thecheshirecat on Overtourism. Is it all AirBnB’s fault?
Overtourism has been with us for a while, hasn’t it? Ask a Venetian, or a Cornishman living just off the A30 wanting to nip to Sainsburys, or the resident of a Caribbean island dwelling in the shadow of cruise ships taller than the highest peak on their island. Yet 2024 seemed to be the year that the local worm turned, with protests against mass tourism in all sorts of place, Barcelona and the Balaerics being two prominent examples. It seems to me that AirBnB gets a lot of the flak for this. I’m yet to be convinced that this flak is justified. To me, it appears that they have become a conductor for wrath, being perceived as yet another too-successful American tech company, who must be dodgy by association.
I use AirBnB. I think it’s great. My geographical knowledge is excellent; when I go on a trip, I usually know exactly where I want to be. AirBnB is highly effective at finding me accommodation at or near that very location. Let me give you examples. In the past, I have cycled Lands End – John o Groats, the length of the Pyrenees and indeed all over France, and walked the Coast to Coast. Most recently, I have been walking the South West Coast Path with a mucker of mine. When you’ve walked a dozen miles of clifftop and shingle, you want your digs to be no great deviation from the path and, ideally, handy for your evening pie and pint. Not so very long ago, you could get a list of accommodation and advice over the phone from the local tourist office, or maybe even a brochure from a regional tourist board, but the internet has superseded all that. I love staying in a bed and breakfast, slightly quirky maybe, certainly not homogenised by corporate branding. But trying to Google to find such places is not much fun. Google ‘b&b accommodation’ together with the name of some quaint fishing village that is bob on your route, and you might get a reply saying ‘have you considered Plymouth?’ The corporate boys get their sharp elbows out so that you have chains of by-pass Travelodges thrust in your face, and, much is I’m good mates with my mucker, neither of us fancies sharing the double bed that is suggested, no matter how many times you ask for a twin. Mrs Local Miggins friendly guest house that has been there for thirty years doesn’t get a look-in. So I turn to AirBnB, easily filter out the too cheap or too expensive, get a good gander at the sleeping arrangements and Zoom in on the lovely map (oooh, I do love a map) and find somewhere just where I want to be. Sorted.
Twenty years ago, I would have still booked somewhere, but by other means. My demand on the local infrastructure has not increased as a result of AirBnB, but they have made my life easier. They haven’t created my desire to stay in other people’s home villages and countries. That was already there. So I don’t see how it’s their fault.
Now, I recognise that there’s a difference between the ‘airbed and breakfast’ in someone’s spare room, which was the original idea, and renting an entire flat that could otherwise be someone’s home. I tend to book the former. But renting entire properties is not new either. I can think of brands that have existed for decades, offering pretty rural cottages in the British countryside.
Increased leisure time, and money to spend on it, is a good thing, right? Tourism is the biggest foreign income earner for many, many countries, and that genie is not getting back in the bottle any time soon.
Any thoughts?
It isn’t new.
For years we went to Southwold several times a year. The young Offsprings didn’t really care where they went, as long as they could make sandcastles on the beach, and it is only two hours from home. Going out of season, always to the same flat above the opticians on the high street, we made friends with the neighbours. In June or September, we could well be the only people on the beach, as the locals would be working (many of them in the Adnams brewery).
As the kids got older and we had to fit with school holidays, in late July or August, it was rammed. To get from one end of the high street to the other involved walking in the road, as the pavements were full. The flat would charge double or treble the weekly price of June, yet still they (we) came.
A good proportion of the houses were already empty for holiday lets, and the locals mainly lived in nearby Reydon. And this was 20+ years ago, well before AirBnB was a thing.
Hmmmm, it is a tricky balance. There is little sadder than a resort out of season, if most the houses are key coded and closed, with buy to let landlords swamping the market that locals might otherwise get a toe hold on. Sure, there are instances where the last shop in the village gets a summer lifeline and the pub gets to avoid complete closure, but the tipping points are finely drawn, between keeping a community preserved and keeping it actually alive. Disclaimer in that , of course, I love air b’n’b and kountry kottages, before that, as we dislike hotels, but I also feel the guilt as we pull up into another street of shuttered lets.
Isn’t the rise of AiRBnB largely down to the avarice of hotels, particularly the chains who seem to have outsourced their services to revenue companies who care for nothing other than balance sheets ? I spent far too long working in travel, left 15 years ago and even then (2 years before the London Olympics) hotels which were nothing more than bog standard 3* were getting away with £300 a night.
Tourism, if properly managed (a huge if) can be source for good, both socially and economically but invariably greed, environmental destruction and warped politics gets there first.
I always think of Norman Lewis and one of his greatest works – Voices of the old sea – when this topic comes up. He invariably got there first only to see ruination. It shouldn’t be so.
