{"id":34214,"date":"2016-06-16T16:06:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T16:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tourismconcern.wpengine.com\/?p=4954"},"modified":"2016-06-16T16:06:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T16:06:07","slug":"five-tips-for-neighbourly-trips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/06\/five-tips-for-neighbourly-trips\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips for Airbnb Trips"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\n\n\u2018Live there!\u2019 smiles the Airbnb advert seductively. I was seduced years ago quite happily into using the booming \u2018sharing economy\u2019 of social media travel sites to find accommodation.  In fact I used one recently to get a cheap bed in outer London before a Tourism Concern conference. My night in my host\u2019s spare room gave him some income and me a cheap and convenient place to lay my head. Win Win.\n\nSomeone once said to me that renting a room for one night or several is like that old standby Visiting Friends and Relatives but without the hassle of having to be nice all the time and bring presents. But here\u2019s blogger Miquel Hudin\u2019s recent experience of a room in Barcelona rented online:\n\n\n

\u2018I crashed there due to being at a dinner and drinking one night. These guys bought two apartments in this building so they are the actual owners. But they don\u2019t stay in them as they live elsewhere. They rent them out continuously and they rent something like four bedrooms in each. So they break pretty much all the rules, not to mention other people who might actually live in the building then have to deal with their partying \u201cguests\u201d.\u2019<\/em><\/blockquote>\n\n\nOuch…  How have things gone so wrong?\n\nOne reason is there for us all to see when we browse the websites.  I personally love staying with friends or relatives, and in fact if there\u2019s anyone anywhere near my destination, I\u2019m on their doorstep like a shot. But over the past two years on regular visits to Barcelona I\u2019ve needed to find my own accommodation, and I\u2019ve noticed a change in the online offer even in that short time frame.\n\nFor the first visit I booked a local\u2019s spare room \u2013 we had some nice chats in the kitchen. Last year it was a flat owned by a retired teacher \u2013 one of three he told us he\u2019d bought and rented out to supplement his income. Then this year I almost went for a larger flat owned by someone whose profile openly stated he rented out several similar places for large groups in prime locations around the city. I had expected a host and found instead a full blown businessman.\n\nIn the decade or so since their beginnings as matchmakers for lonely spare rooms, social travel websites have morphed into big players in the holiday property rental market. Most honeypot cities now have a bewildering mix of businesses offering holiday lets to meet rising demand, many operating through social travel websites that and other social media channels were set up to link person to person.\n\nNow the internet is humming with growing fury and huge anxiety about the havoc this is sowing. People in urban communities once happy to welcome tourists are up in arms. For starters, Barcelona, Berlin, Venice, San Francisco, Paris, London and Edinburgh all have their protestors.\n\nIs the anger justified? In the film Bye Bye Barcelona<\/a><\/span><\/strong> residents of Barcelona talk despairingly of what\u2019s happening to their neighbourhood, which has thousands of rented rooms and flats operating outside the officially controlled letting agencies:\n\n\u201cA rented apartment means you\u2019ve lost a neighbour and there are people going in and out of your building every day every week. You don\u2019t know what control has been made for the keys nor who you\u2019ll meet in the stairs.\u201d<\/em>\n\n\u201cMost of the tenants are young people. The owners pay the same as me for communal expenses but they use and wear down communal areas more than I do.\u201d<\/em>\n\nConcern about these issues has reached such a pitch that the new mayor has recently announced a ground breaking policy to deal with the problem, according to Miquel\u2019s blog:\n\n‘To be able to offer this type of lodging in rooms, the owner of the business must be the owner of the property, have empadronament [your official, registered residence in Spain] for the premises, and stay there during the stay of the client. The owner of the business can only offer up to two rooms and they can only be available for up to four months out of the year. Each stay has a maximum of 31 days.’\n\nAnd here\u2019s a thing: if locals now see the threat of this trend to their quality of life, we tourists need to sit up and pay attention too. It\u2019s already devaluing our own holiday experience.\n\nThe property rental adverts capture our desires so well. They offer the prospect of getting into personal territory and behind closed doors. I still find that alluring – even though I learned long ago that in tourism, a personal transaction in my eyes is always a commercial one for my hosts, however pleasant the interchange. But increasingly we can forget any notion of getting to know the owners. They\u2019re running a business that could just as well be a conventional holiday operation.\n\nSo is there really no more Win Win for visitors and visited, just Lose Lose? Hopefully not. Even the protestors understand that people renting holiday places can and do put something back into the local businesses, so regulation not prohibition is what\u2019s in the air. And there will always be ways to meet the locals if that\u2019s what you love to do.\n\nAs for the matchmakers, their role is crucial. Richard Davie of Barcelona language school TEFL Iberia<\/a><\/span><\/strong> says, \u201cI place students in accommodation all the time. It\u2019s obvious to me that you need happy students and happy locals, so I work hard to make that happen.\u201d How amazing if that became the norm with the big players.  Let\u2019s nudge them on by being more savvy ourselves. Tourism Concern would welcome views on this.\n\nHere are five tips to consider before you book your next online stay.<\/strong>\n\n[yes_list]\n\n\n