{"id":183955,"date":"2019-10-08T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomadicmatt.com\/?p=183955"},"modified":"2024-10-01T10:46:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T14:46:17","slug":"break-up-with-airbnb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomadicmatt.com\/travel-blogs\/break-up-with-airbnb\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Time to Break Up with Airbnb?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nPosted:<\/strong> 10\/08\/2019<\/p>\n

There is no denying that Airbnb has changed how we travel. It got people out of the hotel\/hostel quandary, gave locals a way to monetize their extra rooms and earn more income, and got tourists into different parts of cities, spreading the benefits of tourism around to a wider part of the community.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t the first company to do this, but it made this kind of travel widespread and socially acceptable. The idea of “renting someone’s home” is now seen, not as weird or unsafe, but as a perfectly normal way to see a destination. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been an Airbnb user since its early days (it began in 2008) and have had some wonderful experiences using the service: the Swiss couple who made and shared dinner with me, the folks in Paris who left me wine as a welcome gift, the retirees in Tours who put a candle in my breakfast croissant for my birthday, the couple in NZ who gave me veggies from their garden, and countless other wonderful experiences where I got to meet locals and learn aspects of life that I might not have otherwise. (I’ve also hosted some really fabulous people too. The site works both ways!)<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, I had gotten out of the habit of using Airbnb, instead staying with friends, in hostels, or hotels on points<\/a>. However, while I was on my book tour over the summer, I decided to start using the service again.<\/p>\n

I was nervous about doing so though. <\/p>\n

From overtourism to hosts with multiple listings to companies using it to run hotels to a general \u201cwhatever\u201d attitude toward complaints, there are a lot of problems with Airbnb. It is no longer the whole \u201cpeople renting out their room for extra money\u201d service it markets itself as. <\/p>\n

I’ve read all the stories. I’ve seen the data. <\/p>\n

With over six million listings, Airbnb is one of the biggest booking sites out there. In the first quarter of 2019, it booked 91 million room nights.<\/a> By comparison, Expedia booked 80.8 million. <\/p>\n

But I figured there had<\/em> to be some gems on the site. <\/p>\n

And what kind of travel expert would I be if I didn’t know Airbnb’s current state? <\/p>\n

I went in determined to not rent places that were not people\u2019s homes \u2014 that is, any rentals run by folks with multiple listings or property management companies, which have the effect of raising rents for everyone. While Airbnb has a lot of problems, the “commercialization” of the service is the biggest. <\/p>\n

The growing number of people buying property just to rent it out on Airbnb is driving rent up for locals<\/a>1<\/sup> and forcing them out of the city. A recent study from the Institut d\u2019Economia de Barcelona<\/a> shows that rent in Barcelona’s most touristy areas has increased by as much as 7% between 2012 and 2016.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Furthermore, in 2016 (the most recent data I could find), true home sharing, where the owner is present during the guest\u2019s stay, accounts for less than 20% of Airbnb\u2019s business<\/a> in the United States; 81% of Airbnb\u2019s revenue nationwide \u2014 $4.6 billion \u2014 comes from whole-unit rentals where the owner is not<\/em> present. <\/p>\n

A search on the website Inside Airbnb<\/a> shows that a high percentage of units are rented by people with multiple listings: in Venice, out of 8,469 listings, 68.6% of hosts have multiple listings<\/a>; in Barcelona, out of 18,302 listings, 67.1% of hosts have multiple listings<\/a>; and in Los Angeles, out of 44,504 listings, 57.8% of hosts have multiple listings<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That doesn’t really scream the “just a person renting out their extra space” model the company likes to tout. <\/p>\n

And I found avoiding that a lot harder than I thought it would be. <\/p>\n

Even having spent hours trying to weed those kinds of homes out, I was fooled in London<\/a>, DC<\/a>, and Santa Monica: those listings existed solely to be rented out on Airbnb. Those pictures that made it seem lived in? Faked. (And the place in London, which was supposed to be a room in a guy\u2019s house, was<\/em> just a room…but in a house for Airbnb guests.)<\/p>\n

All that time spent trying to do the right thing…and I still failed! <\/p>\n

As this happened over and over again, I thought to myself: Is it time to break up with Airbnb? Was using Airbnb was worth the cost it exacts on residents and the time spent trying to find gems in vain? <\/p>\n

Being a responsible traveler is really important to me \u2014 but not contribute to the problems Airbnb causes. <\/p>\n

Airbnb is one of the biggest drivers of overtourism. It has created a lot of new accommodation for travelers, which in turn contributes to higher tourism numbers.3<\/sup> On the one hand, that’s good: cheaper accommodation = more tourists = more revenue. But, when unregulated and combined with the issues highlighted above, increased tourism kills the very places we love. It becomes a vicious cycle: more tourists = more money = more properties on Airbnb = fewer local residents. However, thankfully, as I highlight in this article<\/a>, a lot of locales are fighting back and beginning to restrict the service. <\/p>\n

Moreover, the company doesn\u2019t really take action against hosts behave badly. From spying on guests to denying last-minute bookings to substandard conditions to fake reviews, complaints against hosts go unattended until they become news stories like this: <\/p>\n