[akirakurusu]

How is it something only classists can use? I use Airbnb _because_ it is cheap, usually significantly cheaper than hotels when visiting cities. I use it to save money because I am cost conscious. A lot of lower-income friends also use Airbnb because of this very reason. It has been a lifesaver for us.

[typon]

You're a tourist going to another city on vacation or other reasons. You're middle class and thus part of the problem for the lower class people of that city.

[bane]

I'm sorry, this is a fantastically ignorant and entitled statement. Poor people often need to travel.

I say this as somebody who grew up firmly poor and was even homeless with my entire family for a time.

[typon]

We are talking about the majority of the reason why people use Airbnb. It's used as a replacement for hotels for people on vacation.

Of course having a cheap place to stay for people who can't afford hotels when they're traveling is a necessity. That role was traditionally filled by hostels and I'm not sure if Airbnb is a good replacement for that when you look at all the downsides.

[bane]

When my family was homeless, we would have killed to have had the security of an AirBnB available back then. Instead we stayed in a number of different places, many of which were downright dangerous.

After we clawed our way out of poverty, my parents were unable to afford to take our family anywhere for over a decade. The first family vacation we ever took we slept in the car and brought all of our own food. Poor people need to take a break also and this terrible vacation was blessed luxury from multiple jobs, daily danger and sickness, and grinding poverty.

My extended family is also spread all over thousands of miles as jobs were to be had. A simple visit to meet grandparents, or to meet cousins or other family is not a middle class problem. Poor people have families and loved ones as well.

I'm going to say this as respectfully as I can -- you don't know what it means to be poor with unstable housing, and you should think more about speaking for poor people, what you perceive to be their needs, and should stop scolding other people for not being poor.

[typon]

Thanks for assuming my background. Rest assured I grew up in poverty that few have experienced, even in the third world country where I grew up.

Moreover, i don't really care about your lived experience and I don't think you should care about mine either - I think in these types of discussions its better to take a statistical approach and see the effect of Airbnb at a societal scale - its the only way to make just decisions that aren't short sighted.

[kstenerud]

Because it removes the place from the rental market. We're not talking about people holidaying; this is about having access to a roof over your head in your daily life.

[heavenlyblue]

Here’s an alternative point of view: If you’re cosy-conscious; then don’t travel. Many places would be much better without a constant onslaught of poor tourists.

[gumby]

It’s a luxury only for the wealthy? My parents went on walkabout through the 60s and 70s dragging their kids behind them (starting about age 3, and not even two for my sister) and it was great. All over South and Southeast Asia and Western Europe. We certainly saw the countries in ways that would have been invisible had we been staying in luxury hotels, or spent the whole of the first 15 years of my life in Australia.

[heavenlyblue]

Nobody asks you to pay for a _luxury_ hotel, by the way.

Also today for me it seems that renting a cheap AirBnb is akin to making photos of yourself next to sedated tigers/elephants/you name it - it does the same to erode the local culture.