Overtourism was happening in some places long before AirBnB reared it’s head.
The turning of places into resorts, in the first place, is a root of the problem. How does a place get out of that trap, once they are in it?
The whole mass-tourism industry is problematic, world-wide. Indiscriminate past development in order to attract tourists has come home to roost now.
AirBnB just joined the cash-in. Nothing especially wrong with the concept, just it’s openness to exploitation by commercial landlords.
AirBnB should impose a limit on the number of properties one landlord can register.
Hotel prices have gone crazy in North America since the pandemic. Ones that were charging $100 to $150 a night are now often charging $300 to $400. I think quite a few closed so they can get away with these prices. Airbnb is a reasonable alternative, the problem is speculators buying properties purely for Airbnb use and pushing up prices overall, making it almost impossible for young people to get on the housing ladder
It’s not just the massive hike in room rates – the places I stay in regularly all used Covid to ditch daily servicing of rooms so now you get to pay more but make your own bed, carry out your own trash and try to find ways of drying the handkerchiefs they call bath towels. It makes Air BnB seem increasingly attractive.
When Airbnb was all about staying in someone’s spare bedroom that was absolutely fine. Money into the hands of (in my experience usually teachers or retirees) people looking for an extra bob or two. 40 quid seemed to be the going rate which in touristy places like Bath or Oxford made much sense particularly when you spent most of the day sightseeing and most of the evening in the pub.
Today, it’s 95.23% people who own at least two other properties and whilst they do indeed charge less than the big hotel chains, it’s a darn sight more than 40 quid.
Barcelona, Edinburgh, virtually any village in Cornwall it’s the same story. Locals priced out of home owning whilst (relatively) fat out-of- towners reel in the cash.
In my Utopian world nobody owns more than two properties and the second is barred from earning rental money.
Unfortunately, it’s not Utopia. I use Airbnb three or four times a year and I use Amazon at least once a week. They’re all bastards and so am I.
Another aspect of this if you end up living in a block where one of more flats is ‘converted’ to an Air BnB. It’s often far from fun. In our town the exponential growth of Air BnBs also led to staff shortages at the local hospital as potential employees simply couldn’t find anywhere to live. The planning authorities were powerless to do anything about it.
AirBnB properties that are used solely for commercial short-term rent should be liable for full business rates and not just for council tax.
In Ottawa there is an extra tax for Airbnb and also a “vacant unit” fee. If you own a property that you are not living in full time then you may be liable for a significant extra tax based on the value of the property. All property owners need to make a declaration about this every year
There’s a good BBC Briefing Room on this. I came out of it thinking AB&B is not such a great thing.
I have done Air B&B many times and particularly in the remote areas it can be great for a family holiday. I have camped several times due to extended family peer pressure – and I simply don’t enjoy it, even if the weather’s good. So Air B&B came to my rescue a few years ago when a house adjacent to the site was available. Slowly but surely the entire group ended up using “our” house rather than the very basic campsite facilities, which I didn’t mind at all.
Crohn’s disease and sleep apnea mean camping is out for me. I still remember camping for a week in Cornwall in my early 20s. I don’t think it stopped raining the whole time (in August). So I am not too disappointed that I can’t do it any more.
Going back to my OP, by way of illustration of how search engines don’t help, I have just Googled ‘Dunbar Guest House’ in the hope of enjoying a long weekend in that pleasant East Lothian town. The search results have come back with a Premier Inn in Northwich and a Travelodge in Middlewich. There’s only one reason I can think of why I would want to book a cheap hotel just a few miles from my own bed, and I am not in that market! So the search engines drive me to AirBnB.
I always look up the turn on Google maps then hit the hotels button and you can see prices, locations, reviews etc.
I suggest site might like the Dolphin Inn.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TBhh4z9rmFb3XFmA7
Alas, fully booked!
We generally use Air B’n’B when we travel.
One of the main reasons is that we get to cook and eat what we want, and not be obligated to restaurants and bars.
It also means we get to see places that would otherwise be a tough go. We were on Harris last August, away from everyone, and then in Oban. Prior to that, some really nice places in NZ that didn’t have a hotel in spitting distance.
There are no big plots of land left in the major tourist resorts for hotel development and the costs of running the existing ones have soared. Naturally, so have the room rates they have to charge in order to still make a profit.
The tourists still want to go there in ever-increasing numbers, so apartment lets (e.g. AirBnBs) are taking up the slack now.
The increase in AirBnB properties is a symptom of overtourism, not it’s cause.
I can recall seeing people wearing T-shirts that read “I’m not a tourist, I live here” in my home town of Chester in the late 70s.
