Airbnb host offers campsite in swanky Hollywood neighborhood, residents just as pleased as you'd expect about "buck naked" guests
Just because your Airbnb listing is legal, that doesn't mean it's not going to piss off your neighbors. In one ritzy Hollywood Hills neighborhood – the kind where the homes are casually described as mansions, one woman's attempt at running an amateur backyard campsite has led to unending complaints from everyone who has to see her temporary guests.
Actress Dita de Leon (whose roles have included "Newsroom Pornstar," "Silly Bimbo No. 2." and "Female Skinny Dipper") advertised a "Hollywood Hills Camping Retreat" on Airbnb, but the 'retreat' part wasn't entirely accurate. Instead of secluded wilderness, the $40-per-night campsite is actually in the center of a residential street, which means that the guests who camp in the tents on the property are in full view of everyone else. One neighbor complained to NBC Los Angeles:
I think it's really hard when a lot of us have children, and we are driving by and the kids see strange things and ask 'Why is that going on there?'
It's going on because where else in Los Angeles can you pay $40 to sleep within walking distance of the Hollywood sign? Oh, and that $40 also gets you access to the bathrooms in de Leon's mansion.
The problem (or problems) according to the neighbors is that the guests aren't just taking pictures and staring at those oversized letters on the hill: they're allegedly drinking, walking around naked and smoking, which isn't the best idea during a record-breaking drought. Concerned neighbor Sanjeeb Kumar said:
People buck naked, people doing sex out in open. Drinking. Our own backyard, it's scary. Scared to come out.
Yeesh, some people will just do sex anywhere. The listing has since been removed from Airbnb, but when one news crew investigated, there were still two tents – and some guests – on the site. A second news crew managed to track de Leon down, and she basically told them that it was her property and she was free to do whatever she wanted. She told KTLA
There’s a couple of people making up stories of things happening here that are not happening. They made up stories that people are somehow having sex in a public place. First thing, it’s not public, it’s a private place. And second, that’s completely false.
Yeah, she's probably going to want to avoid the next neighborhood potluck.