Airbnb kills communities. Is it time for a ban?

Short-term lets can be a great experience if you’re visiting somewhere new. You have more space, more freedom with what you can cook, more privacy than if you were staying in a hotel or hostel, and they are often easier for larger groups. 

Some argue that you get a more ‘authentic’ experience of a place by ‘living like a local’. But to me, that is misguided. When a street is full of short-term lets, where permanent households are in the minority, the community dies. Residents become isolated, mutual aid and local support – the kind we saw boom in lockdowns – are harder to maintain, and culture is erased. 

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Instead of authenticity tourists experience areas that are populated only by other visitors. Without the people and culture that makes a place vibrant, tourist spots become homogenised, effectively becoming placeless. 

Short-term lets like Airbnb can be OK in small numbers, but they also restrict available housing supply for local people and drive up residential rent prices. It should never get to the stage where they are preventing people from living in affordable and stable homes. When this has happened, locals have called out for restrictions, including all-out bans. 

Many tourist hotspots have taken similar action against short-term lets, with varying degrees of impact. In Barcelona, where water-gun protests against overtourism have become infamous, 10,000 short-term lets will not have their licences – due to expire by November 2028 – renewed, in an attempt to make housing in the city more affordable and more widely available. After that, the homes are largely expected to revert to residential housing. 

Read more:

• Housing activists launch campaign calling for Airbnb regulation
• Airbnb hosts may need planning permission for short-term lets in new government crackdown
• ‘Tourism is all-consuming’: How Airbnb’s ethical rival is letting communities decide how much tourism they can take

Perhaps the most extreme restrictions already in place are in New York City. There, regulations include all short-term rentals registering with the Mayor’s Office, a maximum of two guests being able to stay, and the host must be able to prove they live in the property. Airbnb has been vocal against these measures, filing an unsuccessful lawsuit against the City of New York in June 2023. 

Since the implementation of New York’s restrictions, a report by the Harvard Business Review highlighted how, despite their intentions, they had not actually reduced rent prices in the city. 

I have seen the impact of Airbnb dominance first-hand. My grandparents are now one of only two permanent households in their village in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. When, out of curiosity, I looked last summer, I found that nine neighbouring properties were available to rent on Airbnb. In my lifetime I have seen this tiny coastal village lose its community and my grandparents become isolated.

But it’s not only small villages that are affected. Tenby, a popular tourist destination in Pembroke-shire, is one of the areas worst impacted by short-term lets. Alex, whose name has been changed, their partner and two small children were evicted from their home in spring 2022 as their landlord wished to turn the house into an Airbnb. 

“It was absolute hell,” said Alex. “It still frustrates me that it’s a lovely house, quiet estate with families and elderly residents living there and he’s plonked an Airbnb in the middle, but hey it’s his house not mine.” The family found a new place to live where they are comfortable, but they still live in fear: “Every time I get an email from the letting agent I think ‘Oh no, we’re being turfed out again’!” 

The Renters’ Rights Act recently banned no-fault evictions in England, but doesn’t apply to Wales meaning what happened to Alex remains legal and could continue. 

Current regulations in Wales stipulate that a property has to be available to be let for 252 days of the year and actually let for 182 days of the year to qualify for business rates, rather than the more expensive council tax premiums ap-plied to second homes and long-term empty properties. All visitor accommodation now also has to have a licence to operate. These regulations have been divisive, with some arguing they harm small businesses and others claiming they don’t go far enough. So far there is little evidence to show the regulations are improving housing access for local communities. 

With Plaid Cymru now in power, there is potential for a new path ahead. In their manifesto, Plaid pledged to end no-fault evictions, create more social housing and “review the effectiveness of existing measures on second homes and holiday lets”.

There is no silver bullet solution to solving the housing crisis, in Wales or beyond. These measures will need to be combined with a reduction in the cost of living and increase in wages to allow people like Alex to be able to buy. 

As the new Welsh government begins its term, it remains to be seen if their pledges for a fairer housing system will come to fruition. 

Jemima Elliott is a journalist and campaigner

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