I agree AirBnB is not the cause of overtourism. The economies of Japan and then China, India, South Korea and other Asian states have massively expanded in the past 50 years, resulting in the emergence of a strong middle class with money to spend on luxuries like holidays abroad. A combination of cheap air travel and (in China particularly) removal of the restrictions on travel abroad has produced another boom in mass tourism, except this time it’s global. The new pied pipers of this wave of tourism are Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube and other social media which I would argue are the real cause of overtourism. Here’s some examples to back my case:
Hallstatt (Austria): this pretty lakeside village with a 3-figure population features heavily in Austrian tourist board promo videos. It became famous when a replica was built by a lake in China and used as a set for a TV soap which was hugely popular in South Korea and elsewhere I gather. The real Hallstatt was then overwhelmed by hordes of tourists, mainly from the Far East, clutching their mobiles with the Instagram or TiK Tok page already open. The locals protested and the authorities limited both the number of tour buses arriving each day and the duration of the visit.
Lisbon: the curse of YouTube. I confess I’m a public transport nerd and after I finish this post I’ll be devouring train travel vlogs on YouTube. I was partly attracted to visit Lisbon last March after watching videos about the 100 year old trams, the ‘électricos’, which continue to rattle through the narrow streets. of the city. Except half the world had the same idea: a 100 yard queue snaked round the square where the tram routes started. As has happened with San Francisco’s street cars, Lisbon’s ‘électricos’ have been colonised by tourists and it seems are no longer a realistic public transport option for local residents.
The Indian restaurant at the Top of Europe: Switzerland is a popular destination for Indian tourists, despite the eyewatering high prices (tho’ you should try Norway). Interlaken has a number of Indian restaurants and there’s even one at the Jungfraujoch summit station tho’ it was closed when I was there in October. Nearly 10 years on from my last trip the crowds were a lot bigger. I got a fair bit of grief from Instagrammers and Tik Tokers as I stood my ground to photography the scenery.
The concept of AirBnB is alien to me and I cannot envisage any situation where I would want or need to use it. However, I recognise its appeal to others, particularly families on a budget. As a well-off pensioner I can afford to pay for a decent hotel; if’s too expensive then I go elsewhere.
Offspring the Younger (19) has discovered the weekend mini-break – Kraków recently, Prague tomorrow.
He’s looking at Austria next and asked if I’d been to Hallstatt. That’s the power of Youtube.
He was also surprised to find that I have visited Cologne Cathedral, albeit 35 years ago. I think he’s beginning to realise I’m not just some old duffer.
My daughter has Inter-Railed twice now, visiting Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, France, Belgium and Slovakia. I may have missed some. They mainly stayed in hostels but did use a couple of Air BnBs. The whole experience, from booking and planning to dealing with negotiating a taxi from Amsterdam to Brussels due to a storm has given her a boat load of confidence, which she lacked before. Just as well, it has stood her in good stead at Uni.
He’s talking about going Inter-Railling for his summer holidays. It is all so much easier now, with online timetables, no more lugging around a big red book.
It will do him good as, what with lockdown during secondary school, he’s barely left his room for the last five or six years.
News just in: his digs in Prague are opposite a Lidl, but lack any kitchen facilities, so he’s eating sarnies for the weekend.
I wasn’t involved in planning anything but was told by a friend that long distance high speed train seats need to be booked as standing isn’t allowed.
I fell foul of that 35 years ago! Hopped on an ICE from Nuremberg to somewhere or other (Frankfurt, maybe?), which apparently the Inter-Rail ticket doesn’t cover, and was fined for standing. It’s not much of a criminal record, admittedly.
Always knew there was something shady about you, Steve.
I’d like pilfering a stapler from the office to be taken into consideration, too, M’lud.
I recognise this, but it may be about to change.
I went cycling in Vietnam last year – very popular short break territory from South Korea and China. There were loads of parties of women in their fifties and sixties enjoying their hard-earned pensions. But the falling birth rate in China means retirement dates for women are being pushed back.
As usual, I’m being naive. The whole idea befuddles me. Renting out a room to an individual or group of strangers? Emphatically no. You only get into our house if we know you, whether we’re borassic lint or not. .
As for taking it further and allowing said strangers to rent the entire house while we’re away. **** Off.
We are talking about second properties here, aren’t we? Whatever. No. Go away.
That’s how Airbnb started, a spare room in your house – cheap for the hirer, some well-needed cash for the owner. Nowadays those spare rooms are increasingly hard to find – it’s now a big business where often it’s not a second
home, it’s a fifth or sixth home. If you own a flat, house, whatever in a desirable spot you can earn
serious money almost all year
round.
Whether or not Airbnb has lead to increased tourism is debatable, what is certain is that it pushes property prices up and pushes locals out of the market.
Probably not good news for the old-fashioned bed & breakfast accomodation in the affected areas either.