the characters they have encountered running Larkinley Lodge on the edge of town, it’s plain to see their love for accommodating strangers.
With 25 years of experience under their belt, the Sheehans represent one of the many cogs in the vast, lucrative tourism machine of Co Kerry.
And like an increasing number of people in the Kingdom, they are finding success on Airbnb, the worldwide online rental platform.
“We absolutely love it. We thrive on it. It’s a very positive platform,” said Toni.
“We’ve been on the website the last nine years, and we’ve never, ever, ever had an issue. Not an ounce of trouble. [Airbnb guests] are fabulous, they’re respectful. They come in on time, they leave on time.”
The couple also offer their seven rooms through Tripadvisor and direct booking, but Airbnb demand has grown consistently and the vast majority of their business now flows through the platform.
They are not alone in exploring the online letting space, of which Airbnb is the poster child. Figures provided by Fáilte Ireland show that the number of online short-term lets in Ireland in November last year rose to about 32,000, up from 29,000 a year earlier and 26,000 in 2022.
Of those, about 3,600 are based in Kerry, a number which has also steadily risen over the last few years.
Data from Inside Airbnb, a grassroots project that tracks listings and rentals on the site, shows that Kerry is second only to Dublin city in the number of Airbnbs listed, with 3,004 units advertised. Two-thirds of these are either entire houses or apartments.
The platform’s popularity in the Kingdom, a county that relies heavily on tourism for the local economy, is a reason why two prominent Kerry TDs – Norma Foley, a Fianna Fáil Minister, and Independent Michael Healy-Rae – pushed back at the Government’s short-term letting legislation that was introduced this month.
The legislation was introduced by the Government in the hope that it would transfer a slew of these properties on offer to short-term renters into the long-term sector in an attempt to ease the housing crisis.
There’s no stock of housing left because there’s more to be gained from the Airbnb platform than renting full-time
— Danny Sheehan, Killarney
Led by the Department of Enterprise, the new rules will introduce a national register of short-term lets, managed by Fáilte Ireland, which is to be in place by May 2026. This would restrict these lettings to properties with appropriate planning permission, while – crucially – increasing the enforcement of the rules.
The restrictions would apply to towns and cities of more than 10,000 people, of which only Tralee and Killarney qualify in Kerry. They also ensure compliance with an EU regulation on short-term lets that was adopted in May last year.
Introducing the Bill last week, the Fine Gael Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said he was aware of “genuine concerns” in tourism circles about transferring units from short-term rentals, but emphasised that the Government should use “every lever” to increase housing supply.
Existing rules around short-term lets were introduced in 2019 and are tied to rent pressure zones, but they have been criticised for lack of enforcement. The new rules aim to tackle this by linking Eircodes with online listings, making it easier to trace the properties being leased out.
Statistics support the Government’s targeting of properties currently being leased on short-term rentals to tourists on Airbnb and other online platforms
Fáilte Ireland estimates that more than 10,000 properties currently being let short-term could be appropriate for long-term housing. Housing charity Threshold recently found there were nine times as many Irish properties advertised on Airbnb as there were for long-term rental.
However, research by the think tank, the Economic and Social Research Institute, published on Friday showed a strong correlation between properties that were previously listed as holiday homes and those now available on Airbnb, particularly in rural areas.
The ESRI concluded that there was no correlation between increases in Airbnb rentals activity and falls in new rental tenancies between 2019 and 2023 but that this “does not mean that Airbnb activity has not had a detrimental impact” on the private rental sector in local markets, but it “does not appear to be the root cause” of the falls in the availability of private rental properties nationwide.
The research indicated that a mass transfer of listings to the private rental sector is unlikely, even with a push by Government. It concluded that it could not be assumed that shorter-term lets in rural areas would switch back to the private rental sector if Airbnb was not there.
The ESRI report identified Kerry as an Airbnb hotspot. It found Killarney had one highest ratios of Airbnb properties to private rental properties with almost one property listed for every six private rental properties where private rentals account for about a fifth all residential properties in the Kerry town.
Local politicians in Kerry have warned about the potential for the new rules to damage the Kingdom’s prized €700 million tourism sector.
“Remember, Killarney is the tourism capital of Europe,” said Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae without hint of hyperbole.
“We know how to do hospitality in Kerry better than anybody else, and I think that that product has to be protected.
“This is the way I’d word it: [Airbnb hosts] are not the cause of the housing problem and they’re not the solution either.”
Mr Healy-Rae would like to see a grandfathering in of new rules, so that only new entrants into the short-term letting space would have to deal with the additional restrictions, while existing landlords wouldn’t be affected.
He said he was “sceptical” that the proposed legislation would increase supply in the housing market, but added that he was open to listening to opposing views.
“The political answer to this is compromise,” he said.
“But if you and your family come to Kerry this weekend, I mean God damn it, if you don’t want to stay in a hotel, and if you want to stay in a short-term letting, surely be to goodness, we have to be able to provide that.”
Among Kerry’s Airbnb hosts that the county’s politicians are looking to protect is Dingle-based Máiréad De Staic, who runs local jewellery brand Brian De Staic with her husband.
She rents out six places in Dingle – three apartments and three suites – in a renovated period building and two flats in the centre of Killarney, using Airbnb.
“I find it very efficient to be perfectly honest,” she said.
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“I’ve it down to a fine art now. I check my calendar first thing in the morning. I send it to my housekeeper and the laundry people – and that’s it like.”
Máiréad said that besides the odd “hitch” with people arriving late or other small issues, she has no complaints with the Airbnb platform.
“The demand is there, and definitely, 100 per cent it’s growing,” she said, pointing to an increased level of trust among guests and hosts as the platform beds itself into the market.
Such is her confidence that she is constructing another 10 apartments at the back of her period house on Green Street, for the express purpose of short-term lets.
“Because it’s a Georgian building, it’s going to be like a Georgian street, and they’ll all have different coloured doors,” she said. “I can’t wait for it.”
The De Staics hope to have the additional apartments finished by the end of June; Airbnb bookings make up the vast majority of their business.
Airbnb hosts agree that long-term rental supply should be increased, but equally they see why more and more are opting for the US-based rental platform instead.
“There’s no stock of housing left because there’s more to be gained from the Airbnb platform than renting full-time,” said Danny Sheehan at his Killarney B&B.
“There are so many of them [Airbnbs]. I mean, I think every second house is doing it in Killarney, and in the suburbs, too.”
The Sheehans have also spotted more and more young people arriving from the train station lugging heavy suitcases. To Toni, this is a dead giveaway.
“You just know they’re Airbnb [guests]. It’s like a priest, you will always know a priest. You just know instinctively,” she said.
As for why the booking website has grown so popular in the Kingdom, the Sheehans point to the county’s long history of the warm welcome.
“Killarney embraces tourism in any shape or form. It’s in our nature,” said Toni. “People just put their hands around people when they come to Kerry.”
