Regarding Arwa Mahdawi’s article (Airbnb feels like a soulless rip-off – and its hosts are revolting, 28 October), I’m really sick of being scapegoated. I’m aware that Airbnb has negatively impacted some urban communities, but without the income from the two self-catering cottages on my family croft, I couldn’t afford to live in Wester Ross, raise my kids here, spend my money in the village stores and volunteer as a community councillor for the last 25 years.
There may be tyrannical hosts with 90 pages of house rules, but the new guidelines are nonsensical. If self-catering guests are now not expected to wash up, am I supposed to provide them with enough crockery and cutlery for each day of their stay? They’ll then have to live with a growing pile of dirty dishes.
And if I’m expected to wash their dishes after they leave, that is not “charg[ing] hotel-like fees without providing hotel-like services”. On the contrary, it’s expecting hotel-like service for a self-catering fee. I’ve just taken a booking from a group of five for next February – at that time of year, they’ll each be paying £25 per night.
There is an assumption that hosts are necessarily rapacious capitalists with an extractive attitude to the community.
As part of my community work, we’re applying to the Scottish Land Fund so we can build some affordable housing for locals.
We asked some housing associations for an average annual rent on a two-bedroom house. The figure we were given is 20% of the income achievable from the same property as a short-term let. That’s an economic fact that we all share. Anyone offered five times the money for the same work would take it.
Alasdair Wright
Poolewe, Highland
For 20 years my partner and I have been letting our spare room through Airbnb. Originally, the idea of Airbnb was to have locals host visitors, and this is what we think it should revert to. Anything we read about Airbnb takes no account of locals who rent rooms, and just dwells – understandably – on the evils of the encroaching apartments.
We are both now in our 70s, and the stream of people through our house in Belfast has been a joy to us and keeps us young at heart. Some of our guests have become friends and return regularly to stay. We are not well off and our extra income, within tax limits, is used on occasional holidays and treats. We get to meet so many people, young and old, from all parts of the world who give us heart, and we get to share with them our enjoyment of our house and our city. We have looked for alternative platforms to use, but unfortunately we cannot find one that works so smoothly.
Mary Blair
Belfast
Indeed it is hard to feel sympathy for many Airbnb owners, especially those with multiple properties, out to make a fortune. However, as a single traveller, I find that few hotels these days have single rooms, with the result that I end up paying the same or almost as much as a couple for a double room. So staying in an Airbnb room in a house where the owner lives and is raising money from letting out one or two rooms to partly finance their mortgage or help with care costs (both of which I have experienced) is an affordable alternative.
In addition, as a single female older traveller, chatting to the host, sharing the occasional meal and getting tips about local sights and events can make the trip much more entertaining. I believe that this was the original aim of Airbnb – as the name suggests, the idea was to offer an “airbed and breakfast”. It is a shame that it hardly reflects those ideas these days.
Jill Cadorath
Exeter
As a host who has let out rural gîtes in France for 15 years, the blanket changes to Airbnb’s checkout policy give me serious pause. I would never ask a guest to scrub floors or do other heavy cleaning. I am sorry that Arwa Mahdawi’s first Airbnb experience left her so traumatised, but we are not all money-grabbing corporate landlords running meagre city spaces.
I understand that cities have been inundated with mass tourism as Airbnb became a massive commercial business, but that is not the reality of rural getaways. Some of us are level-headed people offering an excellent escape in nature for a modest income. I meet my guests personally, clean up after them and expect a basic level of common sense. Most stay for weeks, not days.
Is it really unreasonable to ask them to take out their rubbish? The hamlet bins are just 50 metres away. Yet under the new rules, removing rubbish off-site is banned. Consequently, I’ve had to order a general waste wheelie bin and three recycling bins, ironically resulting in even more plastic products. Expecting them to do their own washing up is apparently now considered an onerous chore too.
I am not a hotel. I do not collect rubbish daily or provide dishwashing services. I offer a clean house and garden for families to enjoy nature safely. Whatever happened to the traditional self-catering holiday where common sense prevailed?
Paula Chatlani Davidson
Castelnau-Durban, France
Arwa Mahdawi’s article on Airbnb misses the positive side of the business model. Guests and hosts build a reputation within the app that grows in value with every positive review. Our personal experience over more than 20 years is that a well-reviewed guest is quickly accepted all around the world and a well-reviewed property can be relied on to deliver location, amenity, and in many instances a personal touch like a great coffee machine or sharp kitchen knives, as promised.
We are both hosts and guests in the system. The occasional misrepresentation of the property or failure to leave our premises in a reasonable condition has been quickly and efficiently dealt with by Airbnb. Our reputation once again comes to the fore in any dispute.
Compared with a hotel, we enjoy the location, a price discount, being able to prepare locally sourced food in the accommodation and being able to relax in a private lounge/dining area.
Bruce Hartican
Bega, New South Wales, Australia
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