British aversion to Airbnb?

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

British aversion to Airbnb?

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. 

24 Replies 24
Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

'@Elaine701 I dont think Airbnb advertises a huge amount in the UK (or if they do I don't see the ads). They also are not very smart in that they allow their biggest whole home competitor (cottages.com) to advertise on Airbnb which suggests they  have given up competing.

I think the British Pschye prefers the upmarket sounding sites like Cottages.com or Sykes cottages than Airbnb which seems to have a younger demographic. add to that the bad press Airbnb gets in a certain newspaper  and I guess I see why.

Interesting to hear other views.

@Mike-And-Jane0 

 

Thanks. That gives some insight. 

 

Oh, and while they're probably household names to you, I've never heard of cottages.com or Sykes cottages. And I'm English (though haven't lived there for 40 years). Yet I could easily mistake them for just another "obscure booking site". 

 

Still it does suggest that they're strictly British booking sites since they're apparently unheard of outside the UK. But if I decided to start marketing in the UK, I'll consider them. 

 

Just out of curiosity, which platform do most of your bookings come from?  And are they predominantly British guests or from the "rest of the world"? 

@Elaine701 we have roughly 70% Airbnb and 30% direct bookings. Most guests are British - I would guess 70% or so.

Cottages and Sykes only offer UK properties (I think)

@Elaine701I was also not very aware of cottages dot com until @Mike-And-Jane0 mentioned it here on the CC, but it's not really my market anyway.

 

@Mike-And-Jane0 do you know about Unique Homestays? It looks small and upmarket, but your listing might be a good fit? It's only listings outside of urban areas, and a very nice looking site. No idea how many bookings they get, but it's apparently been around since 2001, so I assume they are doing reasonably well.

Airbnb advertises extensively in the UK @Mike-And-Jane0 

 

Online, on advertising hoardings on national TV and on radios etc in the UK .

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Helen3 

 

 

After @Mike-And-Jane0  suggested "a newspaper" giving bad press, it occurred to me that British media does indeed have a long and glorious reputation for distortion of reality in the interest of sensationalism. 

 

So I did a quick search of "Airbnb Daily Mail" and "Airbnb Daily Express"....

 

Wow! if you didn't already know, Airbnb listings are apparently either dirty slums, ripoffs, or outright scams (according to various tabloid articles). I didn't bother googling the Sun's views. Mail and express are enough. 

 

So, yes, it appears that UK media does play a role in the apparent British aversion to it. I wonder what Airbnb did to them (or didn't do). 

 

Although I'm listed on other major platforms, I'm (reluctantly) somewhat dependent on Airbnb, so I'm relieved that Airbnb is not portrayed quite as badly elsewhere around the world (still, I'd be delighted if Airbnb had some worthy competition. Unfortunately, it doesn't). 

 

But this does help explain why we receive so few British bookings, and why Brits so often seek STRs on obscure websites which turn out to be scams.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helen3 

 

I have to say I haven't seen a great deal of Airbnb advertising here in general of late, but it does frequently pop up if I am using YouTube. As I don't usually watch or give a 'like' to videos about STR, holidays etc. I wonder if the algorithm on YouTube is picking up something else, or it's just targeting as many people as possible with those ads.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Elaine701 

 

My listings are in the UK, and private rooms in a homeshare, so obviously completely different to yours. However, a lot of Brits from elsewhere in the UK do visit London, especially for weekends, theatre, shopping etc as well as for business trips. When I was still doing short stays with a one or two night minimum, I did get a few of these, but they never made up a large proportion compared to American, Asian and European guests.

 

Since I switched to long term stays, meaning the majority of my guests are not holiday makers but coming for business or study, again, I do get some Brits, but they are a minority. These days, if I get a UK based guest, it is usually one who is either relocating/in between homes or a student coming for an internship. I haven't worked out the percentage they make up, but I know it's a small number (except for during the first 1.5 years of the pandemic, during which time they were pretty much my only guests).

 

I had never considered your question before. All my friends here seem quite familiar with Airbnb and I know some of them have used it (not always resulting in good experiences), but I would have to ask to see how most of them feel about it as they always ask me about hosting, but don't generally talk about their guest experiences. That leads me to think that they don't use it much. One of my friends though has always said she prefers VRBO and doesn't bother with Airbnb.

