Fairbnb, a sustainable tourism alternative

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

In recent years, the Airbnb model has been expanding while neighborhoods demand control and regulation of tourist apartments. They complain about the expulsion of their neighborhoods - especially the most central ones - the rise in rents and the transformation of the areas that inhabit the benefit of mass tourism. The situation is already unsustainable in cities like Barcelona or Venice, and the mayor of Paris has just announced that she wants to ban these rentals in some neighborhoods of the French capital. In Venice, for example, it has gone from 5,000 active rentals in Airbnb in 2016 to the more than 10,600 there are now, according to figures from the AirDNA portal.

In the midst of this panorama, an alternative emerges: Fairbnb, a cooperative driven by people from different European cities that seeks to contribute to the offer of holiday accommodation in a more sustainable way and that takes into account those who inhabit the cities. This is one of the main features that differentiate them from other rental platforms. "We are looking for a positive impact on the communities," explains Jonathan Reyes, an urban architect and one of the Founder of Fairbnb, who will be responsible for implementing this model in Valencia. To achieve this, one of the measures consists of a 15% commission that is charged only to those who travel and whose half goes to cultural, social or community projects at the destination.

In this line and in order to “return sovereignty over the tourism model to local communities,” says Reyes, in cities like Venice we want to offer only properties of residents in the city, “tired of investors who have many properties there in rent in Airbnb despite never having stepped on Venice or without worrying about the impact that may have”.

This tourism managed by those who reside in the cities is carried out through local nodes: “Neighborhood communities, social projects, citizenship in general and also a connection with the local administration. This community has two key missions: know the local regulations very well but also propose additional policies to those that already exist or create new ones with our support if they do not exist. This is important to return the sovereignty of tourism to local communities,” insists the Co-Founder. In addition, they intend to grow not in a competitive way but by connecting with local agents that work around tourism and share their values. "There is a mutual empowerment and enrichment," he adds.

In addition to the involvement of citizens, when it comes to Fairbnb, values ​​such as transparency and legality stand out, in order to avoid flooring companies and multi-owners, including co-ownership and co-governance. “One of the main reasons why we are a cooperative is because we don't want to be bought, we want to be independent,” summarizes Reyes.

The launch of the first version of the platform (fairbnb.coop) will work, for the moment, in five pilot cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, ​​Bologna, Valencia and Venice. And, in this sense, they are optimistic. “There are many people who write to us saying they were waiting for us, both owners and travelers,” explains Reyes.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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