Numerous cities around the world are struggling to find the balance between its residents and visitors but we all know that knee-jerk actions often result in knee-jerk reactions.

Short-term rentals of private properties – of which AirBnB is the most recognised brand – have several impacts on the city that hosts them, much of which depends on the environment before they were introduced.

They may bring vibrancy to locations which were slowly dying with an aging population or a dwindling one.

They also generate revenue streams that benefit the grass roots owners as opposed to hotel companies, bringing tourists to under-visited regions.

However, the flip side is that short-term rentals drive up the cost of properties. And, while tenants can be blacklisted by landlords for bad behaviour, there is no doubt others see their short-term intrusion into the culture as an excuse to ignore standards of noise and rubbish collection, to name but just two of the problems.

Cities have tried everything from outright bans to tighter controls but many of them have had to back down partially or completely. This is a genie that is not so easy to put back into the bottle.

Malta has its own challenges. In November, Malta Tourist Authority CEO Carlo Micallef announced plans to control the sector, saying apartment owners wishing to rent out their property would first need the go-ahead of their condominium neighbours.

The measures would almost certainly have resulted in very few apartment blocks getting anonymous approval.

A few months and one ministerial change later, the plans have been scrapped.

Minister Ian Borg, who recently had tourism added to his portfolio, said the measures would be unfair, “especially since the government incentivised people to take up this business in the first place”.

Borg was worried about the impact on people who had invested in properties for rental if they were not able to get approval for short-term lets.

However, he did not go into other potential solutions, such as a moratorium on new licences and introducing minimum rental periods.

The U-turn is all very well and good but his promise to have rules to ensure neighbourly respect does not really solve – let alone prevent – the issue, as anyone woken up by rowdy guests in the middle of the night will surely know.

There is also institutional blindness to unlicensed operators, with the MHRA last November saying there were a staggering 4,000 of them (compared to 6,000 licensed ones), which create an unlevel playing field for those who pay their dues, not to mention the huge impact on government revenue. The implication is that scant tax is collected from some €117 million worth of income.

There is no guaranteed way to control this problem.

Clamping down on illegal operators and increasing fines for noise and littering is the first step but it should not stop there.

Borg himself admitted that growth needs to be managed. And that is true, whether we are talking about hotels or short-term rentals.

This is one area where the maxim to “make hay while the sun shines” does not hold. The island is already groaning under the impact of the growing population (despite the declining birthrate) and there is no doubt that everything from long queues in Valletta to fighting for towel space on our beaches and trying to negotiate the booths on the promenades have an immediate and widespread negative impact.

We ignore the dangers of over-exploiting tourism at our peril.