Mariann4
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

I'm in Norway's second biggest city @Elaine701 . I've hosted for eight years going into my nineth. We see quite a few Brits over here. And we are one of the closest markeds towards GB being on the west coast of the country.

 

I've had ONE group of Brits during my hosting career. Three very sweet, very young, guys taking the last vacation as a group of besties after leaving school to start different universities. 

 

But they are here. I don't know where they stay. A family member used to be a receptionist in a city center hotel. Didn't get much Brits there either.... 

Trude0
Level 10
Stockholm County, Sweden

Interesting topic.

 

My listing is a tinyhouse/guest house on my property, in a suburb 20 min from Stockholm. I think many choose to book it either to have easy access to nature (woods, lake etc at a few minutes’ walking distance), or just to be in a calm location close to Stockholm. I’ve hosted around 60 stays, and only one group were Brits.

 

I’ve been assuming that what my listing offers, is just not that interesting to most Brits. 

But it could of course also be that Brits don’t book via Airbnb in general, no matter what type of listing.

Trude0
Level 10
Stockholm County, Sweden

@Elaine701 : Hope you don’t mind if I ”hijack” this thread:

 

Does anyone get Norwegian guests?

 

I’m Norwegian, but living/hosting in Sweden. Lots of Swedes visit Stockholm of course, but I’ve only had 1 group out of about 60. I get more Finns and Danes (population and travelling distance = approx. the same).


Again I wonder, if it is my listing that does not particilarly attract Norwegians, or if Norwegians tend to use Airbnb less than many other nationalities? 

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Trude0 @Huma0 @Mike-And-Jane0 

 

We've had a number of Norwegian guests who've booked on Airbnb. Swedish, Danish and Finnish too. Not uncommon. 

 

Actually we get quite a mix of various nationalities from all over the world, although Germans are the most dominant guest nationality we receive. 

 

I sense it's naturally proportional to the overall slice of tourism each nationality holds (Germans are statistically the largest, though north America has been growing rapidly in the past 2 years, both statistically and in terms of our bookings).

 

Except for Brits, which statistically hold a larger share of the tourism market here than say, Norwegians yet outside of the popular British resorts, are rarely heard or seen (and very seasonal - the British resorts here are mostly closed up from November through March).  While that suggests some sort of cultural aversion or insularity, as I mentioned previously, it also appears to be influenced by British media to some extent (particularly with respect to Airbnb, which is the overwhelmingly dominant platform for STRs here). 

 

Still, I don't sense Norwegians or Scandinavians in general exhibit any aversion to Airbnb or STRs. In fact, it appears as though continental Europeans in general tend to dominate the market here (although again, North Americans seem to be steadily increasing their share). 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Elaine701 

 

I've seen a huge increase in guests from the USA in the past year. I always had a lot of American guests when I still did short stays, but since I switched to long stays, I only had the one every now and again. In the past year, that has definitely changed.

 

Not counting a repeat guest that books with me direct, and a couple, also repeat guests, coming for a short stay, I've hosted 16 long term Airbnb guests in the past year. Nine of those were American.

 

To give you a comparison, I think I've only hosted 3 or 4 long term American guests since I started in 2016, whereas I can't even count the Brits who have come for long stays. There have been so many. However, this past year, I've only had one Brit. There's been a real shift.

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Huma0 

 

You're not alone. Americans seem to be travelling to Europe in droves right now.

 

Especially to Mallorca. 10 years ago, most Americans had never heard of Mallorca, but over the past decade, many prominent American celebrities have been either filming here, visiting regularly, and/or buying homes here, and post about it on social media, which naturally spreads like wildfire. So the visibility is much higher now. It's become a somewhat "hip" destination for Americans. 

 

We've had more Americans booked in 2022 than in our entire history. An American guest just checked out yesterday in fact. And so far, even more American bookings for 2023!

 

Yet, despite the 2 or 3 resort towns (seasonally) popular with Brits (e.g., Magaluf), we've never had many bookings from Brits, which is why I'm curious about it. 

 

So, aside from an overall increase in tourism here (except for Brits), the most obvious shift seems to be lots more Americans  -Airbnb is very popular with the yanks, and so far, they've been really good guests. So you won't hear me complaining about it 😉