(Can’t think of a more ill thought out topic for a hot Friday evening, but it’s on my mind so…)
Trying to work out what kind of balance makes sense now that, at least within a subsection of society like DiS, people are becoming more aware of the negative effects of wealthy (ok, relatively) westerners descending upon the rest of the world. Personally, I also think I’ll be looking much more locally for time away…given I have a dog. But is that any more responsible? Parts of the UK are also becoming overcome with visitors (Isle of Skye) and is it necessarily beneficial to take away tourist trade for popular/long distance destinations?
Disclaimer 1: I’m sure many of you have been thinking/acting upon this for far longer than me
Disclaimer 2: Yes this is a very reductive summary of a very complex issue. Hoping discussion will cover that…at least with some links to good articles.
One point is, much like how we are told to be “better consumers” in response to ethical products…I guess there’s a good reason to be “better tourists” in terms of putting more research into less popular destinations. Not just for the indie points…but just to help struggling areas.
Of course, many people have a few places that they really want to visit, and so that will always be a counterpoint to that
I recently decided to stop using Airbnb unless a) I was stuck for alternatives AND b) it was in a place that I could safely guess was not being impacted negatively by Airbnb accommodation.
Felt awful being in SF and seeing so many signs up telling tourists to stop using it and saying how damaging it was. Also met someone in Manchester recently who had been kicked out of their houseshare by the lead tenant (also friend of the landlord) who was turning all rooms bar one into Airbnb rooms.
I’ve been thinking about this sort of thing recently as I’m going to be cycling through some relatively poor areas on my way to Athens/Istanbul and it’s a pretty sensitive issue.
I agree with the AirBnB beefs. They seem like a bunch of Tories.
At the same time, though it’s clearly abused and i imagine has a major impact on local businesses, housing, employement, rents, etc, some of the people on there will be genuine and short of money for a variety of reasons. Is there an argument that boycotting AirBnB could in some ways be ethically bad?
I’d like to not use it again, but gut feeling is being very selective and vetting hosts as much as possible’s preferable to giving my money to a chain, etc. Maybe there are some middle ground options.
Air BnB is probably fine if it’s a spare room, or if the residents are on holiday (ie, the site’s original intention).
But properties that are taken out of the local market and turned into full time short term lets are a pox, and its a constant disappointment to me how many otherwise woke people are quite happy to be a party to such rampantly exploitative behaviour.
