Just an observation which piqued my interest...
Our Airbnb is in Mallorca, and although Mallorca is popular with Brits, it's pretty rare that we receive British guests. It's not a big deal, we're rather well booked year round, with roughly 99% from Europe or North America, and the vast majority come from Airbnb. It's not a criticism, just an observation.
One could argue that a country villa just isn't a "British" thing, but if you look closer, that isn't necessarily the case.
So, I've looked at the British travel forums to see where the "sweet spot" is, and surprisingly observed that many Brits do in fact seek "non resort hotel" accommodation, but one rather disturbing trend which seems to be uniquely British is that in addition to Airbnb's competition like VRBO, many Brits seek STRs on really obscure villa rental websites that often turn out to be scams. It's a common complaint on British travel forums.
When people ask about villa rentals on UK travel sites (e.g. TripAdvisor), it's rare that anyone suggests Airbnb (which incidentally has the largest catalogue of villas on Mallorca, by orders of magnitude).
Instead, people recommend VRBO or Booking.com or more often, other obscure websites like "Joe's villas" (i just made that name up). And if anyone mentions Airbnb, there's often a barrage of comments suggesting that most Airbnbs are scams (which in practice, couldn't be farther from the truth).
As for hosting here, it's a foregone conclusion that you need at least to be listed on Airbnb, because they deliver the bookings, even though there's some "issues" with Airbnb hosting. And that's why they have the largest catalogue of STRs here. And if a guest is looking for a place here, Airbnb (or VRBO or booking.com) really should be their first stop. They have a reputation to protect.
Yet VRBO isn't well known (in mallorca) bookings are few, so many hosts just aren't listed with them. Booking.com is popular, but mainly for hotels and flights and things. Also a bit dangerous for hosts, since you can't screen guests. you have to take what they give you, so many hosts don't list with them either.
So, what's the story? Are Brits uniquely averse to Airbnb for some reason? If so, why? In my experience, it's hugely popular with everybody else.
Just curious.