Her Neighbor’s Short-Term Rental Advertises a “Private Dock” With a Photo of Hers, and Guests Keep Showing Up on Her Dock Uninvited
A woman and her husband live on a small lake, and the house next door became a short-term rental in June. Since then, the guests have been treating the couple’s dock like it comes with the rental.
It turns out the listing advertises a private dock, and the main photo showed theirs. When she told the owner his guests could use it for $25 a day with permission, he posted about her in the local lake group.
A Small Lake and a New Rental
The neighbor used to live in the house before moving a couple of hours away. Now he rents it out nearly every weekend.
Short-term rentals can bring in a lot of money for owners. A lakefront home can easily earn hundreds of dollars a night during peak season.
Guests on the Wrong Side of the Shore
Starting in July, rental guests began walking down the couple’s side of the shoreline. They’d settle onto the couple’s dock to relax.
The couple never gave permission. The visits kept happening anyway.
An Old Dock and Monday Cleanups
It isn’t even a fancy dock. Many of the boards are older than she is.
Her husband ends up fishing beer cans out of the water almost every Monday after the weekend guests leave. Old boards and strangers also raise safety concerns, and if someone got hurt, the couple could be left dealing with the liability.
Six Strangers and a Listing
Last Saturday, she came home from the store to find six people she’d never met on the dock. They had a cooler and a speaker, and a child was fishing off the end.
When she walked down to ask who they were, a man in a bucket hat held up his phone. On the screen was the rental listing.
Their Dock in His Photos
The listing advertised a private dock. The main photo showed her dock at sunset, taken from the neighbor’s yard.
Using the couple’s dock in the photos made the rental look more appealing. That could help him attract more guests and charge higher nightly rates.
She texted the owner and asked him to remove the dock from his listing. He replied that the guests were just sitting on it and weren’t hurting anything.
A $25-a-Day Offer
So she sent him a price. His guests could use the dock for $25 a day if they asked her first, or they couldn’t use it at all.
She saw it as a fair compromise. If his business was benefiting from her dock, she felt his guests should pay for it and ask permission.
A Post in the Lake Association Group
On Sunday, a friend sent her a screenshot from the lake association’s Facebook group. The neighbor had posted about a woman on the north side who was charging families to sit on wood.
He included the same sunset photo of her dock. The post made her look petty to other people on the lake.
New Photo, Same Description
By Monday morning, the listing still promised a private dock. The owner had changed the main photo to a view of the lake, but the end of her dock was still visible in the corner.
She’s now wondering whether asking for $25 a day was reasonable or whether it made things worse. With weekend guests still coming and the neighbor taking his complaints public, she’s left trying to protect her property without becoming the villain of the lake.
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