We're Not All Bad...

Nimbyism. This acronymic neologism - as it was back in the day - was coined as a counter to the hypocrisy of: 'anywhere else is fine, just not in my back yard', in reference mainly to building schemes of one sort or another. The 'Oh, yes, we need more affordable housing, wind farms, nuclear powerplants, etc., but please not anywhere near where we live...' attitude. I was struck by a piece in the i today by Allegra Chapman: 'Living next to an Airbnb has totally ruined my life'. I have to declare an interest at the outset here, as we indeed run a small Airbnb as a supplement to our pensions; and I also would make it quite plain that I agree with Chapman's views and those of many others so aggrieved, and would never stoop to accuse any of them of nimbyism.

In fact there is a growing movement against Airbnb across the UK and much further afield now, as unthinking and unscrupulous absentee landlords are buying up properties in picturesque rural areas such as ours, and forming investment portfolios; with largely hands-off management and maintenance, creating exactly the sort of nuisance and off-season social deserts that she complains of. I agree wholeheartedly: here in North Wales we have suffered egregiously under the weight of wealthy outsiders buying up properties as summer getaways for well over half a century. Places like Aberdaron have been stripped of life during the off-season and local youth are denied access to the vastly overheated property market.

But I would argue - and in doing so contest Chapman's closing suggestion that maybe Airbnb should be banned altogether - that there are many of us who stick to the original concept of Airbnb: we let out part of our own homes to help out with a shrinking family income. I would further say that there are legions of entrepreneurial types - many of them local farmers, born and bred - who are also using spare resources of land and outbuildings to supplement their dwindling agricultural incomes as agriculture likewise suffers at the hands of the corporates and the markets. 

This is not simply a problem of a good idea gone bad, it's - as always - an open and fair opportunity crassly exploited by career capitalists with few scruples; like Über, Just Eat, or any of the other schemes that were started with pretty egalitarian ideals behind them, and which have been suborned by third parties in the pursuit of pure profit at as little cost as possible. An outright ban would mostly affect those of us who rely on an income top-up, but who are [very] low impact Airbnb-ers, and which action anyway would have little to no effect on the speculators, who would just turn their interest to the next loophole/opportunity/gravy-train/scam. Allegra is very welcome to stay at our place anytime to see how it should be done: some positive publicity would be very welcome to those of us who care for our communities and our visitors...