Airbnb are not doing enough to support hosts and travellers make more sustainable choices that will impact less on our planet.

Airbnb are not doing enough to support hosts and travellers make more sustainable choices that will impact less on our planet.

Firstly I love the Airbnb platform, it has been wonderful to be able to rent out an old inherited property, on my terms, that would certainly otherwise have remained unoccupied.
However one area where I think Airbnb are behind the curve is concerning climate change, sustainability and encouraging properties to be as eco friendly as they possibly can. At the moment we are at the start of a pandemic, it is frightening and many lives will be lost, but there is an end in sight. The impacts of a warmer world, bio diversity loss and devastation of many of the worlds resources are potentially catastrophic and permanent.
Airbnb is a worldwide community that crosses boundaries and has immense influence. As an organisation it can empathise the importance of sustainable practices across the world, supporting hosts to manage their properties in a more environmentally friendly way. Support travellers in their travel plans, so that they have less environmental impacts. There are dozens of actions that hosts can take to lessen the impact of travel and hosting. I am re vamping my listing to emphasis, conserving energy, reducing and recycling waste, accommodating Electric Vehicles and allowing them to charge at the property for free, I have a green energy tariff. I can give accurate public travel information, information on local food markets and eventually I would like to provide bicycles that guests can use, etc there are many initiatives that hosts can implement but I would like to see Airbnb support these initiatives and make sustainability central to all its activities.

I would love to share ideas with other hosts
My property is in a remote location in the west coast of Ireland, I think by the very nature of utilising an existing asset that would otherwise remain empty, is in itself reducing the demand for purpose built hotels and holiday homes in that location, but there is so much more we can do as hosts?

7 Replies 7
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Christine2571  There have been several threads on this topic here on the forum over time. What I can tell you is that many hosts, including me, are quite environmentally conscious. We don't use any single-use containers- we refill pump bottles from a bulk container, we don't use those awful coffee-makers with disposable pods, we don't provide bottled water, but instead use filter jugs, we recycle and compost and ask our guests to do the same, and to be conservative with water and other resources. Almost all of my guests have also been aware and responsible and comply with my efforts. 

Hi Sarah

 

Great that you are emphasising the importance of being as environmentally friendly as possible but I wonder what Airbnb actual do to support your effort and mine. What ambitions if any do they have to make the business as a whole less damaging to out planet.

This is my first post and an issue that I am deeply concerned about. Is there a forum to feed back ideas and suggestions to the business other than through community?

 

thank you

 

 

Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

Same as @Sarah977  here, @Christine2571  . Doing my bit to discourage water bottles, etc., and encourage canoes, etc.  My listing doesn't even provide electricity! 🙂

But what is it that you want Airbnb to do? By support do you mean money? How would that be distributed? Do you mean advertisements? Do you mean a badge or sentence on a listing along the lines of those cleaning fee blurbs that rolled out a few years ago:  "We pay our cleaners a living wage"? 

"We're doing our best for the environment"? 

Anyway, if you could be clearer about your request, what exactly you want from the company in the way of support, then write it in this forum in a post. There isn't a different forum anymore for "Host Voice" type suggestions. 

 

Totally agree, recently I saw how Ozone purifiers were recommended to remove tobacco and cigarette smoke when guests break the house rules and I almost passed out. That is extremely toxic, I continue to investigate options to anticipate the problem and if it happens to have a more sustainable solution. Your suggestions are welcome;
I leave at hand the ones I found in the same company called WYND.
Smoke and Noise detector: https://hellowynd.com/pages/sentry?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=lagref&utm_campaign=sentry_preord...
Bussines wire: "Wynd's Sentry can reliably detect cigarette and marijuana smoke, vape usage and excessive noise in short-term rental" properties. 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220714005703/en/Wynd-Technologies-Unveils-

Innovative-Smoke-and-Noise-Detection-Solution-for-Short-Term-Rental-Property-Owners

Website: https://hellowynd.com/

 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

As per the title of the thread, does anyone have suggestions as to how AIRNBNB can help hosts and guests to make more sustainable choices? I mean, given that guests are not provided with a lot of information by Airbnb in the first place, how could this be effectively communicated to them? For example, I know there is an article somewhere in the Help centre about being a good guest, but how many guests actually ever read this? They would have to actively seek it out.

 

There are so many things we can do individually within our own listings in terms of more sustainable choices and encourage guests to be more sustainable also, but the latter doesn't always work!

 

I am finding it more problematic recently. I have a guest who works in ocean conservation, for goodness sake, and yet is one of the most wasteful in terms of energy and water usage that I have seen and made no  attempt to recycle even though she told me she was really into that! I am trying to educate her gently, but it's a fine line before it just seems like nagging and results in a bad review.

 

If Airbnb could offer some sort of support in educating guests about these things, it would be great, but I am not sure how it could be implemented. Any ideas?

Helen744
Level 10
Victoria, Australia

@Huma0 It certainly seems like airbnb hosts see the true nature of those who 'pay lip service only' to the vast array of takeaway packaging and general 'disposable junk' generated by our latter day 'caring planet users'. if I do not systemstically sort all of the plastic bottles , glass bottles , left over food , and general generated rubbish then it is not even halfway done. i think people are getting worse , not better. How difficult is it to carry a use again drink bottle or coffee cup people ?How diificult is it to choose glass and put it in the recycle bin ?or reusable or organic products for your 'instant food' make some wiser choices people . The sheer amounts of garbage are way way  too much. I have noticed a tendency among some , that had died out , to simply throw rubbish on to the street again . To empty their shiny cars and simply leave rubbish on other peoples lawns and in gutters.'clean up Australia day and pride in 'tidy towns ' and tidy streets seems to be waning and we are at risk like our fishy friends of disappearing into piles of useless rubbish . H

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helen744 

 

People throwing rubbish into my front garden is a constant problem. I really have to stay on top of it or it becomes a total mess very quickly. You would be amazed (or maybe not) about some of the stuff that people chuck in there...

 

And don't get me started on cigarette butts. I am a smoker myself, but I would NEVER dream of throwing my butts in someone's garden. Sadly, it seems to be a very common thing here. A friend who works in conservation once told me that one cigarette butt carelessly discarded can contaminate around 10,000 litres of water.