Is there an ethical form of Air BnB?

[NotCamping]

Not camping or hostels. I’d rather go without a holiday than camp but I’d love to holiday in the UK and partly self cater because I love to frequent local butchers, bakeries, grocers etc and buy and cook local produce. However I usually stay in Bnbs and hotels where I can’t do this.

I don’t want to use Air BnB because it can be bad for the local community but it’d be nice for us(2-4 people) to occasionally get to cook and enjoy local produce.

Is there a more ethical version of Air BnB? Perhaps a site where people genuinely let out their home while they’re not using it?

I’d appreciate any suggestions.

TIA

Ditto @JenniferEckles. Ours is a small building in the corner of our garden. It couldn't be used for permanent accommodation but earns us a small income and benefits local shops, restaurants and pubs. There are some great filters on Airbnb where you can search for all types of building and be pretty confident that it isn't a house that's being taken out of local housing stock.

I know what you mean re potential family homes in villages being used for holiday lets and pricing out the local population. As you say it is probably a matter of the percentage of homes that are second homes in a village or town that make the difference. In some towns there are just a handful of lets and this seems much better. This is a lovely little site with purpose built chalets in a great village that we have stayed in https://golden-acre.com/. There was something a while back about homeless families In Cornwall being housed in holiday parks. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-58652903.amp
Do we just like the illusion that we live in a place or is it mainly that the houses are in the best locations and caravans and lodges on the edge of towns?
I don’t always manage to avoid holiday cottages in popular areas but it is something I’m increasingly thinking about. Hotels also seem a more ethical use of space to me in general where possible

house sitting? Holiday House swaps?

haven't done this myself but have seen others enjoy it

Have you thought about accommodation such as static caravans instead of denying local people a house?

Have you thought about accommodation such as static caravans instead of denying local people a house?

That’s rather the point of my thread. Also I’m not denying anyone a house. I only want to stay in occasionally. I’ve no intention of buying a house, caravan or anything of that nature. But yes I’ll look into caravans too.

What you want are rentals in places surrounded by other holiday rentals. It used to be clear where they were. Little pockets of holiday homes you could rent and know you would not be trying to holiday next door to someone living their normal life.

I know they still exist, but I don’t really know how to find them among the noise at this point.

I think the ethics of it largely rely on the destination. In Venice, for example, any kind of self-catered apartment is unethical. There are plenty of other places in the UK that are similar, in which case choosing to stay slightly out of the tourist hotspots/static caravan for example, would be great options.

I would just look for purpose built holiday accommodation rather than a house or apartment that might once have been lived in by a local. Either an aparthotel or something like a farm which has built some holiday accommodation etc Doesn’t matter if it’s on AirBnB or another platform although AirBnB is always my last choice as it seems easier for hosts to cancel on you than on other sites.

Air BnB is no different to any holiday cottage company. Its just a way of advertising short term lets.

I let out a cottage in my garden and a shepherds hut through Air BnB. Neither could be used for long term rental so I am about as ethical.as you can get. I have full planning permission, fire regulations, safety certificates.

It isn't financially viable for people to rent their homes out when they're away these days as the fire regs can cost thousands yo implement.

@soupfiend

""People assume that if a property is advertised on airbnb, it means that the property is a second property owned by someone who is removing the opprotunity for a 'local' to own property in that area""
*
The above is not entirely true. In my area I own houses, normal family size type homes but they are listed as commercial property / guests houses. It is impossible to make them residential homes and if anyone tries to live in them you can recieve a court order to get out.

Which is why mine are listed on Air B&B and are still guest houses. I am not allowed to change their status.

It is not always the case that we are taking homes from local people.*

I didnt say it was true that it takes homes from local people. I said that people assume this. I have no issue at all with holiday lets or second homes that people let out.

Air BnB isn’t inherently bad but it can and does cause very real problems for areas when it’s more profitable for landlords to turn their properties into solely Air BnBs or sell them to people who will use them for that purpose which means that there’s very little housing available for people who work and reside in the area. It’s a very real problem in much of Cornwall, The Lake District, Edinburgh and other areas

MN seems oddly obsessed with vilifying Airbnb.

Many of the properties advertised there can be found on numerous other rental sites. If you own a property that you wish to rent out as self catering then you probably advertise across a range of platforms. Just because a cottage is advertised by Booking dot com or English Country Cottages or any of the other numerous platforms doesn't mean that it isn't a second home.

Airbnb isn't some weirdly specific site for "evil" landlords to fuck over the locals - it's just an advertising platform for properties that are available for holiday rental. Just like all of the others are

I’m using AirBnB as an example in the way that Hoover is often used as a general term for vacuum cleaners. Obviously other sites are available and can also contain properties that contribute to the detriment of communities if there are too many but I’m not going to name them all and Air BnB is the most well known and the one that really exploded in popularity. But as others have said it also has properties that are dedicated holiday accommodation and which are annexes on land that the home owner also lives on and that’s what I’ll be looking for in future.

There is a good mix of accommodation on Airbnb. If you don't want to book a house/cottage there are plenty of other choices such as Pods/Shepherd Huts/Chalets/Lodges which can only be holiday let's.

OK, so your issue is with the whole holiday rental sector rather than one specific way to book a holiday, it might have been helpful to the discussion to have said that in your OP

If all the holiday cottages in popular tourist areas were overnight out on the market to locals would there then be enough jobs to support those locals to buy the properties?

Its not straight forward

@BarcardiWithGadaffia great post.

I feel the same way.

It's also the side lines, the small tourist things. So we are super rural. I bought my grandmothers best friends cottage when she passed, and fully renovated it. It's a holiday let, I don't rent it because it's precious to me and what it stands for. The school uses the garden for activities.

We live in a tied cottage due to husbands farm. Tennant. So whilst we pay tax as a second home we could not live there.

Then there's the things like petting farms, farm shops, alpaca walks, highland cow chats. There is only so many times local people would visit these, so they would all close if all the holiday let's did.

Then when we retire or are moved on by the estate we are homeless.

I do understand there has been a problem with mass holiday let's in some areas, but I think the combination of the rural area where we are and the short term let licence rules have really put people off.

@fruitgummy I'm sorry, I read it back and thought that

I don't have a rented permanent Tennant in it because it's my life work. I've done it myself and the garden is huge. So we have holiday let's, where I can come and go and make it more and more friendly. It has a small woodland area where the school come and do woodland activities. I couldn't justify that to a tenant.

Yet in less than ten years we will be forced to leave here and it will be our home.

We also stay in it winter and storms. I would be a nightmare landlady! Popping round all the time. But with holiday let's people can share it and I can still work away

We live on the farm as the tenant farmers. We rent the cottage as a holiday let Easter and summer breaks. Move to cottage in chronic weather to get children to school. So it's a second home.

@nootropiccoffee yeah, but scotland. So can get 50 percent reduction, but then it's taxed at double, so back to square one