Airbnb’s origin
story
is the stuff startup dreams are made of: Desperate to make rent on their San
Francisco apartment in 2007, co-founders Brian
Chesky and Joe
Gebbia rented out an air mattress on
their floor and served breakfast for their overnight guests. It was a small idea
that has grown into a multibillion-dollar company in more than 220 countries
and regions across the globe. But what was,
at one point, a way for people to rent out an extra bedroom and for travelers to
meet local hosts has become a housing issue for
residents,
a legal and financial challenge for city
governments,
and a contentious problem for conscientious
travelers.
To be fair, it’s not just Airbnb that’s causing accommodation mayhem around the
globe — platforms such as VRBO and
Vacasa are also contributing to the widespread issues
created by the explosion in the vacation-rental market. But as destinations
ranging from Paris to Dallas and Catalonia to New York City
attempt to quell the overwhelming number of listings — and knock-on negative
consequences
— several other companies have focused attention on offering accommodation
platforms that prioritize sustainable, positively impactful, and personal stays.
“A homestay booking has two people on either end of the transaction; it is not
akin to renting an empty property, where a set of keys are handed over,” said
Yvonne Finlay, managing director of
Homestay.com. The platform, launched in 2013, features
more than 37,000 homestay opportunities in more than 170 countries.
Homestay.com’s most common travelers are students and those participating in
study-abroad and work-placement trips, and guest experience is at the heart of
the company’s service.
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“A lot of our hosts invest time in our guests — showing them the locality,
giving advice, offering help in getting established in a location, and often
continue to stay in touch once the stay is over,” Finlay said.
That guest experience and personal touch is a top priority for many
accommodation platforms that have stepped in to provide different choices for
travelers — reflecting a growing travel trend that turns away from the
impersonal, mass-tourism model prevalent over the last several years.
“When people go there, they’re not just interested in staying there. They’re
interested in the people, in the community, and in getting involved and
understanding the daily life,” Alex
Haufschild,
co-founder of socialbnb, tells Sustainable
Brands® — reflecting on this trend and the fact that travelers increasingly
want to give back to the places they visit.
socialbnb’s model is built around 360 social- and ecological-impact projects in
45 countries. Travelers who book a stay at an accommodation affiliated with the
project inject direct financial support into the project. A snapshot of the
company’s positive impact is captured in the company’s 2022 impact report: Among
the many projects benefited, overnight stays booked through socialbnb
contributed US$3,570 toward protection of Tanzania’s Chumbe Island Coral
Park, as well as environmental education programs;
US$341.70 supported the species-appropriate, sustainable organic rearing of
endangered sheep through Wampendobler Paradies in
Germany; and $793.90 went toward Indonesia’s Project
Wings,
which operates in the world’s largest plastic-waste recycling village.
Often, guests are invited to learn about and engage with the socialbnb projects
or experiences they directly support — which is an interesting addition to a
trip and highlights the positive impact of their stay.
Transparency like that exhibited by socialbnb and thorough vetting processes are
built deep into the ethos of most of these alternative accommodation portals.
This is a departure from traditional booking platforms, which are stubbornly
opaque.
France-based GreenGo, for example, uses an
extensive set of selection criteria to ensure listed accommodations prioritize
environmental and climate initiatives. Calling itself “the responsible
alternative to Booking and Airbnb,” the company is in communication with every
host, who must sign a charter that underpins a relationship built on trust.
Similarly, Green Getaways — based in
Australia — lists accommodations actively incorporating, and publicly
displaying, their sustainability initiatives. Many of these properties, located
in vulnerable areas, are involved in “rehabilitation and landcare programs,”
according to Green Getaways’ website.
“At the beginning, we focused on the accommodation, because we saw this as the
resource these projects had in some way,” Haufschild said. In the rural
Cambodian village where socialbnb was born, for example, there was space to
develop homestay accommodations as a means to create funding for a local school.
Across these socially and environmentally aligned booking platforms, the
majority of booking fees stay within the destination, and residents’ needs are
prioritized and directly served. Providing travelers a place to stay, a unique
experience, and a meaningful story is the means of achieving this goal. For
example, socialbnb contributes 85 percent of the booking price directly to the
project affiliated with the accommodation while the company takes a 15 percent
commission.
Similarly, at Fairbnb — a cooperative inspired by
fair-trade principles, the circular economy, and the UN Sustainable Development
Goals — 50 percent of the net commission of a booking goes directly to a
community project in the host area chosen by the guest. The remainder goes to
the lawful and sustainable hosts that are proactively participating in a model
whereby tourism dollars directly serve the local
community.
“This is a big problem we’ve discovered in the tourism industry in general,”
Haufschild said. “Touristic revenue doesn’t stay in the region where it’s
spent.
Many times, it leaves the country because many tourist businesses aren’t in
local hands.”
This is the reality of how tourism has historically operated: Chesky and Gebbia
may have built their business model around someone crashing in a spare room; but
today, most Airbnb guests never see or speak with a host. Impersonal management
companies and international enterprises embrace a business model that generates
profit but little goodwill within destinations. People may travel far from home
— but they remain disconnected from the people, culture and stories that make
places unique.
But, as the tourism industry
evolves
and people change their travel styles in response to both their positive and
negative impacts, the accommodation sector has an opportunity to respond in a
meaningful way.
“When I talk to some of our customers, they say, ‘It was so nice. I didn’t feel
like a tourist at all. I felt like I was part of this, visiting these people —
more like we are friends,’” Haufschild said. “I think this is a feeling that
makes our concept so special.”
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JoAnna Haugen is a writer, speaker and solutions advocate who has worked in the travel and tourism industry for her entire career. She is also the founder of Rooted — a solutions platform at the intersection of sustainable tourism, social impact and storytelling. A returned US Peace Corps volunteer, international election observer and intrepid traveler, JoAnna helps tourism professionals decolonize travel and support sustainability using strategic communication skills.
Published Mar 18, 2024 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET