Four bedrooms, two bathrooms... fourteen guests

“I don't want no articles about me appearing in the paper,” says the voice on the other end of the line. I’ve just picked up my phone to an unknown number. Over the last few days I’ve been looking into the activities of Mateusz Perkowski, a 20-something Polish man who runs Gold Key Property. Somehow he’s found my number, and he’s not happy.

A couple of days earlier, I was standing in front of “Green Haven”. Despite the suggestions of a rural paradise that the name evokes, it’s actually a normal looking terrace on Penrhyn Road in Hunter’s Bar. It looks like it could comfortably house five people — six at a push. As I get out my phone and find its Airbnb listing online, I gulp. The house is being advertised as catering for fourteen guests.

How is this possible? Perusing the photos of the interior, the property has four bedrooms, two of which boast double double beds. There are then another two smaller bedrooms containing just one double bed. I make that beds enough for just 12 guests, and you’d have to be on pretty friendly terms. Presumably the thirteenth and fourteenth guests snuggle up on an unseen sofa bed in the living room. It’s cosy, whichever way you cut it.

It was this house that first prompted someone to get in touch with us about the growth of Airbnbs in Sheffield. It’s only very recently opened — the earliest review is from three weeks ago. But the eyebrow-raising guest numbers prompted me to start looking into other Airbnbs that Perkowski manages. As I trawl through Airbnb, I keep finding more and more of them. 

All have calming names like “Lagoon Breeze” or “Blue Retreat”, and are decorated in almost identical ways. Soon, I can instantly recognise them: the sea-green feature walls, large plastic rubber plants and posters that instruct “good vibes only”. Guest counts of 10, 12, 14 (even 16+ in one property in Hoyland in Barnsley). And all have been on the site for less than two years. In that time, Perkowski has rapidly built a small empire of 17 properties across the city.

By all accounts he is a good host — Airbnb gives him “superhost” status and his properties all average well over four stars from guests. But when I speak to those living nearby some of his rentals, the words “haven” and “retreat” aren’t the ones that spring to their lips.

So how has Perkowski done it? And does his growing empire suggest that Sheffield is entering an Airbnb boom?

Good vibes only