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
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Elaine701 

 

My repeat long term guest is from Lisbon. I've travelled there many times for work over the past few years, and noticed in more recent years that there were a lot of American tourists (the Madonna effect), but then I was staying at a hotel near downtown in a touristy area. 

 

My guest says now there are Americans everywhere, not just downtown and in the popular spots, but in every local cafe in residential areas. I have no idea though if those people are staying in Airbnbs, but it's interesting that they are staying not just in the spots where you find a lot of hotels. 

 

I wonder if there is somewhere we can see statistics, e.g. a breakdown of Airbnb bookings by nationality...

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Huma0 

 

I understand that Portugal is a magnet for American pensioners. I know one American couple that are set to move there as soon as they hit retirement age. Apparently the retirement visa conditions are very favourable for Americans. 

 

Perhaps many of the Americans you find there are actually resident (?) 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Elaine701 

 

Ah, that might be true, but I am guessing we are then talking more about people retiring to the Algarve and other coastal resort regions. In Lisbon, I noticed a lot of American tourists of all ages, but mostly a bit younger (30s, 40s). I will ask my Portuguese guest but she's in Paris at the moment.

Hi there, we’re also in Spain and I’d say about 40% of our guests are from the UK.  The rest are from all over, USA, Canada, South Korea, Northern Europe.  We started off with mainly Spanish guests but that was during Covid times, it’s rare now, I think they’re travelling further afield.   

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Dora486 

 

Yes well, Brits in Costa del Sol ... no surprise there! 

 

But do Brits book your place on Airbnb or mostly on other platforms like booking.com? 

 

 

Ha ha, we’re hardly a typical Brits Abroad or Bargain Hunting Brits type destination as we’re in a little inland village.  No kiss me quick hats here.

 

We only use Airbnb so can’t comment on other booking sites.  It’s been very successful for us and I’ve been a superhost since we started.

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

@Dora486 

 

Well, it seems some Brits are booking on Airbnb. 

 

My interest was piqued because not only do we host few Brits, but so many Brits seem to book on obscure internet sites which often turn out to be scams ...and money gone. Unnecessarily. And I suspect that for Brits, those experiences may influence the British opinion of STRs in general (just speculating) 

 

Airbnb is far from perfect, but outright scams are pretty rare, and Airbnb does at least get your money back when it does happen (and is famously guest-favouritist in most other ways). 

 

And for hosts in our patch, if you're not listed on Airbnb, then you're likely struggling for bookings to some extent. So, Airbnb is the first place hosts list here. Everything else is just ancillary, backup. And that explains why Airbnb has by far the largest catalogue of places (in this patch anyway). 

 

Yet Airbnb consistently gets some pretty nasty press in UK tabloids, which I presume scares many Brits away. 

 

...and precious few nice words for Airbnb on the UK travel forums too. Yet ironically, those same people often recommend those obscure little websites... 

 

(?) 

Quincy
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Trude0, I hope you're well 😊

 

According to the info I have at hand from the last 3 months, there were under <1000 bookings from both guests from Finland and Norway. 

 

Here's a list from where most guests came from when they booked a trip to Sweden. 

 

1. Sweden

2. Germany

3. United States

4. France

5. Great Britain

6. The Netherlands

7. Italy

8. Spain

9. Switzerland

10. Finland

11. Norway 

 

I hope this helps!

 

Quincy 

-----

 

Please follow the Community Guidelines // Volg de communityrichtlijnen

Trude0
Level 10
Stockholm County, Sweden

@Quincy Thanks for sharing, interesting!

 

I can share my own statistics from Oct-Jan + bookings for Feb-March:

 

Germany: 3

United States: 1

France: 1

The Netherlands: 1

Dubai: 1 (but guest does not seem to be native UAE)

 

(And then I recently had a booking from a Swiss couple, but gave them the option to cancel and find somewhere else, as I've had issues with the water pressure in the shower, and did not want to risk them being unhappy.)

 

Finland and Norway are of course the smallest (in population) of the mentioned countries, Denmark (not in your list) around the same size. So quite logical that they would be low on the list. Still, I normally get some Swedes, Danes and Finns, but hardly any Norwegians. Oh well.

 

It does not seem that Norwegians are more negative towards Airbnb than Swedes, Danes and Finns - based on the input from @Elaine701

 

 

I hardly attract Swedes @Trude0 😅

I've had one group from Sweden. They turned out to be Cszech. I however have had quite a few groups either studying in Sweden taking the oportunity to see Scandinavia. Or about to start studies or taking a long detour home after studies in Sweden. But no actual Swedes.