One Galway city resident says she is in a 'living nightmare' as the short-term lets near her are being rented out as 'party houses'.
Caroline claims some of the properties, meant to accommodate six or eight people, have up to 50 in them.
She told Lunchtime Live there is no one taking responsibility.
"It's actually turning into a living nightmare - on my street alone, six houses are Airbnbs - that's 20% of my street is Airbnbs.
"And what you have is youngsters booking the houses - and maybe the house might hold six [or] eight people, but you'll have 50 inside in it.
"This is seven nights of the week, this isn't just confined to weekends.
"You walk down the streets, they're hanging out top windows of three and four storey apartments - it's just unbelievable, it's everywhere, it's just scary stuff."
'Youngsters have no place to go'
Caroline says this has got worse since the inter-county travel ban was lifted.
"There was a little bit of it going on when you were confined to your own county, you had youngsters within the county booking them as party houses.
"But since the freedom of movement, and obviously youngsters have no place to go.
"There's no nightclubs open for them, pubs are outdoor at the minute, there's very limited space for pubs to seat everybody.
"So they're literally just booking the houses to do their socialising."
'70 of them out in the street'
Caroline says she understands many of the houses have not actually applied to be short-term lets.
"There was an article in the Connacht Tribune recently, and only five houses in the whole of Galway city have actually applied for short-term lets.
"The rest are just doing it under Airbnb, though they haven't actually applied to be an Airbnb".
She says some houses are charging people "up to €1,700 a night" to stay there.
"There's one particular house.... it's a seven-bed house and it's €1,700 for a night in July.
"So you get 50 youngsters splitting the cost of that between them, it's not an awful lot."
And she says this is happening beyond the city centre.
"This is happening in housing estates, it's not just the city. You go out a bit and there's houses everywhere that are Airbnb.
"And you've got people with small kids, you've got elderly people.
"My neighbour the other night had to call the Guards at 2 o'clock in the morning - he said there must have been 70 of them out in the street.
"My street would normally be a quiet street: there's rubbish on the street, there's cans being left, bottles being left there."
'Who do you turn to?'
Caroline says unlike hotels or B&Bs, no one is taking responsibility for these short-term lets.
"A lot of these houses aren't even owned by Irish people, some of them aren't even owned by people living in the county.
"So who do you turn to, who do you ask? The Guards, I'd say their lives are living hell from it.
"Where are they supposed to put 50 youngsters at 2 o'clock in the morning?
"If you are a hotel or a bed & breakfast or a guest house, you are legislated under Fáilte Ireland.
"Putting 50 youngsters in a house is a health and safety issue alone... who's going to be responsible for them?
"There's nobody to monitor these people because the owner isn't living there, there's no owners in these houses.
"There's nobody responsible for what goes on inside in them".
