• The city of Lille is hunting down key boxes installed on public roads by AirBnB owners.

  • Several dozen have been counted in the center and Old Lille.

  • After 15 days, city officials cut up the boxes that were still in place.

Lazy to welcome their customers late or not to pay a concierge, some AirBnB owners leave the keys to their apartments in small safes hung on the street furniture of Lille.

To avoid the proliferation of these key boxes, the city found a radical method, inspired by what had been done in Saint-Malo, in Brittany.

This is a problem that appeared around last March according to the town hall.

“With the lifting of health restrictions and the return of tourists, AirBnB rentals are on the rise again.

And more and more people are getting into this activity in Lille, ”says Jacques Richir, deputy mayor of Lille.

He estimates the number of accommodations of this type in the city at a thousand, “mainly in the center, the hyper center and Old Lille”, he specifies.

"This serves as a warning"

It was at the same time that city services saw the famous key boxes spring up on street furniture.

Dozens identified by the municipal police between the station and Old Lille.

This is a known phenomenon that the city of Saint-Malo, in particular, has been confronted with, very popular with tourists and therefore AirBnB renters.

And so that Lille's street furniture does not turn into a Pont des Arts, the town hall has decided to take the lead by copying the Malouine technique.

“We made stickers that the agents put on the boxes.

It was a question of warning the owners that we were going to withdraw them after a period of 15 days, ”explains the deputy.

The deadline has now expired and, on Monday, the officials, "equipped with the appropriate equipment", cut the fasteners of about fifteen boxes which had not been removed.

Everything was filed at the municipal police station.

“Owners can come and collect their boxes without being sanctioned, this serves as a warning.

In the event of a repeat offence, we will look in the available arsenal for a fine to impose on them”, insists Jacques Richir.

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  • Lille

  • Hauts-de-France

  • Airbnb

  • Tourism